SPARTA, Ky. (June 30, 2013) – Another late-race rally by Kurt Busch boosted the Furniture Row Racing driver to a sixth-place finish in Sunday’s rain-delayed Quaker State 400. The Sprint Cup Series race, originally scheduled for Saturday night, was postponed due to wet weather at Kentucky Speedway.
The result was Busch’s seventh top-10 finish of the season, which propelled him from 17th to 14th in the driver point standings. He is only 16 points out of 10th with nine races remaining before the start of the Chase.
The sixth-place result was also Busch’s fourth top-10 in the last six races.
Busch, who started the 267-lap race from the 27th position, tied Jamie McMurray for the race’s biggest gainer, picking up 21 spots from start to finish on the 1.5-mile oval.
“We came through when we needed to and had another good points day,” said Busch. “We’re creeping up in the points and need to avoid major slips in the next nine races.”
Busch’s No. 78 Furniture Row/Sealy Chevrolet was strong from the beginning, as he consistently picked off positions, reaching the top-10 by Lap 53.
But three laps after making a green-flag pit stop on Lap 86, the caution came out, which resulted in Busch dropping back to 26th place. He didn’t return to the top-10 until Lap 243. He charged to the finish, picking up four positions for his 10th top-10 finish since joining Furniture Row Racing with six races remaining in 2012.
“Nothing’s easy,” said Busch after losing ground to the Lap 89 caution. “But this team keeps on battling back and never quits. It’s been the story of our season so far.”
Busch added, “We had some good green flag runs today and made good adjustments. A solid team effort. I feel bad about what happened early when the track threw me into the No. 2 car (Brad Keselowski). It was my fault.”
The race winner was Matt Kenseth. Rounding out the top-10 in order were: Jamie McMurray, Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick.
There were 11 lead changes among six drivers and 10 cautions for 42 laps.
