Busch Finishes 18th in Martinsville; Remains 9th in Driver Points

MARTINSVILLE, Va. (Oct. 27, 2013) – Kurt Busch finished 18^th with a damaged race car in Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway.

The 500-lap race capped a difficult three days for the Furniture Row Racing driver, who was hoping to shed those Martinsville demons which have plagued him for a number of years.

“We didn’t qualify well (19^th), didn’t practice well and obviously didn’t race well,” said Busch, whose last top-10 finish at Martinsville was eight years ago. “I don’t know what it is but there’s something about this track that doesn’t suit me. It was a very disappointing performance today.”

He added, “For a Chase team we should have been much better. Our Furniture Row Chevrolet got banged up early when it took a big hit to the right side. But no excuses, we just didn’t have it.”

While running in 15^th place on Lap 182, Busch got tangled in traffic and spun out. While his flat-black Chevrolet SS was spinning it took a major hit by the oncoming No. 14 car of Mark Martin.

Fortunately for Busch, he could still race the damaged car, but was unable to maintain a consistent pace on the .526-mile oval.

“I had one really good run, but couldn’t keep it up,” noted Busch, who ran as high as seventh. “We weren’t good on restarts and I was just trying to survive out there.”

Busch remained ninth in the Chase driver point standings despite back-to-back 18^th-place finishes. He also finished 18^th last week at Talladega.  (see Chase standings below)

The Goody’s Headache Relief Shot 500 race winner was Jeff Gordon.  Rounding out the top-10 in order were: Matt Kenseth, Clint Bowyer, Brad Keselowski, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Greg Biffle and Jamie McMurray.

The race had 15 lead changes among eight drivers and there were 17 cautions for 111 laps.

The next Sprint Cup race is Sunday (Nov. 3) at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.