Frustrating weekend for Busch continues in quals

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Kurt Busch will have his hands full come the green flag in Saturday's Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

A crash in Thursday's practice, even as Busch's No. 2 Penske Racing Dodge posted the fastest time in the only session of the day (speeds), caused the driver to go into qualifying dealing with an unfamiliar backup car.

Busch posted a 36th-place qualifying run and remains frustrated by the blown tire that caused him to wreck his primary car. Busch had no warning, he said, and took a hard lick into the wall.

"We're supposed to have a harder tire for here and it is harder because we're sliding around a lot. But we have to have so much weight in the right side and the camber we run with these new cars, they can't build a tire hard enough to last," Busch said.

After the Sprint Cup qualifying session, Busch said his run was pretty "nerve-racking," because he didn't have a solid feel for the car. The final Cup practice on Thursday was canceled due to rain.

"I just wish we could find the right combination of what we are supposed to do with right-side weight in these cars and the tire because, we shouldn't be blowing out tires in practice like that," Busch added.

Nevertheless, Busch is optimistic he and his team will get the car handling and make a run to the front, even though the driver is a bit uncomfortable from Thursday's wreck.

"I feel sore but I feel great, because I have a good team behind me," Busch said. "We got the mirrors adjusted, I think we got our seatbelts right. The throttle pedal hopefully we can adjust [Saturday]. ... The real tough part though is [Saturday] when the race starts ... the first set of tires on, that's when really things are going to rub and move around on you, so we have to survive that. Once we do that we might move forward."

Car aside, Busch has every reason to remain hopeful as Daytona is a track he knows well with seven top-five finishes in 15 starts. And Busch has finished second three times (read more).

Last week's winner at rain-shortened New Hampshire, Busch is 18th in the standings, 222 points out of 12th place.