Busch strong at Michigan, eyes upcoming stretch

BROOKLYN, Mich. -- With another solid finish in Sunday's Heluva Good! 400 at Michigan International Speedway, it appears that Kurt Busch has intermediate tracks all figured out. That's the good news.

The bad news? Of the next seven circuits on the Sprint Cup schedule, only one -- Chicagoland -- could be considered similar to Michigan. And every time it seems that Busch and the No. 2 Dodge team have gotten some momentum, something unexpected happens.

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Kurt Busch talks about his third-place finish and the importance of the summer stretch.

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"We've got to find some more consistency, you're right," Busch said after his third-place finish. "There's a couple tracks coming up in the summer months that we're looking at. Then there's some we feel very comfortable going into.

"It's been an interesting year for us. Tracks that I've struggled on in the past we've done really well. Tracks that we've expected to do well on we've struggled. So I just feel like once we turn the corner on finding a consistent setup for us week in and week out, then we'll be stronger."

After winning at Atlanta and finishing third at Bristol, Busch had back-to-back disappointments at Martinsville and Phoenix. A return to the intermediate surface at Texas resulted in a fourth-place finish, but then came struggles at Richmond and Dover.

Charlotte was the perfect antidote for Busch's short-track ailment, as he led 252 laps en route to the victory in the Coca-Cola 600. And a sixth-place finish at Pocono, followed by third at Michigan, has him fourth in the points. That's 118 behind Kevin Harvick, heading into the most varied portion of the schedule.

"Right now, with the variety of race tracks coming up, we're going to see the different strengths of all the teams coming up here," Busch said. "Because we've got a road course [Infineon], a flat, 1-mile oval [New Hampshire], Daytona -- [a] superspeedway, restrictor-plate race -- then a mile-and-a-half like Chicago, then we have a week off.

"That's the chunk of the schedule I'm looking at next. [A] variety of tracks coming up are going to show some of the strengths of the teams." (Continued)