Busch and Team Lowe’s Held to 12th at Chicagoland
JOLIET, Ill. (July 10, 2004) – Kyle Busch and his No. 5 Team Lowe’s Racing crew went on a rollercoaster ride of emotions during Saturday’s 300-mile NASCAR Busch Series event at Chicagoland Speedway.
Busch’s Hendrick Motorsports squad was excited when their driver took the lead just six laps into the event, then dejected when a tire problem forced Busch to make a green-flag pit stop on Lap 40 of the 200-lapper.
The team was delighted when Busch charged back to the lead on Lap 118, but distressed when Busch radioed that his No. 5 Lowe’s/Briggs and Stratton Chevrolet had a motor problem. At the end of the event, the team was relieved to find that the motor had held together in the closing laps, giving Busch and his crew a 12th-place finish on the day.
"It's a good thing that we were able to finish,” Busch said. “That's probably the best part that came out of the whole day. It was a tough day overall for the Lowe's/Briggs and Stratton Chevrolet.
“We got down early and had to fight back and got back to the lead. It looked like we were going to win the race; then the engine went down a cylinder. What else do you want to happen in a day? All in all, it's a shame what happened, but we look forward to next week."
Starting the event from the second position, Busch took over the lead on Lap 6 when pole-sitter Bobby Hamilton Jr. dropped out of the event with an engine problem. Busch held the lead until Lap 39, when he radioed his crew to tell them he had a problem with his right-side tires and needed to come to pit road. The pit crew bolted on four fresh tires and filled the fuel cell on Busch’s entry, sending him out a lap down to the race leaders.
When tire specialist Lisa Smokstad inspected the right-front tire the crew had just removed from the car, she saw it had worn through to the cords.
When asked about the tire problem, Busch said, "I saw something that we ran over, but I just thought it was a piece of rubber from another car that was in front of me, a lapped car. Obviously, it must have been something different because about 10 laps later it started getting tighter and tighter.
“I knew we were losing the right-front and, as soon as (Matt) Kenseth got by me, it wasn't worth wrecking a car. We had to come down pit road and put tires on it and then try to go back after them and chase them."
It didn’t take long for Busch to get his lap back via the free pass that NASCAR awards to the first car not on the lead lap when a caution flag comes out.
Once he was back on the same lap as the leaders, Busch set his sights on the front of the field. By Lap 73, Busch had driven the No. 5 Lowe’s Chevy back into the top-15, and moved into the top-10 by Lap 96.
As the race leaders began making green-flag pit stops, Busch, who was on a different pit sequence, was able to stay on the track and move up to the second position.
Good fortune smiled on the No. 5 team when a caution flag came out for debris on Lap 115. The timing caught a number of the race leaders a lap down, with only seven cars being shown on the lead lap.
Busch was able to bring his car to pit road for service under the caution, where his crew bolted on four fresh tires and filled the fuel cell, making chassis and air-pressure adjustments. Busch returned to the track in third position for the Lap 124 restart, then regained the lead when Justin Labonte pitted during another caution period around Lap 140.
After the Lap 144 restart, Busch began to pull away from the second-place car and appeared to be headed for his fourth victory of the 2004 season. A few laps later, the team saw its chance for a win disappear when Busch radioed his crew and told them his car had an engine problem.
Crew chief Lance McGrew told his driver to keep going and drive the car until the motor quit. Fortunately, it never did.
The problem -- likely a broken valve spring -- did affect Busch’s lap times, and the young driver slowly faded back through the field to 13th position before the final caution flag of the event came out on Lap 180.
Busch came to pit road for fresh tires and fuel to make it to the end of the event, returning to the track in 16th position for the Lap 186 restart.
“There toward the end of the race when we were trying to come back from being down all day, we had to make sure that the Lowe's Chevrolet stayed together for the rest of the race,” Busch said. “I kind of bogged her down on that last restart to make sure that she would last.
“The Hendrick motor department puts out awesome horsepower and with everything else that they've done so far this year, just to have a valve spring go bad, which isn't any of their fault at all, is pretty tremendous on their behalf."
Remarkably, even with an injured motor, Busch was able to pass several competitors in the closing laps, including Martin Truex Jr., one driver Busch is challenging for the 2004 Busch Series championship.
When the checkered flag was displayed, Busch was shown in 12th position, while Truex finished 14th. With the bonus points Busch gained for leading a lap and for leading the most laps in the event, he was able to whittle Truex’s championship lead down by 16 points. Busch now trails by just 52 markers with 15 races remaining.
“To pass a lot of those guys like we did at the end of the race on seven cylinders says a lot for the character of this team and for Kyle Busch himself,” crew chief Lance McGrew said after the race. “There’s plenty of times today where we could have just thrown the towel in and just took a 30th-place finish and walked away and no one would have said a thing.
“We just kept digging and kept digging as a team, and Kyle kept digging as a driver and we ended up with pretty close to a top-10 and actually gained a few points in the championship.”
Busch, McGrew and the rest of the No. 5 Team Lowe’s Racing crew now get a weekend off before returning to action at the New Hampshire International Speedway in two weeks. The New England 200 will air live on Saturday, July 24 at 1 p.m. ET on TNT and MRN Radio.