Busch Scores Runner-Up Finish at TMS
FORT WORTH, Texas (April 3, 2004) – Kyle Busch appeared well on his way to his first career NASCAR Busch Series victory in Saturday’s O’Reilly 300 event at Texas Motor Speedway.
After starting from the pole position, Busch and his No. 5 Lowe’s/Gladiator Garageworks Chevrolet dominated the field for most of the event, leading four times for 147 laps.
But a tight-handling car, coupled with a late charge by race winner Matt Kenseth, left Busch with a second-place finish.
While Busch was a little disappointed at not getting the win, he was understandably pleased with his team’s strong performance.
"We had an awesome car there in the beginning and led the most laps,” Busch said. “I can't thank this team enough. The Lowe's Chevrolet guys are an awesome team. They are a championship-caliber team racing with a Raybestos Rookie.”
Crew chief Lance McGrew added, "I don't think that you can be (disappointed at not winning) with a Raybestos Rookie driver. You've got to take it how it comes. We had an awesome car; we led the most laps by far. Everybody knows that we were here today.”
Busch led the first 35 laps of the event before pitting for tires and fuel during the third caution period. The crew also made a slight wedge adjustment to alleviate a loose-handling condition before sending the No. 5 Chevrolet back onto the race track. Kenseth, who took only right-side tires during the stop, barely beat Busch off pit road to assume the lead for the Lap 38 restart.
Busch stayed right behind Kenseth throughout the following laps, making the pass on the No. 17 machine to reassume the lead on Lap 61.
"It was pretty difficult to pass,” Busch said. “When Matt was leading me there, I think he took two tires. I just couldn't get enough clean air on the inside of him in order to get a pass by him.
“I learned something at Kentucky last year running in ARCA and it proved to pay off here when I went to the outside and I had clean air, so I was able to get the pass on Matt."
Busch stayed on the point for the next 38 circuits, finally relinquishing the top spot when he pitted for service on Lap 137. The team made a minor adjustment to fix a slight tight-handling condition on the No. 5 entry and sent Busch back out with fresh tires and a full fuel cell.
On the restart, Casey Atwood was shown as the leader, but he immediately dropped to the inside of the track when the green flag flew, allowing Busch to again take the point on Lap 142.
Over the next 37 laps, Busch did his best to maintain the lead, but the tight-handling condition returned, allowing Bobby Hamilton Jr. to eventually pass for the spot on Lap 178. Busch told reporters after the event that, while he might have been able to hold off Hamilton, he and his team were also looking at the “big picture” -- the battle for the Busch Series championship. The importance of gaining as many championship points as possible led Busch to allow Hamilton, whose car was faster, to take the lead.
“I probably could have blocked Bobby Hamilton Jr. a lot longer than what I did,” Busch said. “It's just part of tough racing, trying to keep up front. Once we got behind some of those lapped cars, (Hamilton) really caught back up to us, and then once I got behind him, I just couldn't keep up and he had a faster car.
“It definitely proved that you have to have the long-run car in these races.”
After Hamilton took the lead, Busch had to contend with Kenseth, who had the fastest car of anyone in the field at that point.
“I could see him in the mirror and I’d see him gain a little, then hold steady, then gain a lot,” Busch said of Kenseth. “You can’t hold up that kind of progress on these kind of race tracks.”
McGrew said that, in hindsight, the adjustments the team made to Busch’s car on the final pit stop were not enough to hold off Kenseth’s charge.
"We didn't get the car free enough for that last run, and at the beginning of the run it was good and free,” McGrew said. “(Busch) ran the car real hard and it started getting tight on the white line and he couldn't keep the car down where he wanted to and get up off the corner.
“I would have just tried to free it up more that last stop."
The leader also had his hands full with Kenseth, who caught and passed Hamilton with five laps remaining in the event. Just as Kenseth made the pass, a wreck involving the cars of Kasey Kahne and Tracy Hines brought out the seventh caution flag of the event. To give track workers time to clean the racing surface and allow for the chance of a green-flag finish, NASCAR elected to put the event under the red flag and stop the field while workers cleaned the track.
On the final restart, it appeared that Hamilton, who was running second at the time, had a problem with his engine and didn’t immediately come up to speed. Busch, who was just behind Hamilton at the time, made incidental contact with Hamilton’s machine, but managed to get by and take over second.
When asked if he felt like the red flag helped his team’s finish, McGrew said, "I think so. I think everybody's tires cooled down and the pressures came back around for Kyle a little bit. I don't know if the No. 25 car (Hamilton) vapor-locked. Some of his crew guys said they thought it vapor-locked.
“He got going good and then all of a sudden it just, like, shut off. It was all Kyle could do to swerve and not hit him."
The final caution flag of the race came out on the final lap, when the No. 21 car of Clint Bowyer stalled on the backstretch. A NASCAR official displayed the yellow and checkered flags simultaneously as Kenseth, then Busch, crossed the finish line.
The finish is the second top-five result in a row for the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team, and marks Busch’s third runner-up finish in just 13 career Busch Series starts. Busch has now been the top-finishing rookie driver in all six events on the circuit in 2004 and moves up four positions to fourth in the overall standings.
The No. 5 Team Lowe’s Racing crew now heads to Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway for the next event on the schedule -- the Pepsi 300. That race will air live on FX and MRN Radio on Saturday, April 10, beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET.