{"id":7999,"date":"2011-09-22T22:53:58","date_gmt":"2011-09-23T02:53:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=9076"},"modified":"2011-09-22T21:57:22","modified_gmt":"2011-09-23T01:57:22","slug":"kurt-busch-return-%e2%80%9cflat-track-racing%e2%80%9d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2011\/09\/kurt-busch-return-%e2%80%9cflat-track-racing%e2%80%9d\/","title":{"rendered":"KURT BUSCH LOOKING FORWARD TO RETURN TO \u201cFLAT TRACK RACING\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>-Shell-Pennzoil Dodge Driver Hoping For More Success On Flat 1.058-Mile New Hampshire Track-<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>LOUDON, N.H.  (Sept. 20, 2011) \u2013 Shell-Pennzoil Dodge driver Kurt Busch is really looking forward to this weekend\u2019s SYLVANIA 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.  With a career record that sports three wins, seven top-five finishes and 11 top 10s, it\u2019s easy to understand the 2004 NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion\u2019s fondness of the flat 1.058-mile track.<\/p>\n<p>            \u201cWith all the intermediate sized tracks we go to during the Chase, it\u2019ll definitely be a nice change of scenery to get back to Loudon this weekend,\u201d offered Busch, who heads into Sunday\u2019s second of 10 Chase races ranked fourth in the series\u2019 point standings.  \u201cThe way that you have to slide a car around on a flat track like Loudon requires a loose setup and that\u2019s the way I like to set my cars up. There\u2019s always so much slipping and sliding and getting the forward bite we need is always so critical.  Track position is really key and being up front on the restarts is so important.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>            \u201cWe\u2019ve been on a nice little roll as of late, with the fourth at Atlanta, fifth at Richmond and sixth at Chicago,\u201d said Busch, who currently is 11 points behind leader Kevin Harvick, four behind second-place Tony Stewart and only a single point behind third-place Carl Edwards.  \u201cWe\u2019ve had a lot of good runs at Loudon over the years and hopefully we can continue to put up the good numbers there this weekend.<\/p>\n<p>            \u201cAfter the last race at Loudon and coming off what happened in Monday\u2019s race at Chicago, you\u2019d have to consider that Sunday\u2019s battle might just come down to a fuel-mileage deal, too.  We weren\u2019t so fortunate in the July Loudon race as we ran out of fuel on the final lap.  At Chicago, we picked up five spots on the last lap with so many of the guys running out.<\/p>\n<p>            \u201cIt\u2019s a frustrating brand of racing,\u201d Busch said of the fuel-mileage battles.  \u201cBut it has become so common these days that you have to accept it and make the best of it.  There at Chicago on Monday, Steve (Addington, crew chief) was on the radio after the pit stop with 60 laps to go already preaching to save fuel.  We do what we have to do, but it just seems against the grain to be shutting the engine off through the turns and running half throttle for so long out there.<\/p>\n<p>            \u201cBut like I said, we\u2019ll do what we have to do to have a chance to win these things,\u201d said Busch, who won both New Hampshire races during his 2004 championship season, the inaugural year for the Chase format.  \u201cWe\u2019re really looking forward to this weekend\u2019s race and think we have a great opportunity to do well there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>            As much as Busch is eager to return to Loudon, crew chief Addington may be even more raring to go.<\/p>\n<p>            \u201cYes, I can\u2019t wait to get back to the race track and especially the flat one-mile at Loudon,\u201d said Addington, who will be atop Busch\u2019s pit box calling the shots for the 64th time in Sunday\u2019s battle at NHMS.  \u201cWe\u2019re coming off the fuel mileage race Monday at Chicago where Kurt did just an incredible job of nursing our Shell-Pennzoil Dodge to a sixth-place finish.  We\u2019re heading back to a track where we ran out of fuel on the final lap and fell from fourth to finish 10th.<\/p>\n<p>            \u201cTo tell you the truth, I didn\u2019t sleep well at all on Monday night after the Chicago race,\u201d said Addington.  \u201cWe had a car capable of winning until like the final third of the race.  We led the most laps and could run with anybody out there.  We were going to do rights and a track bar adjustment on our final stop.  I changed the call when Kurt came down pit road to only do the track bar and fuel.  I said go just a tick too early and our gas man (Chris Williams) told me that he got it full, but not packed.  Kurt just did an unbelievable job in saving fuel and we had plenty left at the end.<\/p>\n<p>            \u201cBut the biggest reason I didn\u2019t sleep well the other night was because of the way our handling went away there during the final third of Monday\u2019s race,\u201d said Addidngton.  \u201cThe car just got so tight that Kurt couldn\u2019t keep up with the leaders and nothing we threw at it improved the handling.  We had an 11th-place car and Kurt was able to save the fuel and pull out a sixth.  We left the track after the race and I was pretty frustrated with how our competitiveness fell off at the end.<\/p>\n<p>            \u201cThe great thing is that we got the car back to the shop on Tuesday, tore it down and found the problem,\u201d said Addington.  \u201cThe issue we discovered certainly explains why we lost the handling and strength we had earlier in the race.  It was a huge relief to get to the bottom of it and find the answer to our problem. <\/p>\n<p>            \u201cSo, yeah, I slept well on Tuesday night and we can\u2019t wait to get up to Loudon for this week\u2019s race,\u201d said Addington.  \u201cI think we\u2019ll have a great shot at winning there on Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Busch, Addington and the \u201cDouble-Deuce\u201d team will be racing their \u201cPRS-761\u201d Shell-Pennzoil Dodge Charger this weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.  \u201cIt\u2019s a brand new Shell-Pennzoil Dodge Charger\u201d offered Addington.  \u201cIt\u2019s one of the latest editions of our Penske cars.  Brad (Keselowski, teammate) ran the new \u2018760\u2019 last weekend at Chicago and this is the new \u2018sister car\u2019 to that one.  Kurt has had so much success at Loudon and we\u2019re looking to continue the great runs we\u2019ve enjoyed over the last several races.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This weekend\u2019s action at New Hampshire Motor Speedway gets under way with Sprint Cup practice on Friday from 11:30 a.m. till 1:00 p.m.  Sunday\u2019s 43-car starting field will be determined in Friday\u2019s 3:10 p.m. single round of Cup qualifying.  Saturday\u2019s action includes practice sessions from 9:40 a.m. till 10:30 a.m. and from 11:30 p.m. till 1:00 p.m.  Sunday\u2019s SYLVANIA 300 (300 Laps, 317.4 Miles) has a 2:00 p.m. EDT starting time.  Live coverage of the race will be provided by ESPN-TV and PRN Radio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>-Shell-Pennzoil Dodge Driver Hoping For More Success On Flat 1.058-Mile New Hampshire Track- LOUDON, N.H. (Sept. 20, 2011) \u2013 Shell-Pennzoil Dodge driver Kurt Busch is really looking forward to this weekend\u2019s SYLVANIA 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. With a career record that sports three wins, seven top-five finishes and 11 top 10s, it\u2019s easy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[45,126,112,16],"tags":[15775,15769,8777],"class_list":["post-7999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nascar","category-new-england","category-new-hampshire","category-nhms","tag-nascar","tag-nhms","tag-sylvania-300"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7999","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=7999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7999\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}