Penske Racing's Kurt Busch struggles at Martinsville as title hopes virtually end
MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Kurt Busch endured another setback to his fleeting NASCAR Sprint Cup title hopes in Sunday's Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway on what turned out to be a tough day for the entire Penske Racing organization.
Busch considered his run on Sunday to be “actually a pretty good race for us at Martinsville,” but finished 17th after losing a lap early, but getting that back courtesy of the free pass during a caution period.
Busch, the 2004 Cup champion, dropped one spot to sixth in the standings and trails leader Jimmie Johnson by 240 points with four races remaining.
“It was a tough day for our [team],” said Busch, who started 37th. “We started at the back and made it all the way up inside the top 10 for quite a few laps. Because of our qualifying position, we didn’t get the best pit stall … On a pit stop with about 200 laps to go, I had to get too close to the wall to squeeze into our pit box and that really did us in. We lost about 15 spots and got caught up way back in the pack.”
By the time Busch got his lap back, he had just 12 laps in which to move toward the front. He gave up four positions to pit for tires when Red Bull Racing’s Scott Speed wrecked to bring out a caution with five laps to go. Busch lined up 18th on the subsequent green-white-checkered restart and managed to pick up just one spot.
“We had nothing to lose by coming [in to pit],” crew chief Pat Tryson said. “If there were a few more laps, we would have gained some more spots. We just didn’t have enough time.”
The fortunes of teammates David Stremme and Sam Hornish Jr. were no better. The two spun together on the backstretch on lap 176 and Hornish spun alone to bring out the next caution on lap 196. Stremme had further contact as well.
Stremme finished 33rd while Hornish was 36th.
“I think the 55 [car of Michael Waltrip] got back to the power too quick, got loose and hit us,” said Hornish, in reference to his second accident. “And then just before that, I had the earlier spin with the 12 [of Stremme], which set us back a bit.
“It’s a tough deal because we were just out there trying to just get some laps under our belts and then we got run over.”
