Busch back in the Chase
LONG POND, Pa. — Kurt Busch was desperately looking for a full-time crew chief to jolt his middling season. Pat Tryson longed for a second chance to show he could still lead a team to a Nextel Cup championship.
Once they got together, Busch and Tryson have been a perfect match.
With Tryson calling the shots, Busch dominated from start-to-finish and zoomed into championship contention with his first victory in 51 races Sunday at Pocono Raceway.
Busch's resurgence started when Tryson joined Penske Racing six races ago, the third crew chief the former champion has had this season. The win lifted Busch into the 12th and final spot of the Chase for the Nextel Cup standings — one ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr. — with five races left until the championship races start.
"I don't know that I'm surprised because of how talented Kurt is as a race car driver," Tryson said. "I didn't expect it to be this dominant."
Busch, who turned 29 on Saturday, hadn't been in the top 12 in points since a 100-point penalty for reckless driving in June knocked him six spots down to 17th.
Now he's back and on his biggest roll of the season. He turned a 13-point deficit behind Junior into a seven-point edge.
"You know it's going to come down to the final race in Richmond," Busch said.
Busch, who had surged to 13th in the standings entering the Pennsylvania 500, led all but 25 laps and made his second career Pocono victory look easy. The 175 laps led was a Pocono record.
Not even a lug nut problem on pit road under caution late in the race and a hard-charging Earnhardt affected him very much. His No. 2 Dodge was clearly the car to beat all day.
Busch fell to ninth on the restart on the 143rd lap, but quickly made up ground and passed the revitalized Earnhardt for the lead with 47 laps left.
The 2004 series champion needs to keep his hot streak going — three top 10s in four races — if he wants to keep his spot for the 10-race Chase for the Nextel Cup championship.
It was Busch's first win since March 26, 2006, at Bristol, and he was second in both Pocono races last year.
"You never for one instant think you have the race in the bag," Busch said. "The only time I really thought about it was coming to the checkered, lap 199 coming to 200."
Earnhardt was second and Denny Hamlin, who swept both races at Pocono last year, finished third. Points leader Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson rounded out the top five.
"We actually had a stronger car than the last time we were here," said Gordon, who won at Pocono in June. "If the No. 2 car didn't exist today, then maybe some of us had a chance to win this thing. But wow."
Tony Stewart had his two-race winning streak snapped and was sixth.
Busch led nearly the entire race except for a short stretch near the end when Earnhardt shook off early trouble with the No. 8 Chevrolet and temporarily took the lead. But Earnhardt, who failed to capitalize on his first pole since 2002, couldn't press him for very long.
"I don't want to finish 12th, I want to finish eighth or seventh," Junior said. "We've got a few races, but I think we'll do fine."
Busch said after qualifying second on Friday that he hoped the 100 points he was docked for reckless driving wouldn't be a factor in making the Chase. With the way he's driving the No. 2 Dodge, they won't matter.
"We've thrown away quite a bit of points this year," Busch said, rattling off a list of blown races. "I'm not going to look back at those 100 points and think it's a deficit. It only made us into a stronger program."
