Team Lowe’s Racing Takes Fifth at Gateway
MADISON, Ill. (May 8, 2004) – For the fourth time in 2004, Kyle Busch and the Team Lowe’s Racing crew claimed a top-five finish in a NASCAR Busch Series event.
Busch drove his No. 5 Lowe’s/Gladiator Garageworks Chevrolet to a fifth-place result in Saturday night’s 250-mile race at Gateway International Raceway near St. Louis. The ending marks the sixth top-10 finish in a row for Busch and his Hendrick Motorsports crew, and their seventh top-10 performance in 10 races.
“What can I say? This team made me look good again,” Busch said. “We tested here a couple of weeks ago and felt like we had a great test, but when we got out there this morning, we just couldn’t get a handle on the track. Lance (McGrew, crew chief) and the team thrashed all day, made a ton of changes and brought this car around for me.
“I can’t say enough about how hard everyone on this team works. Today was a total team effort.”
For the first time in its history, the Gateway race was a one-day show, with practice, qualifying and the race all happening on Saturday. The teams completed two one-hour practice sessions on Saturday morning, then qualified that afternoon.
After time trials, NASCAR impounded the entries, and allowed teams to only make minor adjustments to their cars before rolling them out to the starting grid.
Starting in the fourth position, it only took Busch a few laps to determine that his car had a tight-handling condition, a circumstance that Busch and his team would battle throughout the event.
The tight condition allowed several drivers to get by Busch, dropping him back as far as seventh by Lap 36. When a caution flag came out for oil on the track around Lap 62, Busch took the opportunity to bring his car to pit road.
The No. 5 team made air-pressure, wedge and track-bar adjustments to try and help the car’s handling, sending Busch back out with fresh tires and a full fuel cell.
When the race returned to green flag conditions, Busch reported that, while the adjustments had helped, they did not eliminate the handling problem.
Busch remained in and around the seventh position until the frontrunners began to make green flag pit stops around Lap 140. McGrew wisely advised his driver to stay out, which allowed Busch to lead a lap.
After pitting on Lap 145, Busch returned to the race in 14th, but quickly moved to fourth as other drivers pitted for tires and fuel.
After running nose-to-tail for a number of laps, Bobby Hamilton Jr. passed Busch with 10 laps remaining, dropping Busch to fifth at the finish.
After the race, McGrew was both happy and frustrated with his team’s performance.
“You get disappointed, because the car wasn’t really all that good,” McGrew said. “I mean, it’s great to run fifth, but most of the guys who are ahead of us in points are the ones who are finishing ahead of us when you run fifth.
“We still haven’t got this whole deal quite figured out, but we’ll get better … We’re pretty happy, but I’d like to be better.”
With the finish, Busch now sits third in the NASCAR Busch Series championship standings, 29 points back of leader Martin Truex Jr.
For the ninth time in 10 races this season, Busch was named the Raybestos Rookie of the Race, and continues to lead the Raybestos Rookie of the Year standings.
The No. 5 Team Lowe’s Racing crew now heads to Richmond, Va., for the second night race of the 2004 season. That race will air live from Richmond International Raceway on Friday, May 14, at 7:30 p.m. ET on FX and MRN Radio.