Kurt Busch wins with a 'full team effort' from Penske Racing

Penske Racing's Kurt Busch said he was uncertain about the car that his team wanted to bring to the race track last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, but after leading 89 laps and winning Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Dickies 500, the driver decided that perhaps he should just focus on the driving and leave those decisions to the specialists.
 
Busch combined a fast race car with a winning pit strategy to conserve his fuel and nurse his car to the finish when others faltered. He stayed on the track longer than most of the frontrunners to make a stop on lap 269 and then didn't pit again as others found themselves diving onto pit road for just a bit more fuel in the closing laps.
 
"Just a full team effort all the way around, good solid pit stops, to good pit strategy, back to the guys at the shop building a fast race car, that I was a bit apprehensive of bringing to the race track," Busch said. "So it shows what I know and what they know. Just keep to the driving, Kurt, and let them do the engineering. In the end, this just makes a very solid team.
 
"We were well-rounded with power, with downforce, with handling. In the end, strategy is what played out for us to come out on top. A small bit of fuel mileage we had to play, but it wasn't very large - for us one lap shy. Our Dodge engine was able to give us the fuel mileage we needed to come out on top of everybody."
 
Busch and crew chief Pat Tryson made that decision to attempt to go the distance earlier in the race.
 
That's why they stayed out as long as possible to make what turned out to be a final pit stop - because they had been planning and attempting to conserve in advance.
 
"It was pretty much made the stop before the last one," Tryson said of the decision. "So it was two stops. You know, you're sitting there figuring if it stays green, how far you can go. We had to stretch it a little bit that first run. I think we picked up just about everything we had in the cell."
 
Team owner Roger Penske said the team was watching others that had been running with the leaders stop as it studied its own calculations.
 
"You could see the 00 [of David Reutimann] pitted four laps before we did," he said. "The 18 [of Kyle Busch] pitted. I think we ran two laps longer than they did. We knew if everything went to the end, with Kurt having to pick up one lap, we were in pretty good shape. We weigh the fuel after every stop, so we know exactly what the fuel mileage is.
 
"I think he ran probably a little more of a fuel-mileage run at the end, the last 10, 15 laps."
 
Reutimann ran out and had to pit in the final laps, as did race leader Kyle Busch.
 
Kurt Busch, meanwhile, kept on going.
 
He said that when Tryson told him to save fuel, he looked at the scoreboard and did the math and decided that it wasn't as large of a risk as it might haveseemed.
 
Tryson said that the team had to worry about cautions and what strategies others might employ in the race as they tried to conserve and stretch their mileage.
 
"The biggest thing is when you're doing that, worrying about a caution falling late because you're giving up track position," Tryson said. "That's how Kyle got the lead from us the first time, by shortstopping, making up half second a lap there for three or four laps, gets him by us.  You know, only concern was a caution falling before everybody had to pit."
 
Still, Busch had to run almost 100 miles on his last tank of fuel.
 
He was working his way through traffic as well, trying to regain ground he lost by making his stop later than the rest of the field. He needed to both get in position to take advantage of his fuel run while also conserving enough to make it to the end.
 
The 2004 series champion said it was a difficult task.
 
"It's definitely challenging in all aspects," Busch said. "You have to make sure when you're letting off the throttle that you do it a proper way or when you pick up the throttle you're doing it a proper way. Maybe there isn't the right way to do it, other than I worked with my dad back racing cars at an entry level.    
 
"We had to take care of our equipment. We had to race it for what it was worth, ginger it, make it to where it could be brought back next week. That's the mindset that you go into. I asked Pat. I said, 'Do I have to worry about the 18 [of Kyle Busch]?' He said, 'No.  I don't even know that he exists on the race track' is my thought process. … We really didn't conserve fuel till the last 20 laps. Otherwise we were hammer down, get our car back up on the track position that we lost. That was the give and take."
 
Now, they have climbed back up two spots to fourth in the standings. They sit 171 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson and his Hendrick Motorsports team.
 
And they plan to go keep going for it. Even though Tryson has already announced plans to leave the organization next season, the pair plan to continue to work together and work toward getting the most out of their 2009 season through the final two races. Brad Keselowski has already taken over the organization's No. 12 car from David Stremme, too, so the group is focused on getting top finishes at Phoenix and Homestead in an effort to both gain ground in the standings and keep the team moving forward heading into 2010.
 
"I think we're going to finish it off," Penske said. "I think the guys have done a terrific job. This gives us some momentum for the last two races and certainly some direction from a car, from an engine. And certainly the driver lineup we have, we think we're going to have a great shot to do even better next year."