Kurt Busch (left) with Jimmy Fennig: "This is (Fennig's) program and he's the veteran crew chief that I have to listen to, but any idea that I bring up, he's willing to listen to me as well." Credit: Autostock

Focused Busch hoping good fortune will hold

HAMPTON, Ga. -- Kurt Busch has done his best to throw away a chance at the 2004 Nextel Cup championship.

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But Busch has had the quality all champions need: overcoming adversity. At Kansas, Busch overcame an early spin to finish sixth. At Charlotte, Busch overcame a spin, a blown engine in front of him and a dive through the grass to finish fourth.

Last weekend at Martinsville, Busch avoided making mistakes and the trouble that often plagues drivers at a short track to finish fifth and extend his points lead to 96 over a new second-place driver, Jeff Gordon.

With four races left, many believe Busch will have to have trouble to lose the Chase for the Nextel Cup.

Count Busch among those.

Credit: Autostock

"Yeah, we don't need any off-track excursions and we need to make sure that we make as many laps as we possibly can on the good asphalt and not on the apron like lap one last time," Busch said of this weekend's race, the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

The same car Busch ran at Lowe's Motor Speedway will be utilized this weekend at Atlanta, a sister 1.54-mile track to LMS. Busch needs to bring the same rabbit's foot, too.

"It's just a good car that proved itself very well and that gave us a great opportunity to polish up on it," Busch said. "Each of the fenders was wrinkled on it just from some circumstance throughout that day, so we hung different panels on it and tried to keep it the same way as it was before. It's a better car than what we had prepared."

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Busch also opened up his lead on Dale Earnhardt Jr., who fell to third, 125 points out, after trouble at Martinsville. Race winner Jimmie Johnson is fourth, but he's a distant 207 points back.

While Busch has done an admirable job behind the wheel of the No. 97 Ford, he credits crew chief Jimmy Fennig for helping get the team in this position. Fennig is a veteran of the NASCAR world who Busch leans on for direction and guidance.

And Fennig has been a rock.

"This is his deal," Busch said. "This is his program and he's the veteran crew chief that I have to listen to, but any idea that I bring up, he's willing to listen to me as well. It takes that good team communication to know what it's going to take to build these cars, what it's going to take to race them, and the mindset going into each race. We can't get ahead of ourselves because we still have four to go."

Make that five, sort of. Busch races in the IROC season-finale this weekend, despite the pressures of the Nextel Cup championship chase.

Kurt Busch Credit: Autostock

But Busch never considered giving up his IROC seat this weekend.

"It still intrigues me each time to come out and run these Crown Royal IROC cars because of the parity amongst the cars and the group of drivers you race with on the track," Busch said. "Atlanta is a very fast racetrack, and things can happen pretty quick, but it's a matter of understanding your competitors. People that are in this series are true champions of their respective divisions, so you hope they'll use that frame of mind when they go to compete in the final IROC race.

"With our position in Cup it's a position that you don't want to put in danger due to a small circumstance that could come up, but you see a lot of guys run Busch cars every week and you never know when your time is going to be. I'm a true racer at heart. I want to come out and strap into a seat any chance that I get."

The IROC race is important, but Busch hasn't forgotten about the bigger goal.

"We've got our car built and we've had teammates test there at Atlanta, so it's just a matter of taking one day at a time and not getting too far ahead of ourselves," Busch said. "This was the halfway point. We're now past that, and we can look forward to the final four races."

Now, if he can keep the car pointed straight at Atlanta, Busch could be well on his way to his first championship.