Busch looks to 'PT Special' to turn Chase woes around

You can't blame Kurt Busch for being frustrated two races in to the Chase for the Nextel Cup.

The No. 2 Dodge finished 25th at New Hampshire after starting third thanks to a broken carburetor shaft and then last week in the Dodge Dealers 400 at Dover International Speedway, Busch again had a top-five run going only to see it end after he blew a tire and ended up in the Turn 2 wall with 15 laps to go.

Yet, sitting in 11th place, 151 points behind leader Jeff Gordon, this team will not allow themselves to get down.

"We're all into it with an absolute 100 percent effort, but you can't change things that are beyond your control," Busch said. "It's certainly frustrating, but just like Pat [Tryson, crew chief] has been saying; we have to take them one race at a time."

And that next race is the circuit's annual visit to Kansas Speedway, home of Sunday's LifeLock 400.

Busch hasn't had much success at the 1.5-mile track with just two top-10s, a best finish of sixth back in 2004 and half of his finishes 25th or worse. But this isn't the same intermediate-track team we are used to seeing, not since crew chief Pat Tryson joined the fold in June.

"Kansas is next and that means we are focusing again on our intermediate track program with the old-style car," Busch said. "It would have sounded pretty ludicrous just a year ago, but our program on those tracks has advanced so far that we're coming into Kansas more confident than ever.

"It was certainly a difficult learning curve that we finally hurdled, if you want to call it that. We were still learning and, in the process, it was a situation of just hoping we could finish somewhere between 15th and 20th.

"But when Pat came on board back in June, that was the spark we needed to get our immediate program up to the top like it is today. He wasn't working in the most positive environment before he joined our team and he took that aspect of our racing program by the horns and manhandled it on up to where it should be ... where it is now."

Just to make sure the No. 2 team has everything it needs to be successful at Kansas, they are bringing one 'special' car with them on the hauler -- the same car that Kurt won his first race this season in at Pocono.

"The 'PT Special' is racing again this weekend at Kansas," Busch said. "Mark that one down on your lineups, sports fans, and we'll see what happens. It's definitely a case of a team going into a race with the ultimate confidence in their car. Now it's just a matter of the driver getting in there and making all the right things happen. Seriously, I am really looking forward to this weekend and think we can again contend for the win."