Smart Racing Books Kurt Busch a Chase Spot with Close Win at Pocono
Kurt Busch is well-known in many ways. He has a reputation that has been etched in stone for most of the time since the century turned.
He was NASCAR's first Chase champion in 2004, the year the Sprint Cup Series adopted the original version of the format now in place to decide titles.
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He is the older brother of the reigning champion and the original recipe of a fraternal style known for extraordinary talent, occasional brattiness and unpredictability. Maturity has been declared on numerous occasions on behalf of both Kurt and Kyle. Perhaps, at long last, after 554 Cup races and 28 victories, it's time to give Kurt Busch credit for being smart.
| Category | Busch | Earnhardt |
| Races | 554 | 591 |
| Wins | 28 | 26 |
| Championships | 1 | 0 |
| Top-5 Finishes | 121 | 148 |
| Top-10 Finishes | 234 | 252 |
| Average Finish | 16.7 | 15.5 |
“I was like, 'Whoa, how many laps shy are we?' They said two," Busch said to Fox Sports after winning the rain-postponed Axalta "We Paint Winners" 400 at Pocono Raceway on Monday.
Saving fuel is a knack that doesn't come naturally to the standard-issue, hellbent-for-leather stock car racer. Busch had to back off while, at the same time, staying ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr., the runner-up who, fortunately, had fuel concerns as well.
The devils were behind him. Ahead was the deep, blue sea.
"These are really long straightaways at Pocono and you have to manage saving fuel as well as maintaining lap time," Busch added. "So many thoughts can go through your head, but I just stuck with the checklist. I just stuck with saving fuel and watching the No. 88 (Earnhardt) behind us."
Busch didn't have regular crew chief Tony Gibson. Only in NASCAR can the rough equivalent of a head coach be banished from the pit box because someone else didn't tighten a lug nut. Imagine if the NFL sent Bill Belichick to the showers for Julian Edelman muffing a pass.
The head who spelled Gibson for a week was a cool one. An engineer, name of Johnny Klausmeier, roughly the same temperament as a cucumber. Cool.
"We just knew that we were racing guys on fuel that had the same engine horsepower, Hendrick power, as us, so we knew that we should be in the same sequence as them," the king for a day said in a media conference. "Kurt did a great job of saving it. We just kind of kept him informed on everything that was going on, and he took it and ran with it, and it was great."
All in all, the race—for those who could afford to miss work and watch it, or, surreptitiously, work and watch it—was, if not great, then at least fascinating. A rookie, Chase Elliott, led the most laps, only to wind up, as fast rookies are wont to do, fourth.
Elliott is also wont to blame himself as his moral victories seem less and less moral.
“I wish I had been just a little more patient behind Dale [Earnhardt Jr.]," Elliott said. "I felt like I made a big mistake there in the Tunnel [Turn] and it gave Kurt [Busch] a big run."
The older Busch brother joined the younger as one of nine drivers to have punched tickets into the Chase, with 12 races to spare before the 10-race series within a series begins.
Earnhardt isn't yet a race winner in 2016, though he has now finished second four times.
"It certainly feels better than finishing 15th," Earnhardt said, rather predictably. "The car wasn't that bad. We just have such high standards after the last couple years we've had.
"Man, when you get just a little bit behind in this series, holy moly, it takes so much work to just regain what you lost, not really even to have an advantage, just to get back to where you were. A tenth out on that racetrack is impossible to find."
The spectacle of the top drivers trying to go fast enough to win but not so fast as to run out of ethanol was fascinating, though the positions stabilized and gave way to three drivers, and a fast-closing Brad Keselowski, eyeing one another warily.
The hothead with the substitute crew chief kept his wits admirably.
After it was all over, of course, Busch could say to Fox Sports, "There really wasn't a doubt. I can honestly say that Klausmeier gave me the confidence. He kept giving me numbers. I kept finding ways to think that I was saving fuel. I kept checking the mirror, kept checking my lap time on the dash."
Busch has a knack for the wacky turn of phrase and the bizarre analogy. At times, he has claimed that auto racing is "just like golf" and referred to a lap as "circumferencing the track."
It's anybody's guess, but presumably, he was making some kind of analogy to a cooking show on TV when he said: "I felt like a cook in a kitchen trying to beat the buzzer and not get chopped at the end of the show with as many things as I felt like I was managing, but the spotter helped, Klausmeier helped, my past experience on saving fuel helped, and it all turned into a win here at Pocono. It feels great."
It would take an alligator to navigate that muddy, verbal swamp, but it was amusing in a Yogi Berra sort of way.
Imagine the fun if he wins another championship.
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All quotes are taken from NASCAR media, team and manufacturer sources unless otherwise noted.
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