Busch endures long 500 miles after hitting wall

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DARLINGTON, S.C. -- A peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich wasn't the dinner of a champion Sunday at Darlington Raceway, but after a satisfying but totally energy-sapping run to seventh position in the Mountain Dew Southern 500, Kurt Busch was in no position to complain.

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For what seems like the umpteenth time this season, an engine issue set Busch back -- but the Las Vegas native proved again it wasn't anything a head-down 500-mile Sunday drive couldn't cure, as he steamed to his 12th top-10 finish.

"We just never got ourselves in position to capitalize on our strong car," Busch said. "We were just running in the back of the pack all day and trying to get by lapped cars."

The only impression a bystander could draw, watching Busch slump on a cooler outside the back of his No. 97 Ford's hauler while he savored each bite; was that the second year Roush Racing driver had all but carried his Taurus on his back for every lap of the ornery 1.366-mile oval.

"I'm worn out," Busch said. "I don't know why the car was so ill-handling when it was fine yesterday in Happy Hour."

Busch had possibly the best horse in the field after Saturday's 45-minute final practice. He was fourth quickest in the opening one-hour morning session, at 164.556 mph. He dropped a couple tenths in Happy Hour but was still at the top of the list.

But the team, which has been on an aggressive engine development program all season that has resulted in two of Busch's four DNFs coming from engine failures, had to change an engine after practice for no less than the third time this season.

It put Busch in a position to have to battle plenty of traffic and its accompanying dirty air after he started 42nd in the 43-car field. But he had scrambled to 20th by 100 laps, 13th after 200 and was eighth with less than 70 laps to go. The trip wasn't without a few adventures.

	An interesting stat: Since mid-June, Busch has either finished in the top-10 -- or worse than 30th. Credit: Autostock

"We ended up brushing the wall pretty hard when three cars did in Turn 2," Busch said. "We bent the (suspension) trailing arm, so it made for an eventful day and to come away with seventh wasn't so bad."

Busch's Roush teammate, Jeff Burton, had his potential winning car knocked back to 10th by his wallbanger, and Ricky Craven and Jeff Green were the other top-10 cars that came to grief against the wall.

Busch was scheduled to start 11th, based on his position in the point standings after Bud Pole Qualifying was rained out on Friday. But the engine change after Saturday's two practice sessions put him in a position to depend heavily on crew chief Jimmy Fennig and his pit crew.

Although there were nine caution periods -- including the first 19 laps of the race while the track surface was dried from persistent morning rain Busch took advantage of whatever long runs he could find, plus crisp pit work, to try to make a difference as he struggles to get back to the top-10 in points.

Despite his comeback, Busch lost a spot in the standings, back to 12th, when Ryan Newman finished second. And while he is the farthest out of the lead he has been all season, 433 points, Busch is only 39 points behind Roush teammate Matt Kenseth, who is 10th.

On Sunday, race winner Jeff Gordon proved that out front was the place to be in terms of keeping a car handling at its best, unencumbered by ill winds off other vehicles.

"We could have been a fast car," Busch said. "It was everywhere just because when you're stuck in the back, the draft with all the dirty air just pushes your car in all different directions.

"We were one that it (handling) would come to us on lap 30 (of a fuel run). We couldn't race 'em hard at the beginning of the run, so it would have been interesting to see because we were out there for 50 laps there at the end on tires.

"We'll take this and try to stay fresh and make the right decisions on what we need to run back here next time."