A levelheaded Kurt Busch prevailed Sunday in Sonoma and carried his team to a fourth place finish. Carrying them after he was the one who made a mistake that cost them a shot at their first win.
Busch was busted for speeding on pit road, not once but twice. He had to serve two penalties and went a lap down to the leader. Through strategy and with an excellent racecar, Busch rallied and put himself back into contention with less than 25 laps to go. Driving into the top 10 than the top five before running out of time.
“We were fast, even on pit road, twice,” Busch said with a chuckle after he climbed from his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet.
“I messed up, flat out. I didn’t hit my tachometer right and I was speeding both times. It was one of those where I’m like how does that happen? I just put myself in a position that was poor trying to get too much on pit road. But man, this Furniture Row Chevy was fast. Congrats to [Martin] Truex. When we were running a lap down with him, I was trying to pace myself. I wanted to get back on the lead lap.”
Before the penalties Busch had driven from his seventh staring spot to the lead, and remained there for 15 circuits. Holding off road course ace Marcos Ambrose and others. When he pulled off to pit road for the team’s first stop and to start their race strategy he was busted for speeding and told to serve a pass through penalty. Things got worse when he was caught speeding while serving the penalty and left to serve a stop-and-go penalty.
That put Busch back on track and soon a lap down. He un-lapped himself once by driving past the leaders, only to go back down a lap again before he muscled his way back to the lead lap right before a caution came out. It gave him his track position back and when pit stops began and contenders began to fall, Busch starting driving back towards the front.
Late in the race Busch apologized again over the radio, telling the team that it was his fault, the car was awesome. Even taking the blame for other problems they’ve has had throughout the season. Never once though, losing his temper or unleashing on the radio, keeping focused on the task at hand and getting back to where the car was capable of running.
“We did get back on the lead lap when he [Truex] pitted, but we had to battle hard,” said Busch.
“We came back up through there. You’ve got to run guys and move guys and we gave guys room and just made one mistake. I think we could have gotten all the way up to second, but we never would have caught Truex.”
Busch and Jeff Gordon, who was also attempting to rebound from a pit road penalty, drove their way through the field together. Gordon made it to second but Busch felt he had a chance to race amongst the leaders had he not wasted a lap in which he radioed the team that he felt he could have grabbed three spots.
Instead he finished fourth and remains winless, his last coming in the fall of 2011. But the team is getting closer and Busch remains a skilled a driver as he’s always been. The calmness with which he handled himself on Sunday helped parlay the team to their fourth top five finish of the season.
A win might be coming however, if the last few weeks have been any indication. Busch just needs to keep himself out of trouble, something he was unable to do last weekend in Michigan where he also led laps but crashed while running up front. Next weekend, the series heads to Kentucky with Busch having moved up three spots to 17th in points, yet still looking for that complete race.
“I just have to thank the Furniture Row guys. We have Simmons, Serta, and Sealy as our mattress sponsors,” said Busch.
“But I got busted speeding on pit road. My bad.”
