Kurt Busch scores top five at Kentucky: "We persevered"

He didn’t stay there long on Saturday night. 

Leapfrogging the field

An early caution stemming from Ricky Stenhouse’s wreck allowed the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing team to pit on Lap 12. Busch had advanced from 38th to 29th during the first green run and sacrificed three positions for four fresh tires. When NASCAR called the competition caution on Lap 27 and the leaders came to pit, Busch remained on the track and inherited the lead. 

“Well we started with our backs against the wall and kind of on our heels with a back-up car and just ill-handling all the way through,” said Busch of the chassis he last raced at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November. The car remained on the team’s transporter as the secondary vehicle for intermediate-track competition this season. But without making a lap in the car, it was up to the team to dial in the set up throughout the race. 

Today, we persevered. I have never seen such an effort from everybody to dig deep

Kurt Busch

Busch held onto the lead for 10 laps, until his SHR teammate Kevin Harvick, who started from the pole, regained the point. Busch slid back through the field. Midway through the race, Busch was 19th. As the laps wound down, Busch realized there were four sets of sticker tires remaining in the teams arsenal. Despite Goodyear’s recommendation for scuffing tires — or adding heat cycles for better handling on the new pavement — Busch was better on slicks.

“Those seemed to be better than the scuffs,” Busch said. “Goodyear brought a very hard tire, a very conservative tire, but we had to manage it.  Then we had the fuel to manage at the end.”

Busch’s last pit stop came on lap 196 — the 11th and final caution, which tied the record at the 1.5-mile track. He lined up 16th for the Lap 200 restart. Twenty laps later, crew chief Tony Gibson alerted the driver he was three laps short on fuel. Busch was 11th at the time. 

Stretching the fuel

While some teams were banking on additional cautions, Busch went into conservation mode. In the closing laps, as competitors ahead of the No. 41 Chevy dropped off for fuel, Busch held on for a fourth-place finish — his best result at Kentucky Speedway and his fourth top 10 in six starts. Busch has not only completed every lap raced this season (the only driver to make that claim), he’s scored top-fives at every track on the Sprint Cup circuit.  

“That is a nice feather in the cap,” Busch said. “It’s special to have raced for good teams over the years to give me winning cars. Top five’s are special everywhere. As a driver it feels like you got something at each of the places to be competitive, give to the team, to give feedback and then the team can give better feedback to me on how we can win.  

“Today, we persevered. I have never seen such an effort from everybody to dig deep and to just be back on their heels the whole time and just start to lean forward, lean forward and then right at the end to turn into fuel mileage and our car just came to us at the end. It was a perfect day for us to get a top five. We had to sweat it all weekend.”

Although Busch didn’t make up ground in the standings with Brad Keselowski winning the race and maintaining second in the points, the driver lessened the gap between himself and leader Harvick, who finished ninth. Busch trails Harvick by 16 points. 

“It’s tough to put words into it other than just teamwork,” Busch said. “Everybody believed in each other, we all said that this was a day that would challenge our effort to see if we were championship worthy. 

“To have a back-up car, to do it on fuel mileage, thanks to Monster Energy, Haas Automation, everybody that puts their thumb and their effort on this No. 41 car I’m very thankful for it.”