Kurt Busch managed to post nine top-10 finishes in the 10 Chase races. Credit: Autostock

In Review: Kurt Busch

Young Gun proves his mettle with stirring 10-race playoff victory

Jeff Gordon called the Chase for the Nextel Cup the most intense battle for the championship he'd ever faced.

That's saying something, for Gordon has beaten some of the greats of the sport in winning his four titles.

Gordon, though, didn't have what it took to win the inaugural Nextel Cup championship, falling 16 points short of winning.

No, the winner was Kurt Busch. And it says something about Busch that he was able to win such an intense battle and claim the first Nextel Cup.

Yes, Busch didn't score the most points during the entire 36-race season. Yes, three drivers won more races than Busch. Yes, Busch had the fewest top-five finishes of any champion in NASCAR history.

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And, yes, he isn't the most popular driver around.

But the guy holding the trophy at the awards banquet was ... Kurt Busch.

"This is a tag that Nextel came into our sport to create a new identity around NASCAR racing, to create a playoff system to where you have to be a driver and a team to persevere over anything that happens in a 10-race playoff," Busch said.

"If one or two bad things happen and your finish isn't that great, it somewhat takes your chances away, but if you're able to go for the win in every race and beat the best of the best -- 10 guys for 10 races -- and to be put up with the likeliness of other names that have come up through our sport as champions, it means so much to me and to give Jack [Roush] his first Nextel Cup championship, to win the first one for Nextel."

Busch certainly was able to persevere through the Chase, and through the entire season.

After a solid start, a victory at Bristol and four other top-10s in the first seven races, Busch held the points lead. But he went seven races until he scored another top-10 and later dropped as low as ninth in the standings after a crash and a 35th-place finish at Chicago.

His second victory of the season, though, came the following race at New Hampshire, a sign of good things to come. After breaking a transmission at Pocono, Busch then reeled off six consecutive finishes of 15th or better to reach the Chase in seventh place.

Matt Kenseth, left, and Kurt Busch Credit: Autostock

That's when Busch and his No. 97 Roush Racing team hit their stride. Busch opened the Chase in dominant fashion, winning at New Hampshire while leading the most laps. The stirring performance moved Busch to second in points, and after back-to-back fifth-place finishes at Dover and Talladega -- and the 25-point penalty to Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- Busch grabbed the points lead.

From there, it was hardly smooth sailing. At Kansas, Busch spun off Turn 3 but didn't hit anything. After some hard work by his pit crew and some adjustments by crew chief Jimmy Fennig, Busch rallied to finish sixth.

The next week at Lowe's Motor Speedway, Busch got a small piece of a multi-car crash early in the UAW-GM Quality 500. The damage was minimal, and Busch fought his way back into the top 10.

Later in the race, Kevin Harvick blew an engine right in front of Busch, but Busch maintained control. Eighty-nine laps later, Busch had to dart through the grass and onto pit road to avoid another crash.

Busch survived to finish fourth and hold on to the points lead. He led the most laps at Martinsville the next week, finishing fifth. Then, his season nearly unraveled. Only 53 laps into the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500, Busch was in the Atlanta Motor Speedway garage area with a blown engine.

As luck would have it, it, Busch's two closest pursuers, Gordon and Earnhardt Jr., had trouble, too. Jimmie Johnson won the race to move within 59 points of Busch, but Busch was breathing a sigh of relief.

Phoenix was a bit of a struggle, but Busch's 10th-place finish helped him hold serve. At Darlington the next week, Busch dodged more bullets. He punted Brendan Gaughan, creating a tire rub that required an extended pit stop to fix.

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That knocked Busch back to 25th, but he moved forward again. Later, he was 20th after making a second caution-flag stop to make some needed adjustments to the car's handling.

Those worked, but Busch needed a lightning-fast pit stop late in the race to move him inside the top five. Though he finished sixth in the Southern 500, more disaster was averted.

The championship, then, came down to the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. And lest you think it would go smoothly for Busch, his right-front wheel came off on lap 49.

Busch was in second place when the wheel came off, and he barely made it to pit road as the caution flag waved. Busch's crew changed the tire and wheel, and with teammate and leader Greg Biffle slowing the pace on the backstretch, Busch was able to stay on the lead lap.

After a penalty for pitting too soon, Busch restarted 28th. He moved forward to 18th, but during a pit stop on Lap 114, a miscommunication dropped him back to 23rd. Fortunately for Busch, Johnson and Gordon were on different pit sequences, meaning none of three top contenders was asserting control of the title race.

With 59 laps to go, the trio was buried deep in the field. They all moved up, helped by a decision to stay on the track under a yellow on lap 224 of 267.

With seven laps left, Busch was in seventh behind Gordon and Johnson. Five laps later, Ryan Newman had a right-front tire go flat to bring out a caution and set up a green-white-checkered finish to the 2004 season.

Kurt Busch takes the championship flag at Homestead. Credit: Autostock

Restarting fifth, Busch stayed within shouting distance of Johnson and Gordon, who ended up second and third. Busch's fifth-place finish was enough to claim the championship.

"It's just a scenario to where I've seen things go wrong and tried to understand the best that I can and what I need to do as a driver to communicate to the team to be able to persevere and stay focused on the task at hand," Busch said. "Things are always magnified when you're in this position of driving for a championship. I had one smooth race, and that was New Hampshire -- and maybe Martinsville a little bit, where we finished fifth.

"The final 10 races, the racetracks challenged every team to the testing ability, to the team's focus, to the motor tuning and development -- you name it. It was a full team effort, and the way that we were able to overcome all of those circumstances -- there are positions in time to be lucky and there are positions in time to be able to make sure that you stay focused and put those thoughts at bay and put together the best effort.

"I'm overwhelmed. I'm completely exhausted about what these final 10 races meant, but it's a true testament to what a team has to do, to what a driver has to do, to what an owner sees as a leader and the way that you have to compete at your top level for 10 races against the 10 toughest competitors -- that's what this season meant for us, was these final 10 races because that's what the Nextel Chase for the Cup is now."