Hard Charger: Kurt Busch

DARLINGTON, S.C. -- At the end of Sunday's Carolina Dodge Dealers 400, Kurt Busch looked almost as ragged as his black-and-blue Ford Taurus.

He was red-faced and sweat-soaked. Maybe woozy. But competitive exhilaration eventually bubbled up.

"This is something where we'll slap high-fives and drink a couple beers to later on," Busch said of his late, locked-fenders battle with eventual winner Ricky Craven.

	Credit: Autostock

The duel stirred more blood pressure, butterflies and bravos than any in recent NASCAR memory. Busch and Craven banged each other for nearly two laps before Craven's bumper edged Busch's by inches at the checkered flag, and subsequent gee-whizzes still were being repeated hours afterward.

"Best I ever saw," said Jim Hunter, NASCAR's vice president for corporate communications, who saw a lot during his nine years (1992-2000) as Darlington Raceway's president.

Both drivers exhausted themselves, especially Busch. His power steering faded in and out during the final 40 laps, and finally expired with 10 remaining.

"My arms were numb, my brain is numb, and, of course, under the hood ended up numb, as well," Busch said.

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The lack of power steering meant forcibly muscling the steering wheel, and thus the 3,400-pound beast underneath, around Darlington's legendary 1.366-mile oval. It was the hardest work Busch did all day -- along with battling Craven -- but perhaps not the most aggravating. He started at the rear of Sunday's field after blowing an engine during the first laps of Saturday's first Cup practice.

That episode rendered Busch's sixth-place starting spot useless. He also faced a lack of practice time at Darlington that extended back to another blown engine prior to last fall's Southern 500. All the equipment issues rendered the No. 97's preferences irrelevant. So Busch and crew chief Jimmy Fennig used Roush Racing's new weekend team meeting to borrow strategy and equipment ideas from teammates Jeff Burton, Mark Martin, Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth.

Once Busch started Sunday, he found himself with an almost undriveable Roush hybrid.

"About lap 20 or so, I kept telling my spotter to remind me this wasn't my race car," Busch said, adding that it felt more like Burton's setup.

Between Busch's feedback and Fennig's tweaks, they fixed the rough spots and Busch drove to the front, moving up to fourth on lap 80 of the 293-lap race. During the middle of the race, he dipped from the top 10 for approximately 40 laps (140 through 180), but returned by lap 200, when he was sixth.

"You just pass one car here and one car there, and make sure you don't slip a tire there," Busch said. "We had a nice sequence of pit stops to where we were able to make up time and, boom, we were running up front."

Busch also admitted that drivers should adopt a different mindset when they bring up the rear.

"You almost have to be somewhat oblivious to what's going on," he said, citing a mid-race stop when he nearly missed the entrance to pit road.

Then, there was the track.

Veterans and rookies alike say they race the egg-shaped oval -- NASCAR's oldest, trickiest track -- not each other. And Busch acquired another mental burden when Burton's engine blew on lap 32. Four Roush engines blew last week, and having already lost one this weekend, Busch said he just had to put it out of his mind.

"Lo and behold, we ended up in the top five and now it's time to work on the car, time to go for the win and we almost got it today," he said. "It is cool starting in the back because you think completely different."

Busch led only once, for 23 laps, but getting there was memorable. He surged past leader Jeff Gordon and the second-place Elliott Sadler on lap 269 and led until lap 292, -- the next-to-last lap -- where he and Craven hooked up.

"We went to the camera, definitely," Hunter said of the photo finish.

Meanwhile, Busch went up in the Winston Cup point standings -- from 14th to sixth.

"We had a lovely day working our way from the back and continuously working on the car," he said.