Early bird, winner and Disney lover? That's Pat

Pat Tryson doesn't own an I-pod. That's my kind of guy. Old school.

Pat is the crew chief for Kurt Busch. He does have a cell phone, and after Busch won the race at Michigan on Tuesday, Tryson had one very important telephone call to make. Car owner Roger Penske was at the track. So was his No. 1 man, vice chairman of Penske Racing, Walt Czarnecki. His crew was there. But one man was missing.

Tryson and his team flew home on Monday after the race was postponed a second time.

• NASCAR on TNT

"It gave the guys a chance to see their family and get some fresh clothes," Tryson said.

It also gave him the opportunity to make a difficult decision.

"I had to leave Jeff Thousand at the shop," he said. "He is such a key ingredient in this organization. I really hated to do it but he had to get to work on the Bristol car. I've known him for a while. He is a great person to be able to lean on; he knows a lot about racing. I really wanted to call him after the race. He was frustrated he wasn't there, especially with the way things turned out. But it was the right thing to do. He is the one getting us ready for Bristol."

Thousand is more than a right-hand man, he's more like a right arm. At the shop he is the car setup guy, a simple description of a difficult job, then he comes to the track on race day to perform a variety of duties. He has been with Penske Racing for many years, and worked with former driver Rusty Wallace. He was one of the few "crew" guys that stayed on at Penske after Wallace retired.

Fortunately Tryson got a hold of Jeff soon after the race, because while the team was going through the post-race media sessions and post-race inspection and motor teardown, Tryson was accepting and returning congratulatory calls, for an hour or two, he thinks, until his cell phone battery finally gave out.

"I was talking to different people, different radio shows, it was all good," he said. "But when we got back about 8 o'clock [Tuesday night] the battery was dead."

Tryson was up at 5 a.m. Wednesday morning.

"I'm an early bird," he admitted

I think that's a class they have at crew chief school, Early Riser 101.

On Tryson's first day at Penske Racing he walked through the shop.

"It was really just a meet and greet," Tryson said.

The next day the team was on its way to Sonoma, Calif. Tryson was the third crew chief of the season for Busch, and the season was only 15 races old. In the previous five races, the No. 2 Dodge had finished in the top 15 just once, and the team was 25th or worse three times. Busch had a couple of tough finishes the next two weeks: 22nd at Sonoma after contact with Juan Montoya and gambling on fuel mileage, then 21st at New Hampshire after he was run over by David Ragan on the final lap. But since then, the Tryson factor has been pretty evident.

Busch finished third at Daytona, sixth at Chicagoland, 11th at Indy, won at Pocono, 11th at Watkins Glen thanks to a speeding ticket on pit road and then the win at Michigan. While we were calling the races on TNT, I said on the air that Pat Tryson said he doesn't deserve a lot of credit for getting the 2 team back up to speed. Wally Dallenbach added, "That's Pat. That's just the kind of guy he is. He will pass out all the credit but this guy is good and he will have a positive effect on that team."

Well, Busch led 175 of the 200 laps in the Pocono win, and snapped a 51-race winless streak. Fifty-one races! That's a long time. In the 15 races BT (before Tryson), Busch had back-to-back top-10 finishes just once (third at Talladega, fifth at Richmond). In the eight races since the Tryson meet and greet in June, Busch has two wins, four finishes of sixth or better, and finished 11th or better in six of the eight races. And then there is that Race to the Chase thing. Busch is currently 12th.

Naturally, Tryson tried to deflect praise. But, as Wally, would say, that's Pat.

"It's like a giant puzzle," Tryson said. "All the pieces were here, we just had to put them in their proper places. We changed some things on the cars, we changed some other things, but I would say the biggest thing is a little bit of confidence. I think everyone probably has just a little more confidence in themselves now. And I get along real good with Kurt."

OK, hang on a minute. I think Pat tried to slip a curve ball by me. What was that last part?

