Busch would welcome help from unlikely source at DIS

Kurt Busch will be looking for that orange No. 20 this Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway. But it's not for what you are thinking.

Busch believes he can win the Pepsi 400 (6:30 p.m. ET, TNT) but knows it will take some help. He also believes that help can come from Tony Stewart.

"He's been a good ally on the plate tracks and hopefully we will be able to continue to help each other out in this type of racing," Busch said of Stewart.

That would be the same Stewart who played a part in ruining Busch's chances for his first career win at Daytona when the two wrecked in the season-opening 500.

"We were running behind Tony and I got him aero loose. He checked up in front of me, and I bumped into him. It looked awful, but I did all I could to stay off of him," said Busch, who led a race-high 95 laps. "It ruined both of our chances to win the Daytona 500. I felt bad for him. We were definitely the class of the field."

That's also the same Stewart who Busch tried to run into on pit road shortly after an on-track incident at Dover. Busch was docked 100 championship points for the incident that dropped him out of the top 12. He's fighting to get back and currently is 15th with nine races to go before the Chase is set.

"We've had Saturday's Pepsi 400 targeted for a long time now as a big race for us -- one that we've really been looking forward to," said Busch, who is 236 points behind 12th-place Dale Earnhardt Jr.

"I think we had our best chance ever to win the Daytona 500 and we think we can be equally strong this time around. You always hope you're in position to win one [plate races], and that day I was in position. The big deal is that you've got to get to the end."

Although he hasn't been running great as of late -- he hasn't finished better than 16th in the past six races and hasn't had a top-10 since finishing fifth at Richmond -- Busch has reason for optimism. His Daytona numbers are somewhat skewed by three crashes in the past four races there. But prior to this year's Daytona 500, Busch had three top-five finishes in the past five races at the 2.5-mile superspeedway including a third-place showing in last year's Pepsi 400.

"We've been so strong in these plate races and have come so close to getting that breakthrough win," Busch said. "You always hear that if you're knocking on the door and you keep knocking hard enough and long enough, sooner or later you're destined to break on through."

Busch will be driving the same chassis he drove in the Daytona 500.

"The team took the car back to the shop after February's race and completely overhauled it," said Pat Tryson, who will work his third race with Busch after being named crew chief for the No. 2 Dodge. "They put a new body on it and ran it back through the wind tunnel. It continues to come back with the best numbers, so we'll be back down there with that same chassis again this weekend."