by KURT BUSCH, Special to FOXSports.com

Looking Back at the Coca-Cola 600

After qualifying eighth on Thursday night, we worked on getting our Miller Lite Dodge in race trim on Saturday's two practice sessions. Our goal was getting the car neutral going into the race. We didn't want the car too much on the loose side or too much on the tight side. With the race starting as the sun goes down and ending late into the night, the track continuously changes, so we wanted our race setup to be really adjustable.

We did a pretty good job with our adjustments on Saturday and had a strong car at the beginning of the race at Lowe's Motor Speedway on Sunday. We were a little bit on the loose side from the drop of the green flag, but we made steady progress.

We ran a full green fuel run before pit stops were the order. We'd hoped to stay out a lap longer than the others to lead a lap, but decided to play it safe and not chance running out of gas. When the stops cycled around, we were up to fourth.

Robby Gordon smacked the wall and the debris off his car brought out the first yellow flag. We pitted for fuel only and restarted second behind Jimmie Johnson on Lap 66. There were several lapped cars on the inside lane up front. I was able to get around Jimmie for the lead and distance myself from the lapped cars.

The car was tight on entry and loose when I picked up the throttle. I was really driving the car with the throttle as the car continued to get looser. We continued to lead the race at 100 laps on the board.

Another round of green-flag stops came up and we hit pit road on Lap 120 for four tires and fuel. With the track changing lap after lap, we decided to leave the air pressures alone. When the stops cycled around, we were running second to Brian Vickers, but we worked our way around him and back into the lead again after a few laps.

Around the track

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The loose condition on exit was really slowing us down and the 83 got back around us for the lead about 10 laps later. We were running a strong second about 30 laps into that run when the right-front tire blew and we plastered the right-side of the car into the wall. We brought out the yellow and managed to get the car back down pit road.

The guys did a great job in getting the sheet metal bent back out and the toe adjusted. We pitted lap after lap under the yellow to make the adjustments and remain on the lead lap. Chris Osborne, our new spotter, did a great job in letting us know where the leaders were and buying us all the time we could get on pit road.

We were able to get back out and remained in the lead lap, but the chances for a win, a top-five or even a top-10 finish went down the tubes with the blown tire and the crash. We had something in the suspension bent and the car drove like it was bound up for the remainder of the race.

About halfway through the race, there was a chain-reaction type deal on a restart and we broke our splitter on the right side. We had to change it and that set us further behind. We caught a lucky break a little later on when we ran over what we think was a brake rotor on the backstretch, but the caution came out the next lap and we were able to pit for new tires under the yellow.

Even though we took the spring rubbers out of the right rear, the car just continued to get unbelievably tight. We hovered back there around 20th and managed to get back to 16th at the finish. Like most of the others, we had to pit during the final few laps for a splash of fuel to make it to the end. A couple of guys, specifically Jeff Gordon and the Dale Earnhardt Jr. were able to stretch their fuel and they got top-five finishes out of it.

It was quite alarming to see all the tire problems during the race. It was almost like all the guys who led blew tires and hit the wall. I know it happened to us, the 83 and the 88.

It was disappointing to have had a car that strong for much of the race and not get a better finish than 16th out of it, but I guess it could have been worse. At least we were able to finish on the lead lap. Some of the other guys who had tire problems weren't that fortunate.

I have to look at how strong we ran in the Darlington race and how strong we were on Sunday in the 600 and think that we are making some progress.

Dover expectations and a look back at 2007

There are 12 races in the record books and 14 to go until we decide who makes the championship Chase for 2008 and who is left out. We may be back in 21st in the points and 250 out of 12th, but there's still a lot of time between now and September at Richmond to get back up there.

There's plenty of time left, so we're not flipping out or getting all bent out of shape. We're smart enough to know that there is so much that can change between now and then. There will be guys falling out of the top-12 and other guys moving in many times between now and then. Just look at our season last year. We went from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows and back to the highest of highs during those 14 races.

It was a definite rollercoaster ride for us, that's for sure. We were in the Chase, out of the Chase and even hit rock bottom before bouncing back in pretty impressive fashion to make the cutoff at Richmond. Like I said, it's absolutely amazing what all can happen in 14 races. We were a textbook case of that being true during the season last year.

We were about 250 points out of 12th entering the July Daytona race last year and we were able to make it up. So we have several more races to work with this time around to make up the deficit.

