FORT WORTH, Texas (April 13, 2013) — A parts failure spoiled a strong run for Kurt Busch, who was credited with a 37th-place finish in Saturday night’s NRA 500 Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.
The former NASCAR champion was cruising in the top-five on the ultra-fast 1.5-mile oval, but on Lap 177 of 324 Busch’s No. 78 Furniture Row/Serta Chevrolet SS encountered a fuel pressure problem.
Busch had no choice but to drive his car to the garage where it was determined that a broken part in the fuel injection system was the culprit. The Furniture Row crew replaced the broken part and when Busch returned to the competition he was 17-laps down.
“When you’re running solidly in the top-five and then to have a parts failure knock you out of contention it’s very frustrating,” said Busch. “We came in here with a fast race car, qualified on the front row and continued the strong performance. What’s done is done and we have to put tonight behind us.”
Up until the parts failure Busch ran all but one lap inside the top-10 with the majority in the top-five.
“We need to get these problems rectified sooner than later,” stated Busch, who also saw a strong run stymied due to a parts failure last week in Martinsville. “I feel confident that we’ll get this accomplished and have another fast Furniture Row Chevrolet SS in Kansas next week.”
After seven of 36 races, Busch is 24th in points.
“Right now we need to concentrate on having clean races and taking advantage of our performance level,” noted Busch. ”We have proved that we can run up front.”
The Texas race winner was Kyle Busch. Rounding out the top-10 in order were: Martin Truex Jr., Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, Joey Logano, Jimmie Johnson, Aric Almirola, Brian Vickers, Brad Keselowski and Ryan Newman.
The race saw 18 lead changes among seven drivers and seven cautions for 36 laps.
The next Sprint Cup race is Sunday (April 21) at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan.
