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The Hot Pass: Busch brothers find way up front

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Lee Spencer

Lee Spencer is the senior NASCAR writer for FOXSports.com. She has provided award-winning coverage of auto racing over the last 15 years. Spencer has lent her expertise to both television and radio and is a regular contributor to SiriusXM Radio and the Performance Racing Network.

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Updated Feb 28, 2009 10:14 AM ET
     
 

LAS VEGAS

It was a dream scenario, the two hometown Busch brothers starting 1-2 in Sunday's Shelby 427 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. And while things shook out that way in qualifying Friday, Las Vegas natives will have to wait another year as younger brother Kyle, who claimed the pole, will have to drop to the rear of the field after switching engines earlier in the day.

Looking back

Kyle Busch
Kyle Busch
Joe Gibbs Racing
Cup career at a glance
Starts
Wins
Top fives
Top 10s
Poles
152
12
48
73
4
The No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota will start from the rear of the field with four other TRD-powered Camrys (Nos. 00, 47, 82, 83) which suffered similar engine issues to last week's component problem in California. "I wish we were starting up front so maybe we could get five bonus points early, but unfortunately that's not the case," said Busch, who won his fifth career pole with a track record breaking lap of 185.995 mph. "We'll have to battle on through there and pass everybody if we can and get there eventually during the day. The big check comes after the leader of the last lap, not the first lap." Kurt Busch will maintain the second-qualifying position, but after Kyle Busch drops to the back the inside line with third-place starter Jimmie Johnson will move up for the green flag. Regardless of semantics, it's the first time two brothers have qualified on the front row for a race since Rusty and Kenny Wallace at Martinsville Speedway in 2000. It's an honor not lost on Kurt Busch — particularly in his native Las Vegas. "This is our hometown," Busch said. "Kyle and I grew up watching this place being built, grew up watching races here. It's definitely just as prestigious for the Busch brothers here in Vegas as it would be for Tony (Stewart) in Indy for sure." For Busch the elder, who won the first Chase for the Cup championship in 2004, the transition from Roush Fenway Racing to Penske Racing has not been as smooth as planned. In the three years since switching teams, he has only added four wins to his career total (he had 14 in six years at Roush). Also, Busch has qualified just once for the Chase since joining Penske and finished 18th in points last season, the worse result since his rookie year. Without testing this winter, Busch had plenty of time to reflect on 2008. In a season where he won just one event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, his brother Kyle was smoking the competition by scoring a career high eight races. Shrubby needs just six victories to catch his older brother in the win column. Certainly, sibling rivalry adds to the complexity of Kurt Busch's struggles.

Looking back

Kurt Busch
Kurt Busch
Penske Racing
Cup career at a glance
Starts
Wins
Top fives
Top 10s
Poles
294
18
62
117
10
So in addition to assessing his own abilities, he evaluated everything including "handling, down force, horsepower, pit crew, communication between the race track guys and the guys back at the shop and the shock department with shock rubbers." The effort has paid off. Busch's qualifying has improved dramatically this season with an average starting position of 6.3 in the first three races. The last time Busch sat on the front row was in Dover last June. His finishes of 10th and fifth at Daytona and California, respectively, currently have Busch sitting third in the point standings. While it's still quite early in the season, momentum exists for the No. 2 Penske Dodge.
"I tried to get involved with everybody," Busch said. "I feel like it was a learning process of trying to understand who I needed to talk to and how I needed to make it happen and push people into offices and make them communicate harder and work more diligently. And so, it just felt like a challenge to me to just get this thing going. "We did good during some of the Chase races. We finished third at Charlotte and second at Phoenix. We were really just at the race track throwing darts at the dart board trying different setups, hoping that once we decided what were good setups versus bad, then we'd start working off of those good ones this season. So far, that's how it's turned out. It's just having a vision and a plan and sometimes it comes together and sometimes it doesn't. We'll just have to keep working harder and working smarter."

Montoya not scared of "Big Four"

If anyone thinks NASCAR's Sprint Cup garage is about the Sweet 16 — Roush Fenway Racing, Rick Hendrick Racing, Richard Childress Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing — it's time to recalculate. Not only are there 16 teams among these company's rosters, but factor in the two cars apiece at Yates Racing Stewart-Haas Racing and Furniture Row Racing (all of whom have some form of alliance with the "Big Four") and suddenly 22 teams — or half the field — have ties to the uber operations. Althought Earnhardt Ganassi Racing shares an engine partnership with RCR, 23rd-place qualifier Juan Pablo Montoya understands he must still be as strong or better than those with "Big" connections to have a shot at winning on Sunday. "I feel that we have the potential to start getting in there and having several wins and running better," Montoya said. "One team on the one side has four cars, plus two, you look at Stewart as being pretty much a full Hendrick deal so that makes six cars. "You look at the other side Roush has five cars plus another two, the Yates deal. You know, if all those cars finish ahead of you, you are already 16th. If you just put the Hendrick and the Roush and you finish right behind them, you are 10th. So it makes it hard, but I think we are doing the job we have to." Coming from the Formula One ranks, Montoya understands that a thousandth of a second separates those on the podium and the field. For the only remaining Chip Ganassi racer, aligning with Dale Earnhardt Inc. at the end of last season has provided Montoya with a veteran stock car teammate in Martin Truex Jr. Montoya never had a fellow winning driver at Ganassi Racing to use as a sounding board. The EGR package also includes an instant bond between Truex' crew chief Bono Manion and Montoya's crew chief Brian Pattie, who are longtime friends. With Montoya off to a career-best average start of 15.3 and an average finish of 12.5, the early results have been promising, but there's still areas that need improvement. "I think the performance is getting better," Montoya said. "I think we are decent everywhere. I think we can run top 10 every week, it feels like we are right there. We just need a little bit more speed out of the car. It is not much. I think we are in position, we need a little bit more to run top-five. We don't really need that much. "It is like you can run with them, but you have to have better pit stops, everything has got to work together just a little bit better."

Getting a grip

After NASCAR introduced the Car of Tomorrow at Las Vegas Motor Speedway last season, Goodyear went to work to improve the tire combination for the track and offer greater grip. Tenth-place qualifier Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon, who will roll off 28th on Sunday, both experienced tire issues last year at LVMS. Stewart called the crash, which happened in Turn 3, "the hardest one (he'd) taken in a long time" and said the impact left his "lower back sore and made (his) legs almost feel about half-numb and just tingle until we got to the infield care center". But on Friday, Stewart was quite complimentary of the new tires. "It's good so far," Stewart said following practice. "The good thing is we're not hardly seeing any wear right now. Obviously, we'll have a better idea tomorrow when we run. "We definitely have more grip. Last year — and the year before — it felt like you had to run two or three times before you got the grip in the tire. This one it feels like as soon as you go out, you've got grip. The second run seems to be better but it doesn't feel like you have to hold your breath, so it's really nice." Jimmie Johnson, who has won this race three times, believes the stability and comfort level of the new tire will encourage teams to gamble on two tire stops. "The more you ran on the tire the faster it was," said Johnson, who qualified third Friday. "All indications are showing it's a good tire."
Tagged: Juan Pablo Montoya, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Martin Truex Jr.

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