by Rea White, NASCAR Scene, Special to FOXSports.com

Ordinal out of range

With Penske crew chief Pat Tryson, Busch has been an increasingly consistent performer this season. After a sixth-place finish Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway — his third consecutive top-10 finish and sixth of the season — Busch has snared the coveted points lead.

"That's such a good solid effort ... to be eighth (three) weeks ago, a third and then a sixth (at Talladega)," Busch said. "That's what we have to do."

And doing that has put him in charge of the early race to make this year's field of 12 for the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

It's the first time Busch has been even close to the top in recent history. He last led the points in March 2005.

Once viewed as a perennial contender for wins and titles, Busch has endured a couple of heartbreaking and frustrating seasons. He and Tryson have worked diligently to get things in order in Penske land, committing to the new Dodge engine and continually working on ways to get more speed out of NASCAR's new-model Cup car.

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Clearly, they felt they hit upon something late last year. They entered the season brimming with confidence that things would go better this time.

It's difficult to imagine what 2008 must have been like for the pair of intense competitors.

Often touted by NASCAR's best as one of the more talented drivers in the series, Busch came out of the gate hot last season. He pushed then-teammate Ryan Newman to victory in the season-opening Daytona 500 and then was 13th the following week. He was still fourth in the standings at that point, but by the season's sixth race he had fallen out of the top 12 — and he would never return to that Chase-contending group in 2008. He dipped to a low of 25th in the standings.

Now, those days must seem like a distant memory.

For the last three weeks, Busch has been questioned about his renewed success. All along, he has both pointed out the work that went into the improvement — and shared the glory with his team members.

"It's a lot of hard word that has been put in over the offseason in all areas of our team ... engine department, aero, the motor guys and my guys here at the race track that jump over the wall and work on the cars," he says. "Just everywhere you look, I think that we've improved, and that's what's helped us."

That became readily apparent when he won the season's fourth race, at Atlanta, and has drawn attention again with his ascension into the points lead.

This is a particularly good stretch for Busch to be finding success in as well.

Drivers are always looking down the road, keeping at least a casual awareness of both the standings and of how those tracks that will factor into the championship battle later in the year are working for them. Busch has fared well at most of those tracks. While he finished 18th at Martinsville, he was third at Phoenix and sixth at Talladega. Next up, in terms of tracks that will impact the Chase field and then host Chase races, are Richmond, Lowe's Motor Speedway and Dover.

"Richmond is critical because it'll be the cutoff race the next time it comes around," Busch says. "While we hope for more wins and solid top-five and top-10 finishes at those tracks, equally important — maybe even more important — is to use those races to prepare for the second time around.

"With the 'no-testing rule' this year, we'll be trying to accumulate all the data and notes that we can during the first trip to all these tracks and be as prepared as possible when we return this fall. I've always looked at it as if we run two different seasons out there each year. There are the first 26 races and the battle to make the Chase, and then there's the 10-race Chase itself."

So far, things are going well for Busch and his team.

Now he heads to a track, Richmond International Raceway, where he feels comfortable, a place where he thinks he can extend that streak. Regardless of how this weekend unfolds, it is clear confidence — and commitment to teamwork — are high in this group.

"Kurt has been driving the wheels off the cars, and we've been able to put some really strong equipment out there this season," Tryson says. "The new Dodge engines have been strong and durable, and our pit crew has been awesome overall.

"We have a ton of momentum heading into this weekend, and our goal for the weekend is to keep that going."

Rea White is a writer for NASCAR Scene, which is published weekly, 46 weeks per year. Visit www.scenedaily.com for more information.