Kurt Busch

Bristol Results

Year	Race	Finish	Led
2001	Spring	42	0
2001	Fall	25	0
2002	Spring	1	89
2002	Fall	6	45
2003	Spring	1	116
2003	Fall	1	121
2004	Spring	1	119
2004	Fall	8	0
2005	Spring	35	0
2005	Fall	10	0
2006	Spring	1	33
2006	Fall	37	27
2007	Spring	29	10
Totals		15.2	560

"Yeah, we get a along good," Tryson said. "I know people think differently but he really is a good guy. I think people get the wrong impression. Sure, in the car he's intense and he can get frustrated, but all the great drivers are like that. As a person he's not like that at all. He's relaxed, he's fun to be around, he likes to help people and does a lot with charities. Everybody likes to make a big deal with some of the things he does on the track but it's just because he wants to win so bad."

And now the 2 team would like to win at Bristol, where Busch has a pretty good record.

"Yeah, we like to think of him as the King of Bristol right now," Tryson said. "It's obviously an important race for many reasons."

And with three races to go before the cutoff and the Chase for the Nextel Cup takes the green flag, Tryson knows the points are very important. Busch lost 100 points when he lost his cool on pit road at Dover. For now, he is 12th in points, and "in" the Chase field. When Tryson got to Penske, making the Chase was more like a dream than reality.

"We talked about that since the day I got here," Tryson said. "We wanted to make up 20 points or 30 points a week. If we could do that, then we might have a shot at it. Fortunately some of the other guys have had some problems and we have been able to make up a little bit more than that. We've got ourselves in position; now we just have to keep our focus, keep working like we have been. It's easier to lose points than to gain them."

Tryson knows about making the Chase. He and Mark Martin made it all three seasons, now he has Busch in position to do it.

Tryson is not one of the most recognizable faces in the garage, just one of the most respected. He now has five career wins, two with Martin, the two with Busch and one with Elliott Sadler. That victory with Sadler came at, you got it, Bristol, in the spring of 2001.

Pat has a little bit of history at Bristol. He was the crew chief for Geoff Bodine in the late '90s. It was the night race in August and I had his pit for the television broadcast. They weren't having a good night. I was in the next pit over when I saw Pat take off his headset, lay it down and leave. And I mean leave. He quit. Right there in the middle of the race. He was upset. OK, he was mad. But his wife, Teresa, helped to calm him down and he actually did an interview with me during the race.

He took the high road, but that's Pat. Something about how the driver and crew chief had a different opinion on how certain things should be done about race strategy. It had been building for a while. So Pat made the decision to let the driver make the decisions. Pat laughed about it when I brought it up in our conversation on Wednesday. Since that time, things have worked out quite well for Tryson.

He started the season as crew chief for Greg Biffle, but that didn't work out. Tryson was patient while his contract was settled, then moved in at Penske. For now, Busch is 12th in the standings with the two wins; Biffle is 15th and winless in 2007.

Tryson has brought Busch the type of leadership that is needed. Pat raced with and learned from Martin. Now he is bringing his professionalism and patience to a team with a driver that knows how to win.

Make no mistake about it, Tryson is intense, but he is older and wiser than he was 10 years ago.

Tryson grew up around drag racers, but eventually got into stock cars hanging around his dad. Occasionally he would get to wax them.

He played football, was a linebacker at West Chester (Pa) University, studied business in school and after college worked on the Cup program for drag racer/car owner Kenny Bernstein.

He likes to go scuba diving, he is certified, lost 30 pounds by eating smarter and exercising, but still enjoys a trip to St. Elmo's in Indianapolis.

He says he has seen all the Disney movies because their daughter, McKenna, loves them.

"If you ever want to borrow any Disney movies, just ask," he said. "We probably own them all."

Tryson races a Dodge but grew up "a Chevy guy." His dream car is a 1969 Camaro Indy Pace Car convertible, white with orange stripes.

Maybe someday he can drive it to St. Elmo's downtown, but for now the drive is on to make the Chase.

Tryson is happy at his new home and things are running well. He just won a race at Michigan for car owner Roger Penske. It doesn't get any better than that. It was the first time Busch has won a race while driving for Penske when Roger was at the track.

The race at Bristol is Saturday night, but don't expect Pat to sleep in, he's an early bird, remember? And, if it doesn't rain, maybe a day off on Sunday to watch a Disney movie.

Pat owns some land in North Carolina and they hope to build on it someday. Of all the neat things you could have with a new home, what's the one thing the place would have to have?

"My daughter wants a swimming pool so ..."

Well, as Wally would say, that's Pat.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.