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Texas: Kurt Busch preview

Kurt Busch Hoping New Car, Test Spell Texas Success JUSTIN, Tex. (April 1, 2008) - Miller Lite Dodge driver Kurt Busch and his Pat Tryson-led team are hoping that a new car coupled with a mid-week test at Kentucky Speedway will spell success in ...

Edited: Apr 4, 2008, 2:37 AM

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Kurt Busch Hoping New Car, Test Spell Texas Success

JUSTIN, Tex. (April 1, 2008) - Miller Lite Dodge driver Kurt Busch and his Pat Tryson-led team are hoping that a new car coupled with a mid-week test at Kentucky Speedway will spell success in Sunday's Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

"A single test at Kentucky is certainly not going to totally get us up to speed working with this new breed of car we're racing this year, but hopefully we can learn some things that make us more competitive this weekend at Texas," said Busch, who fell to 16th in the Sprint Cup standings after last Sunday's 33rd-place finish at Martinsville, Va. "We finished 11th at Atlanta and that gives us a big boost in thinking we can be even more competitive at Texas.

"The additional track time at Kentucky with this new car may help to get us up to the next level as far as the competition goes," said Busch, who started 17th and finished 11th in last year's spring race at T.M.S. "I'll be the first to admit that our team as a whole appears to be behind several of the other teams so far this season, so we're all hustling just as hard as we can to catch up.

"Texas will certainly be interesting, especially since we are scheduled to be racing the same tire that Goodyear had at the track last fall," said Busch. "The only problems we saw with tires in that race were caused by guys running over debris. The tire wear was great and it was pretty smooth sailing for everyone.

"This new car puts a different demand on tires," continued Busch. "We saw what happened at Atlanta when the tires were really rock-hard. I guess that the big question to be answered this weekend is how these cars will race on the softer Goodyears. Hopefully it'll play out well and we have no problems there on Sunday."

Crew chief Tryson is quick to label the Kentucky test as "timely and important.

"It's timely because we're coming off the disappointing day we had last Sunday at Martinsville and important because we need all the track time that we can get in our effort to get a handle on this new Dodge Charger," said Tryson. "The time at the track will give us an opportunity to regroup and get everything clicking again before we head out to Texas.

"The new car we're rolling out at Texas is pretty much a carbon-copy of the car we debuted at Atlanta," Tryson explained. "Rather than chance anything happening, we're actually testing the Atlanta car at Kentucky and saving the new piece for this weekend.

"We think we can get out to Texas and be really respectable," said Tryson. "I'm sure there'll be a lot of talk about tires this weekend, especially in light of what happened at Atlanta. We have faith in Goodyear to do what's best. Regardless of how the situation turns out, we'll maintain the attitude of it's all the same deal for everybody."

In 10 career starts on the 1.5-mile Texas track, Busch has recorded one top-five finish and seven top-10s. He has a 14.9 average start and a 12.0 average finish.

--Miller Lite Dodge driver Kurt Busch and his Pat Tryson-led Penske Racing Team will be racing their brand new PSC-557 Dodge Charger in the Samsung 500 this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. "It's another one of the latest design of our COT Dodge Chargers," Pat explained. "It's pretty much a carbon-copy of the car we debuted at Atlanta. "We think we can get out to Texas and be really respectable."

--Busch, Tryson and crew hitting the 1.5-mile Kentucky Speedway tri-oval on Wednesday (April 2) in preparation for this weekend's return to Texas.

"It's (the Wednesday test at the north-central Kentucky track) timely because we're coming off the disappointing day we had last Sunday at Martinsville and important because we need all the track time that we can get in our effort to get a handle on this new Dodge Charger," said Tryson.

"The time at the track will give us an opportunity to regroup and get everything clicking again before we head out to Texas.

Rather than chance anything happening, we're actually testing the Atlanta car (PSC-554) at Kentucky and saving the new piece (PSC-557) for this weekend."

--After all the controversy concerning tires in the most-recent intermediate-sized track race, the March 9 Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta, the tire situation will definitely be a big topic this weekend at Texas. "Texas will certainly be interesting, especially since we are scheduled to be racing the same tire that Goodyear had at the track last fall," Busch said. "The only problems we saw with tires in that race were caused by guys running over debris. The tire wear was great and it was pretty smooth sailing for everyone. This new car puts a different demand on tires. We saw what happened at Atlanta when the tires were really rock-hard. I guess that the big question to be answered this weekend is how these cars will race on the softer Goodyears. Hopefully it'll play out well and we have no problems there on Sunday." Tryson summed the situation up like this. "We have faith in Goodyear to do what's best," he said. "Regardless of how the situation turns out, we'll maintain the attitude of it's all the same deal for everybody."

-credit: pr

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