NASCAR Cup

All-Star: Kurt Busch preview

CONCORD, N.C. (May 15, 2007) -- Miller Lite Dodge driver Kurt Busch is racing a special gold color paint scheme on his Charger Saturday night in the NEXTEL All-Star Challenge at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Make that an "EXPENDABLE" gold car. "We're ...

Edited: May 16, 2007, 6:13 PM

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CONCORD, N.C. (May 15, 2007) -- Miller Lite Dodge driver Kurt Busch is racing a special gold color paint scheme on his Charger Saturday night in the NEXTEL All-Star Challenge at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Make that an "EXPENDABLE" gold car.

"We're bringing back the gold color scheme that we did so well with at Daytona in February and we're in a position where we can lay it all on the line for the All Star race on Saturday night," said Busch, the 2004 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup champion, who climbed to seventh in the series point standings with his 12th-place finish at Darlington on Sunday. "It's a great game plan and we're super excited.

"A month or so ago, we were planning for the upcoming races and we originally looked at attempting to race the same car at Charlotte (Lowe's Motor Speedway) for both races. That plan changed when we got over there testing last week (May 7-8) and we decided to race two different cars."

This weekend's All-Star race and the May 27 Coca-Cola 600 provide back-to-back race weekends in Charlotte.

"All the fans, the sponsors and even the media were so impressed with the gold color scheme we used during the Shootout at Daytona back in February that we couldn't resist bringing it back out for the All Star race this weekend," Busch said. "We had our gold Miller Lite World Beer Cup Dodge Charger up front at Daytona and finished a strong third. We're looking to take that gold winner's trophy and the million bucks that come with it by winning the All-Star race on Saturday night."

Just as in the Feb. 10 Bud Shootout, where Busch drove from a 19th-place start to a third-place finish, his No. 2 Dodge Charger will be gold from front to back and will feature the World Beer Cup logo and "World Beer Cup Winner" on the hood, spoiler and rear quarter panels. The design honors Miller Lite's fourth gold award in the American-Style Light Lager category at the World Beer Cup, the prestigious bi-annual competition last held in 2006.

"We're looking at the race as a no-holds-barred brawl on wheels," Busch added. "If we have to bang up a little sheet metal in order to win, then so be it. We'll certainly be going all-out for a gold medal performance there on Saturday night."

Interim crew chief Troy Raker goes one step further, labeling his team's car for Saturday night's All Star race as "expendable."

"We tested there [LMS] for the two days last week and determined that we'll use our [PSC-0] 73 car this weekend and save the [PSC-0] 78 car for the [Coca-Cola] 600," Raker explained. "We sorted it all out and will save our fastest car for the 600. Since the All-Star race is always an anything-goes, take-no-prisoners shootout, our strategy this time around is to have an expendable car for that race. It's hard these days to try to rely on using the same car for both weekends. It's a secure feeling knowing that you're saving your best stuff for the big points-paying race."

This weekend's NEXTEL All-Star Challenge action begins on Friday with practice sessions from 10-11:15 a.m. and from 2:30-3:45 p.m. Qualifying is Friday at 7:15 p.m. and will feature a unique format of three laps under the clock with a four-tire pit stop thrown into the equation. The NEXTEL All-Star Challenge begins at approximately 9 p.m. after the conclusion of the NEXTEL Open.

The 2006 Brewers Association World Beer Cup was the world's largest and most diverse international beer competition for commercial breweries, touting 2,221 entries from 540 breweries in 56 countries. The World Beer Cup has been held every other year since 1996 and is presented by the Association of Brewers, a not-for-profit educational and trade organization founded in 1978 that is dedicated to the promotion of quality beers and brewing throughout the world. The Association also hosts the annual Great American Beer Festival® and is based in Boulder, Colo.

-credit: penske racing

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