Kurt Busch and Furniture Racing pulled off the impossible on Saturday night in Richmond when the single car team, based out of Denver, Colorado, made the 2013 Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship.
Busch and crew chief Todd Berrier had a nearly flawless night with their Furniture Row / Beauty Rest Chevrolet, qualifying and finishing second. They’ll start the Chase from the 10th seed.
“Well, how about them apples? Unbelievable. The way this team has grown, what we’ve been able to accomplish, it’s an amazing feeling,” said Busch after it was all over. “We achieved something very special tonight.”
Busch credited team owner Barney Visser and general manager Joe Garone for their vision. Hiring the right people and building a team that can compete with Hendrick Motorsports or Joe Gibbs Racing. Hiring veterans like Berrier.
“Everybody at the Furniture Row shop back in Colorado, it was a dream, now it’s a reality. It’s an amazing feeling to sit here at Richmond after such a long journey for myself, but to be able to deliver, to do my part along with these guys,” an emotional Busch said. “I can’t thank them enough. Very proud to have driven the No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet into the Chase this year.”
When the night began Busch knew the situation he was in, already sitting in the top 10 in points they controlled their own destiny with a solid run. He qualified second to Jeff Gordon, who was looking to knock him out of the Chase. Through the first 50 laps Busch struggled with a tight car until adjustments on the first stop put him in the ballpark.
From there, Busch was a strong top five car, never falling lower than sixth when the team had a slow pit stop. His average position on the night was a 2.6 in which he led 73 laps and challenged for his first win of the season. After a wild last pit stop and restart that changed the Chase completion for many others, Busch grabbed another runner-up finish and completed the goal the FRF team had set when they hired him.
“It is a great accomplishment,” said Garrone. “As the team has grown, you start setting goals, after Kurt coming onboard, being able to bring Todd Berrier, some of the guys we’ve had come onboard at the shop, Barney making the comments, I expect to make the Chase.
“When you’re out in Colorado, you’ve gone through what we’ve gone through, you realize just how difficult of an accomplishment that is, to have a leader that’s got that kind of vision, we all just fell in right behind him. I don’t know that we had that vision. Maybe Kurt did with his experience, but we all filled in right behind Barney and his lead there. Dream comes true today.”
It’s story of redemption for Busch, who makes the Chase for the first time since 2011 when he drove for Penske Racing. He was fired at the end of the season and has been working to redeem himself and his image the last year and a half. Saturday night it all came back together. After being humbled with James Finch Racing to again seeing the promise land with RFR, the 2004 NSCS champion is back in the big picture.
He called it a journey, perseverance from a dark time in his life. Busch was constantly criticized and under a microscope. If the door was left open for mistakes to be made or for Busch to find himself in trouble, he often did. Saturday night, it all disappeared when he made the Chase, thanking good people around him such as girlfriend Patricia Driscoll and her eight-year-old son, Houston.
He’ll be winless entering the Chase, but Busch has started to win many over again. The next 10 weeks are a clean slate for each of the 12 drivers now competing for this year’s championship and Busch acknowledged that he has just a good a shot as anyone.
As for the team, FRR is a single-car team, who has an alliance with Richard Childress Racing. Busch has brought them to the Chase for the first time and they only have one career win as a company, courtesy Regan Smith at Darlington in 2011. They are the first single-car team in NASCAR history to make the Chase.
“It’s something special we achieved tonight, to put a single car into the Chase,” Busch said. “We have our friends, other drivers. But yet it’s every man for themselves out there. We have some muscle left in us.
“We have 10 weeks ahead of us. We have a test session we’ve saved. I think we can make a run through this Chase. We just have to do the same thing we did tonight: keep plugging away, let everybody else worry what has to happen and we’ll keep doing what we’re doing out in Colorado because nobody can look over our shoulder.”
