SEASON PREVIEW: Penske Racing’s Kurt Busch should benefit from experience of new crew chief Steve Addington
Kurt Busch believes the addition of veteran crew chief Steve Addington will strengthen his team. // Sam Cranston, NASCAR Illustrated
The biggest surprise of the 2010 Sprint Cup season could well be if Kurt Busch and new crew chief Steve Addington are not contending for the championship at year’s end.
The Penske Racing driver, who won the inaugural Chase with Roush Fenway Racing in 2004, has practically been a regular in the 10-race playoff, missing it just twice in the six-year history of the format. So, with or without Addington in the mix, the 31-year-old Busch is expected to contend.
Addington’s credentials are no less impressive, having guided Kurt’s younger brother, Kyle, to 12 wins during the 2008-09 seasons. Now he’s looking for ways to deliver similar success to the No. 2 Penske Racing Dodge team.
“We're going to continue down the same road that we had success with towards the end of the season, and that led us to a win at Texas, it led us to a strong finish at Homestead,” the elder Busch says. “And what we have to be smart about is, Steve … has some brilliant ideas and some smart things that he's done with my little brother's team in the past. So we have to merge those two together the proper way. And so that's the test that we have to give ourselves in the beginning of the year, because what we ran in the fall might not be what we have to have this spring to be successful because the sport changes that fast.”
Busch won twice in 2009 (at Atlanta and Texas) and finished inside the top-10 on 21 occasions. He was one of only three drivers (joining Hendrick Motorsports’ Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart of Stewart-Haas Racing) to hold down a top-12 points position for the entire 36-race season.
But the calendar’s turned, and last year’s results mean little going forward. Busch, the 2004 series champion, knows the team has to perform at a high level quickly. Or else spend at least a portion of the season catching up.
“It’s great to have good, quality outside information, and we have to build a solid points base in the beginning of the year,” he says. “That's always very important. There’s no real timeline on when we have to have everything clicking on all eight cylinders, but we just can't beat ourselves while we're going through that process; I think that there's no way we can beat ourselves with being this smart right now, and we'll see how the beginning of the season plays out.”
Addington, ultimately the fall guy when Kyle Busch failed to make the Chase in ’09, says the team’s immediate goal is “to win the Daytona 500.”
“That’s the goal,” he says, “to go down to Daytona and win the first race of the season. Everybody knows that [Kurt’s] got the talent to do it. You’ve just got to work hard and give him what he needs to do it.”
Both Kurt and Kyle Busch are known as fiery, emotional competitors, which can lead to heated discussions when things aren’t up to snuff. Both are proven winners, too, however, and Addington says he doesn’t anticipate any problems working side-by-side with Kurt.
“I’m a firm believer in all things happen for a reason,” Addington says. “I listened to Kurt on the scanner the last few races [of ’09]. It wasn’t that bad. I understand where they’re coming from. They’re competitive and they want to win every time they go out on the race track. He’s going to voice his opinion and get over it that day. One of the things I told him was when our backs are against the wall, we’ve all got to be facing in the same direction.
“From somebody that sits in my seat, it’s cool to have a guy who is that intense, who wants to win that bad. I’ve been in situations where you have to light that fire. It’s easier to calm them down than to light it.”
Maybe it’s the fresh start; maybe it’s the new surroundings. Or maybe it’s the chance to work with a driver who has not only been in a championship battle, but also come out on top. Whatever the case, Addington says he has “a good feeling about the whole situation.”
“The experience that Kurt has with going through up-and-down seasons, and realizing what it takes to race for championships,” he says. “He’s done it before. He’s won a championship. That’s a big part of it, taking those bad days and getting good finishes out of them.”
THE BUSCH FILE
- Career Cup victories: 20
- Career Cup top-10s: 136
- Career Cup starts: 328
- Laps led: 5,535
- Best track: Phoenix (12.0 avg. fin.)
- Worst track: Martinsville (21.5 avg. fin.)
- Did You Know: Kurt Busch has become quite the outdoorsman, spending part of the off-season hunting deer. "We actually had the opportunity to get out to three really great locations. We went up to Kruger Farms in Starbuck, Minn., hunting deer with black-powder rifles; to the Broken Arrow Ranch near Kerrville, Texas; but probably my most fun trip was bow-hunting deer at the Heart of Texas Ranch near Brady. I'm proud to say that I got my … eight-pointer on that trip."
Coming Sunday: Denny Hamlin
