August 6, 2007
By Ron Felix

Busch Celebrates * CIA Stock Photo

Kurt Busch was in the zone at Pocono Raceway on Sunday, leading the race seven for 175 of the 200 laps. It was total domination and the rest field was running for second place. It was a long time coming for Busch and his Penske No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge. Busch's last victory came at Bristol Motor Speedway in March of 2006, 51 races ago. It was the 16th career win in 241 races for Busch and he won the battle of the beer cars.

Busch made a reference to Rusty Wallace in Victory Lane, who used to drive the No. 2 car. Busch called it a “Rusty Wallace kind of day.”

“I always watched him as a kid. The guy was fast, and he let you know he was fast, and today I didn’t look up in my mirror all that often. I just kept hitting my marks (on the track) and kept digging,” said Busch. “You always keep hunkered down and bear down. That’s what we did today.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who sat on the pole for the Pennsylvania 500, finished second after an up and down day. Earnhardt ran in the top-three for the first 30 laps despite complaints about the handling of the No. 8 Chevrolet. After several adjustments during pit stops, the car continued to be a handful for Earnhardt, as he struggled to get the car to turn down into each of Pocono's three odd and distinct corners. Despite a less-than-happy driver, the lap times and pit stops remained quick, and the team held their place in the top-five until the car worsened just past the halfway point of the race.

The handling became so bad, Dale Jr. believed he had a flat tire and spun on his way to pit lane on lap 123. The team changed tires, then brought him back to the pit lane to change the left-front shock absorber. The dramatic change showed immediate results, as Junior launched himself from 26th place to 13th place in only nine laps, and then improved further when the team made a strategic move, changing only two tires on a lap 139 pit stop. Dale Jr. restarted third on lap 142, and needed only three laps to sweep into the lead. It was the first time the No. 8 Bud car had led at Pocono since July, 2003. Even though Kurt Busch was able to get around Dale Jr. for the lead, the Bud car remained fast and held the second position to the finish line.

"I'm thrilled. It's great to come home with such a great finish after we started the day with a crazy set of front shocks," said Earnhardt. (Crew chief) Tony (Eury) Jr. and the guys made a great call to change that shock. That's a helluva job right there. The car was traveling (up and down) too much in the corners, and it was bouncing all over the place. It was terrible and I was a pretty angry and frustrated driver the first half of the race. But, once we made the change - and didn't lose a lap - we were great. The car really responded and I was really happy we were able to show our speed. We were a top-five car easily but we busted our (butts) to get the track position and hang onto second place."

Earnhardt dropped out of the top twelve in the race for the "Chase for the Championship". Earnhardt trails the leader Jeff Gordon by 844 but is only 7 points behind Kurt Busch, who took over the 12th and final transfer spot.

"We're not worried about the point standings - I'm driving as hard as I can every lap," Earnhardt continued. "If we all work as hard as we can, where we finish, we finish. We're way better than a 13th-place team, we've just had bad luck all year. My guys really deserve this finish because we've been a top-five car almost every week but we were falling victim to engine failures and things like that. We finally had a chance to make it to the finish to prove it. I can't worry about finishing behind the #2 car (Kurt Busch). They were just too good today - far faster than anyone else. You follow him and you just hope to see some smoke coming outta his car, ya know?! No one was going to catch him so you kind of sit back there and hope something happens. I really drove the last 50 laps in the mirror, watching the cars behind me and hangin' onto second."

"I feel like a newborn," Busch said, referring to his resurgence in the point standings. "I'm ready to run for the Chase."

Pre-race favorite Denny Hamlin didn't have the performance that he had when he dominated both races in 2006 -- but still managed to finish in the third spot.

"I was going as hard as I could go," said Hamlin. "There's no way I was going to catch the No. 2 (Kurt Busch) or anything else. Yeah, I had the mindset that, I can maybe crash trying to win, you know, and afford it. But still you don't want to do that because you don't want to tear up race cars that you're going to need in the Chase and you don't want to get the guy's morale down. You still need good solid runs."

Points leader Jeff Gordon brought his Chevrolet home in fourth followed by teammate Jimmie Johnson, the winner of the past two races Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman, Clint Bowyer, Mark Martin and Casey Mears to round out the top ten.

"Considering we started 24th and ended up sixth, I don't think is too bad a run," said Stewart, who had a two race win streak broken. "I Should've started better than that, obviously, but a decent finish nonetheless".

With Gordon finishing fourth, he still leads Hamlin by 366 points and Matt Kenseth by 411 points in the Nextel Cup standings.

"That No. 2 car was just in a league of its own today," Gordon said. "I don't know what they have got figured out, but man, they have it seriously figured out and we are going to have to play some catch up."

The Dodge victory was only the second one for the auto maker this year. Juan Pablo Montoya also won in a Dodge at Infineon.

Juan Pablo Montoya finished 16th on Sunday and took Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the 10th time this season.

“It was okay. The car was okay," said Montoya. "We’re struggling needing a little bit of horsepower. That’s where we are, we just need to make it better over the next few races.”

The Nextel Cup Series will move to Watkins Glen International next Sunday, August 12th, for the Centurion Boats at The Glen.

For full final race results...     (Insider Racing News)
For top-40 Nextel Cup drivers points...     (Insider Racing News)