Kurt Busch's second-place run at Pocono was just his third top-10 of the season. Credit: Autostock

Busch thinking Chase after runner-up finish

No. 2 team staying within reach but still has ground to gain

LONG POND, Pa. -- Two weekends ago Kurt Busch's crew chief, Roy McCauley, used some aggressive pit strategy at Dover to salvage a 16th-place finish and pick up a spot in the point standings.

Kurt Busch started the Pocono 500 second behind Denny Hamlin. He finished that way, too. Credit: CIA Stock Photo

Pocono 500 Results Pos. Driver Make 1. Denny Hamlin Chevy 2. Kurt Busch Dodge 3. Tony Stewart Chevy 4. Brian Vickers Chevy 5. Matt Kenseth Ford 6. Greg Biffle Ford 7. Kasey Kahne Dodge 8. Scott Riggs Dodge 9. Jeff Burton Chevy 10. Jimmie Johnson Chevy • Complete results, click here • Standings, click here Victory LaneDenny Hamlin celebrates his first Nextel Cup win at Pocono Top finishersKurt Busch, Tony Stewart talk about their days Final lapsDenny Hamlin rolls to the checkered flag at Pocono Hard crashJeff Gordon destroys his car in a hard crash late in the race Pit road troublesCarl Edwards, Kasey Kahne have problems in the pits Leader spinsDenny Hamlin loses the lead after cutting a tire and spinning Early wreckScott Riggs and Casey Mears set off the first accident Sign up for TrackPass now BUY THE NEXTEL i836

Busch, who in that race, adamantly demanded some new settings in his No. 2 Dodge's front end for this weekend at Pocono Raceway, got what he wanted and used it to good effect Sunday, grabbing a second-place finish in the Pocono 500.

And more importantly for the 2004 Nextel Cup champion, he picked up another spot in the standings, from 18th to 17th -- 187 points out of 10th with 12 races remaining until the cutoff for the Chase for the Nextel Cup.

If Dover was a microcosm of the season so far -- with Busch so frustrated at his car's ill handling that he seemingly was ready to park it -- Pocono was a revelation.

Busch was most pleased that, after leading as early as Lap 51 and leading seven different times, when the pressure was on in the last cycle of green-flag stops, at Lap 166, his team got him out in 12.3 seconds, he said. When the stops cycled around, he was right back behind race winner Denny Hamlin.

"I think it builds a solid foundation in being able to know the team put me back out front when we came in [the pits] leading," Busch said. "They turned a top-five car into a second-place finish.

"They felt that adrenalin of running up front. This is a nice, solid run. Some of the setup we learned today and this whole weekend will help us at Michigan. We tested at VIR [Virginia International Raceway road course]. We felt like we were fast.

"I just think it's a great group of tracks coming up for us. We're back in June and we're ready to rock 'n roll."

Busch's debut with Penske Racing South at Daytona's Speedweeks was not the greatest. A 38th-place finish in the Daytona 500 was offset by a victory at Bristol in the season's fifth race, which elevated Busch to 16th in the standings.

But since then, he's had only one top-10 finish before Sunday and only four top-20 finishes in eight races. If there was a bright side, he never fell lower than 19th in the standings, which holds him in position to make his third consecutive Chase.

Busch said it's significant given that his team is a very different group than that which made the Chase a year ago in Rusty Wallace's swan song in the No. 2 Dodge.

"This is a whole new group of guys, a new crew chief -- everybody over the wall is in different spots," Busch said. "We might have one guy the same [so] just to have that overall feeling to know we can do it [is big].

"We won at Bristol earlier this year. We've been on poles before. We've just had a string of bad luck, initiated by cars not handling well."

Busch said he hoped that was ancient history, despite having nothing for Hamlin in a five-lap shootout Sunday.

"We had a good weekend," Busch said. "I really enjoy racing at Pocono. We had solid practices. I was bummed we didn't quite get the pole, [which Hamlin also won]. But now I feel better about it.

"Denny definitely had the car that was capable of sitting on the pole and winning the race, and we were second best to him. That's more of a win for our group because of our recent struggles up and down.

"I finished 16th last week. We struggled at Charlotte with that real hard tire. This was a nice, solid car. It turned when I needed it to. It stuck with the rear end when I needed it to.

"We changed a couple of things in it, and we'll just take that to Michigan and see how we do. These are two good tracks to try to get ourselves back on track.

"We've got a good stretch of tracks coming up, and I really hope we're able to put some impact in as far as our finish to gain some points."