{"id":4429,"date":"2011-02-15T21:51:02","date_gmt":"2011-02-16T02:51:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=9076"},"modified":"2011-02-15T20:52:14","modified_gmt":"2011-02-16T01:52:14","slug":"kurt-busch-ready-points-paying-plate-race-win-daytona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2011\/02\/kurt-busch-ready-points-paying-plate-race-win-daytona\/","title":{"rendered":"KURT BUSCH READY FOR POINTS-PAYING PLATE RACE WIN AT DAYTONA"},"content":{"rendered":"

-Fresh Off Breakthrough Win In Shootout, Shell-Pennzoil Dodge Driver Hopes To \u201cDouble Up\u201d In 500-<\/strong><\/p>\n

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Feb. 15, 2011) \u2013 Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Dodge out of the Penske Racing stable, claimed a breakthrough restrictor-plate victory in last Saturday night\u2019s Budweiser Shootout here at Daytona International Speedway. The 2004 NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion is now focused on getting his initial points-paying plate race win in this Sunday\u2019s 53rd Daytona 500 on the 2.5-mile tri-oval.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hoping to double up with our Shell-Pennzoil \u2018Double-Deuce\u201d Dodge and make it a sweep by winning the Daytona 500,\u201d said Busch. \u201cWinning the Shootout last weekend was certainly a thrill and was huge for our team. After coming to Daytona and trying so hard over the last 11 years, it was so special to finally be able to pull into Victory Lane.
\n
\n \u201cDaytona is a track that I\u2019ve always respected and always will,\u201d said Busch, who will be making his 11th career Daytona 500 start in Sunday\u2019s edition of the \u201cGreat American Race.\u201d \u201cEvery time I come to Daytona, I always think of all the times that I\u2019ve finished second \u2013 not just in the Sprint Cup cars, but in the Truck Series and in IROC, too. It was certainly a special moment to finally get into the winner\u2019s circle at Daytona.<\/p>\n

\u201cSteve Addington, my crew chief, and I are pretty good at knocking out those big events together,\u201d said Busch. \u201cWe won the (NASCAR Sprint) All-Star Race at Charlotte last spring and now we\u2019ve won the Shootout together. A week after we won the All-Star Race, we came right back and won the Coca-Cola 600. It was not only the highlight of our season last year, those two wins rate as high points in my career.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we\u2019ve officially won a plate race at Daytona,\u201d said Busch. \u201cNo, it wasn\u2019t a points race, but it still counts as a win \u2013 at least it does in my mind. Our goal is to come back and make it a Daytona sweep by winning the Daytona 500. Our Shell-Pennzoil Dodge Team is bubbling with confidence after last weekend. It would definitely be the biggest day of my career if we can pull it off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Busch is certainly due to win a points-paying restrictor-plate race, especially here at Daytona.<\/p>\n

Busch finished second in the 2003 edition of the Daytona 500 and backed that up with a similar impressive statistic in the 2005 edition of the race. His most current and most revered runner-up finish at Daytona came in the 2008 Daytona 500. That race saw Busch push Ryan Newman, then a teammate at Penske Racing, across the finish line to score the first Daytona 500 (and first-ever restrictor-plate race) win for Roger Penske\u2019s high-profile racing organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve finished second \u2013 as the bridesmaid \u2013 in three different 500s entering this weekend,\u201d offered Busch, who\u2019ll be making his 21st overall DIS start here on Sunday. \u201cI finished second to Michael Waltrip back in 2003 and we were right there on winner Jeff Gordon\u2019s rear bumper in the 2005 Daytona 500. But, nothing \u2013 absolutely nothing \u2013 could come close to the runner-up finish we had here in 2008. Yes, it was another race win that got away from us, yet it was so different from the other years. I remember going into Victory Lane to congratulate (Ryan) Newman and his team and genuinely believed I wasn\u2019t infringing on anybody. I actually felt like a piece of me deserved to be in there celebrating, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause it was two teammates working so closely together on the final lap and finishing first and second was newsworthy enough,\u201d said Busch. \u201cBut the fact that it was Roger\u2019s (Penske, team owner) first victory in stock car racing\u2019s biggest race in the world sent the significance factor into orbit. You can\u2019t help but think that had we been a little greedy and not the big team player that we were, it could have very well been the \u2018Blue Deuce\u2019 in Victory Lane here that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Busch, a 22-race winner at the premier level of stock car racing, enters Sunday\u2019s Daytona 500 hoping to pick up his first points race restrictor-plate win in his 41st career plate race start.<\/p>\n

In his 20 Daytona races to date, Busch has posted nine top-five finishes and 11 top-10s. His average finish is 17.0 and he has been running at the finish in all but one of the races. In his 40-race overall restrictor-plate racing career (with another 20 career starts at Talladega), Busch is still looking for that first win, but he has recorded 15 top-five finishes and 24 top-10s.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the new package NASCAR has given us to work with since last weekend, it will certainly make for an interesting Daytona 500 race week,\u201d Busch said of rules adjustments to the size of the air inlet for the cooling system and settings on the pressure release valve. \u201cI know they want to slow the cars down and break up the two-car tandems like we\u2019ve seen so far with the new pavement. Wednesday\u2019s practice sessions will see what effect the changes make.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s still the case where you race with a partner, you can be sure that you\u2019ll see Brad (Keselowksi, Penske Racing Teammate and driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge) and I hook up out there,\u201d Busch said. \u201cThat won\u2019t be possible in the 150-mile qualifying races on Thursday because I\u2019m in the first race and he\u2019s in the second. But if that\u2019s the way we race in the 500, you can expect to see the \u2018Double Deuce\u2019 and the \u2018Deuce\u2019 hooked up together and really getting after it out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first of Thursday\u2019s \u201cGatorade Duels\u201d 150-mile qualifying races gets the green flag at 2:00 p.m. EST. Live coverage of all the action will be provided by SPEED-TV and MRN Radio. Sunday\u2019s 53rd Annual Daytona 500 has a scheduled 1:00 p.m. EST starting time here at Daytona International Speedway. FOX-TV and MRN Radio will provide live coverage of all the action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

-Fresh Off Breakthrough Win In Shootout, Shell-Pennzoil Dodge Driver Hopes To \u201cDouble Up\u201d In 500- DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Feb. 15, 2011) \u2013 Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Dodge out of the Penske Racing stable, claimed a breakthrough restrictor-plate victory in last Saturday night\u2019s Budweiser Shootout here at Daytona International Speedway. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[15775],"class_list":["post-4429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nascar","tag-nascar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4429\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}