We did it the hardest way possible last year. We're hoping that we can go after it on a different route this year. Our goal is to start consistently cutting into that deficit during the next few races and work our way back on up the ladder. We don't want to have to pull out another "Hail Mary performance" like we did last year in making the Chase. We've been running stronger over the last few races and hopefully we're starting to turn the curve on getting these new cars figured out.

Busch at Dover

Kurt Busch Penske Racing Past performances at Dover

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Starts	Wins	Top fives	Top 10s	Laps led
15	0	2	4	225

The great thing for our team is that we're heading into the part of the schedule where we normally start picking up a lot of steam. After Dover, we go to tracks like Pocono, Michigan and others before we head back down to Daytona. It can definitely be the strong stretch of races that we need to get back up there in the thick of things.

And going into Dover again, I know that there will be a lot of talk about what happened there last year in this race between Tony Stewart and me.

Man, I look back now and it seems like that June Dover race last year was light-years ago. It was a situation of two drivers racing extremely hard, probably too hard at that point in the race. It was a situation of no give-and-take like we should have been doing. After I got crashed, I just let my emotions take over and I know I shouldn't have let that happen. That was definitely a bonehead move I pulled on pit road, I'll admit that. But every time I've seen the video, the theatrics always seem to make the situation even worse than it probably was.

We learned from the experience, for sure, but it's a thrill to look back and see how far our team was able to go after it happened. I look back on that race now and I have to point to it as a major turning point for our season last year. It was a perfect example of, 'We've got to get it in gear and we've got to make this Chase.' It was like a kick in the pants that put us on a pretty amazing stretch of races to make the Chase. It feels like an eternity ago that it did happen because of all the good things that happened during the remainder of the season.

So, we're coming into Dover hoping to get our big summer run off to an earlier start this year. We raced the new car in both races there last season. We were running fourth in the spring race when we got crashed. We were running fourth at Dover in the fall race when I cut down a tire and smacked the wall out of Turn 2 with only 15 laps remaining in the race.

We're hoping to be around for the finish of Sunday's race. We'll exercise a lot more patience this time around and focus on getting us a solid top-five finish. That would be a great way to kick off the stretch of races that takes us back to Pocono, Michigan, Sonoma, Loudon and Daytona.

Off The Track: A very busy couple of weeks

I guess to say that the last couple of weeks have been a very busy time would be an understatement. We've been so busy keeping up with everything that there's been little free time at all. We tested down at Road Atlanta last week and we're completing the two days of testing here at Pocono as I am finishing this blog during the lunch break.

We haven't had the chance to write in a couple of weeks so there were a couple of things I felt like we had to mention. A week ago Tuesday, we had the official grand opening of the Kurt Busch Superdome at the Victory Junction Gang Camp. Of course the Petty Family members were all there, but I was so pleased that my teammates at Penske Racing, Ryan Newman and Sam Hornish Jr., both came over for the event.

It was a very special day for Eva and me. We had a whole group of kids there with many of the volunteers and we played a game of kickball. It was so much fun. Just to see all those kids in there smiling like they were made it all worthwhile in my mind.

We're going to be doing some more fundraisers for the Kurt Busch Foundation again this year and the first one scheduled is June 11 at Chicagoland Speedway. We've added a little twist to it this season in that I'm inviting a special guest driver to come and help me out. For Chicago, I'm pleased that Mark Martin will be joining me for the event. I've always respected Mark as much as any driver I have ever known and I am thrilled that he agreed to be there. I know that the fans will get an extra kick out of Mark being there and it will certainly add to the excitement for the day. For complete information and to purchase one of the exciting experiences, I urge you to visit my website, www.kurtbusch.com.

There was so much off-track stuff going on last weekend that it was pretty mind-boggling. We had our fan appreciation day at the shop on Friday and I commend the Penske Racing staff for having everything really organized. The Sirius radio guys did their morning show live from the shop and Ryan, Sam and I signed autographs for the fans. We did our annual visit to Speed Street in Downtown Charlotte later on that night and fit in an appearance at the Wal-Mart in Concord in between.

There was a lot of hustle and bustle that went on behind the scenes over the last couple of weeks, but it was awful nice to be able to spend that much time at home and sleeping in our own beds.

Now it's back out on the road again. Like I said earlier, our goal is to start consistently cutting into the points deficit and work our way on back up. The best way to do that is to lay a string of top-10 and top-five finishes together. The race at Dover this Sunday is our first opportunity to get it started.

Thanks for the time and for giving us a read. Hopefully, we can come back next week and reflect on a successful weekend of racing at Dover.

Until then ...