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Time for Busch to question his future at Penske
by Jeff Owens, NASCAR Scene, Special to FOXSports.com
Ordinal out of range
Busch hasn't done a lot of passing this season, not since he pushed teammate Ryan Newman to a dramatic victory in the Daytona 500.
And the fact that he didn't have to pass any cars to score an improbable win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday is a telltale sign of how far his team has fallen.
Kurt Busch used to win races the same way his little brother does — by running away from the competition, or flat-out running them down. And if he needed to use his bumper occasionally, he excelled at that, too.
Lately, Kurt Busch hasn't gotten close enough to anyone to use his bumper. Instead, he has had to resort to pit strategy and fuel mileage to win races.
In fact, until Sunday, this season has been the most dismal campaign Busch has experienced since his rookie year and has provided further evidence that he made a bad move leaving Roush Fenway Racing to join Penske Racing.
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In five seasons with Roush, Busch won 14 races and the 2004 championship. In two-and-a-half seasons with Penske, he has four wins and has finished 16th and seventh in points.
He missed the Chase in 2006, rallied to make it last year, and will almost certainly miss it again this season (he is 18th in points with just three top-10 finishes).
That is not what one of NASCAR's most talented drivers expected when he left one of the sport's top teams to join noted car owner and entrepreneur Roger Penske.
Except for a brief streak last summer that included two wins, Busch's tenure with Penske has been one long struggle.
Sunday's fuel-mileage win in the rain-shortened race at New Hampshire produced a brief respite, but it was in no way an indication that things are suddenly well at Penske and that the organization is about to turn things around.
In fact, teammate Ryan Newman is about at the end of his rope with the beleaguered organization.
Before Busch came on board, Newman was the team's big winner and one of the hottest young drivers in the sport, winning a series-high eight races in 2003 and finishing sixth in points three times.
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He has just two wins in the past four years, however, and has missed the Chase the past two years. Despite his stirring win in the Daytona 500, he is headed for his third straight season outside championship contention.
Newman's frustration reached a fever pitch recently when he declared that he would not return to the team next year unless its performance improved. In the final year of his contract, he is getting plenty of attention from other teams and will almost certainly land a lucrative ride somewhere else if he wants it.
The fact that he scored a win Sunday will likely keep Busch calm for a while and prevent him from following Newman to greener pastures. But it's time for him, too, to start asking serious questions about his future at Penske Racing.
Roger Penske, one of the winningest team owners in Indy car history, once fielded one of the most successful teams in NASCAR, with Rusty Wallace dominating the circuit in 1993-94 and winning consistently throughout the '90s.
As Wallace began to fade into the twilight of his career, along came Newman to rekindle the torch. From 2002-2004, it looked like Newman would rival Jimmie Johnson to see who would become the sport's next great star.
Unfortunately for Newman, we know how that story turned out.
Busch was supposed to be the savior, the driver who was supposed to replace the retiring Wallace and return the organization to its glory days.
So far, the results have been mediocre at best, with the two drivers combining for just five wins in the past three years. That pales in comparison to the numbers compiled by such top teams as Hendrick Motorsports (29 wins), Joe Gibbs Racing (17), Roush Fenway Racing (16) and Richard Childress Racing (11) during the same period.
Penkse has two wins this season, including the coveted Daytona 500 for the first time, but its overall performance is not what is expected from one of racing's most prolific team owners.
And it's not what drivers the caliber of Busch and Newman expect.
Sunday's win was a credit to Busch crew chief Pat Tryson and his clever crew and provided a bit of relief for a team under the gun.
But if the team owner known as "The Captain" wants to keep attracting NASCAR's top talent, he needs to right his ship in a hurry.
Jeff Owens is a writer for NASCAR Scene, which is published weekly, 50 weeks per year. Visit www.scenedaily.com for more information. © 2007 Street & Smith Sports Group
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