Sunoco Pit Move: Texas

With less than 100 laps to go in Sunday's Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, Kurt Busch was certain he had finally licked the bad luck that had plagued him all season.

Busch was running second in the Daytona 500 when he tapped Tony Stewart, both cars crashed, resulting in a 41st-place finish for Busch. At Atlanta, he was caught speeding on pit road and never recovered, finishing 11th.

He qualified 42nd at Bristol, one of his favorite tracks, but appeared on his way to a top 10 when he was pinned in his pit box by Kyle Petty, then later lost several laps when he had to pit under green and compounded the situation by coming in the wrong pit entrance.

So when Busch crashed his primary car in Friday's practice, it looked to be a continuation of the jinx that seemed to be hanging over the No. 2 Dodge crew ever since a third-place finish at Talladega this past fall.

However, the backup car proved to be more than equal to the task when the green dropped Sunday -- as Busch quickly moved from his 17th-place starting position into the top five within the first 80 laps. With interim crew chief Troy Raker filling in for Roy McCauley, the team turned some solid green-flag pit stops, although Busch was one of the first cars to head for service in each instance -- a situation that would ultimately come back to bite the No. 2 team again.

"It just didn't seem like we had the fuel mileage we needed," Busch said. "We had to pit a lap or two short, and that lap or two short killed us at the end."

Following the fracas that involved Stewart, Juan Montoya and Jimmie Johnson, Busch passed Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the lead on Lap 249. Four laps later, Busch was trying to hold off Stewart, who spun down the frontstretch as Kyle Busch drilled Junior in the ensuing smoke.

The leader opted to stay out while the rest of the lead-lap cars pitted. Now out of sequence with the field, Busch and Raker knew everyone would have to make one more stop -- but they'd have to come in first and hope the track stayed green in order for the field to cycle through.

At the drop of the green on Lap 259, Busch quickly built a big lead on Matt Kenseth, Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon. He was still more than 1.3 seconds ahead of Gordon, who had moved to second, 25 laps later -- but knew he needed tires and fuel to have any chance to win.

On Lap 291, Busch headed for the pits under green, giving up the lead and dropping a lap to Gordon. Then the thing he wanted least -- a caution flag -- came out two laps later for a chunk of debris in Turn 2.

"Our hearts dropped when we saw the yellow pop out, being in position for a real good run," Busch said. "Who knew where we would have ended up?"

Thanks to the free pass, Busch was 14th and at the tail end of the lead-lap cars when the race resumed. Without track position, Busch could gain just three positions over the final 37 laps, winding up 11th.

Still, team owner Roger Penske was upbeat about Busch's overall performance.

"We got the yellow right as we pitted, and that was just bad luck, but we're building," Penske said. "We had a good car at Atlanta and we had a good car here, and I think that's going to help us as we get toward the end of the season.

"We led some laps [Sunday], and you can't win unless you lead laps. We did that [Sunday], and if you remember Kurt led the most laps at Daytona. We've got a lot of racing left, and I think we're going to lead a lot more laps before it's all said and done."