DENVER, Colo. (Oct. 2, 2013) — Kurt Busch would be the first to admit the Furniture Row Racing performances in the past two Chase races haven’t met with expectations.
After making history as the only single-car team to qualify for the Chase, Busch and the Denver-based team kicked off the 10-race Sprint Cup Series playoffs with a solid fourth-place result at Chicagoland Speedway.
But that early Chase momentum has stalled for Busch, who had finishes of 13th in New Hampshire and 21st in Dover. Since Chicago he dropped from sixth to ninth in the 13-driver Chase point standings.
“No question, we need to turn things around,” said Busch, driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevrolet. “It’s not too late but we can’t have the performances we had the past two weeks. We need to get it together in Kansas.”
The 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway will be the site of the fourth Chase race with Sunday’s running of the Hollywood Casino 400.
“The Kansas track is very smooth and it’s fast so you can be aggressive with shock control, sway bars and other things,” noted Busch. “Kansas is definitely its own animal. It compares more to a Michigan and the smoother race tracks that we run on versus the rough ones like Chicago and Atlanta.”
The Kansas race will also be the second of five 1.5-mile venues in the Chase.
“The mile-and-a-half tracks like Kansas are so important in the Chase,” said Busch. “You need a strong average finish on these tracks just to make sure you’re holding serve.”
Since the spring race in Kansas where Busch finished 15th there have been four races on the 1.5-mile tracks. In those four races Busch has an average finish of 4.25 – Charlotte (third), Kentucky (sixth), Atlanta (fourth) and Chicagoland (fourth).
“We’ve had some recent success at the mile-and-a-half tracks and what we need right now is another strong finish,” explained the 35-year-old Busch.
The former NASCAR Sprint Cup champion is not only looking to turn around his Chase performance, but also his record at Kansas Speedway. In 15 career starts at Kansas Busch has not won nor has he garnered a top-five finish. He does have three top-10s and has led 239 laps.
“Though I haven’t had my best finishes at Kansas, it’s still a track where we can do well at,” stated Busch. “I’ve had some good runs there that fizzled due to non-performance circumstances.”
