Charlotte holds promise for changes throughout night

2004 Cup Series champion Kurt Busch will share his thoughts in a weekly blog during the Chase for the Nextel Cup:

With six races left in the season it looks like two guys -- Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson -- have put a little distance between themselves and the rest of the Chase field. But there are plenty of laps left to be run, and we feel good about our cars at all of the remaining tracks.

We're running our Chicago car at Lowe's Motor Speedway this weekend. That car is naturally a little tight, which sets up well for Charlotte. Our goal is to put together a complete race and be competitive from beginning to the end. We've been awesome and led a ton of laps in Charlotte lately, only to see our handling go away and end our chances for a victory.

This track changes quite a bit during the race, and we have to be solid in staying ahead of the curve and dealing with the changes. We'll just work from pit stop to pit stop to stay on top of the situation, make the right changes and look to be at the front in the final laps.

Teamwork on display in wild-card race

Going into Talladega, all the talk was about how the race was going to be the "wild card" in the Chase, that anything could happen and that whoever came out of the race in one piece was going to be in good shape for the final six weeks. The good news is the Miller Lite Dodge avoided trouble all day, and our seventh-place finish was a testament to teamwork and a lot of hard work. The bad news is that the guys leading the Chase ran well and added to their lead. Overall I thought it was a great day on the track, particularly the way our 2 car and the 12 [Ryan Newman] stuck together through thick and thin.

I got the chance to squeeze in a couple of great SEC football games between practice and qualifying and am happy to report that I went 2-0 with the teams I was rooting for. I checked out the South Carolina-Kentucky game Thursday night, which USC won 38-23, then made it to Tuscaloosa for Saturday's Alabama-Houston game, which the Crimson Tide won 30-24. SEC football is unbelievable to see live. I've always heard about the atmosphere in the SEC, and I have to say it lived up to my expectations. Those fans are nuts.

Friday qualifying saw the Miller Lite Dodge come in with the 18th-fastest time but get bumped to the back of the field because our front end was too low in post-qualifying inspection. I talked to [crew chief] Pat Tryson about it and we both agreed that it might be better to start at the rear of the field than the middle of the pack.

This was an impound race, so a bunch of cars went all-out in qualifying to make the field, which meant they might drop like rocks once the race started. Plus, there were a lot of cars -- including ours -- that were planning on sitting back to see how the beginning of the race shook out.

From the back of the pack, we tried to steal five bonus points for leading a lap during the first caution period, but it didn't work out and we pitted on Lap 21. We stuck with our plan through the second caution of the day, then began our move during a series of green flag stops around Lap 60.

We were up to 14th and going forward when we nearly got caught up in "the big one." The 43 busted loose right in front of us, but luckily darted down the track and missed us. The final laps were a lesson in teamwork, with Ryan Newman, myself and other Dodge drivers taking the high line and the Hendrick guys taking the low line, with the 20 car [Tony Stewart] bouncing between the two. We were up front, then got shuffled back and finished seventh. That was some fun racing down the stretch, and the 12 car and the Miller Lite Dodge worked really well together.

Until next time.
KB