Great Start Carries Kurt... But How Far?

Just over a year ago it was announced that several changes were in the works for NASCAR’s Penske Racing. First it became known that owner Roger Penske, due to lack of full-time sponsorships, was going to be forced to race two rather than three Cup teams in 2011 and he was also doing away with one of his two Nationwide Series’ teams as well. Sam Hornish Jr. and Justin Allgaier were to lose their rides.

Not long after those announcements were made good news came from the Penske camp. Kurt Busch had signed a new, long-term driving contract and a new, powerful sponsor that Roger Penske had partnered with in his Indy teams over the years was coming back on board. Yes, Kurt was going to give up his sponsor for the past few years (Miller Lite and the blue two), and yes, he was moving on to a new Shell / Pennzoil sponsored car with a completely new “hot” color scheme and double deuces on it’s sides and roof, but from all appearances everything was going swimmingly well. It was thumbs up and smiling faces all around…

The 2011 Cup racing season began last February with Kurt, like a sleek greyhound, springing into the lead. He was off and running putting together wins in both the Shootout (Without a teammate, he teamed up with Jamie McMurray and took the win) and the Duel (Regan Smith helped push Kurt to victory) putting him in the front row for the start of the Daytona 500. He backed up his Speedweek prowess by running at or near the front of the 500 trying to put a bow on the Daytona Trifecta, but a late-race wreck ended those hopes. It didn’t phase Busch, who led 19 laps of the Daytona 500 and finished fifth. A rejuvenated Kurt began an all-out assault on the Cup Series driving Penske Racing’s yellow and hot red flaming Dodge Charger. He was in the top ten in Phoenix, Las Vegas and Bristol. Four races, four top tens and Kurt was first in the Chase. Not too shabby!

The Cup Series tour went back west to Fontana where a 17th place finish did little to tarnish the early luster on Kurt’s season. Penske’s Double Deuce Dodge team was
off to Martinsville full of purpose but a bad handling setup put Kurt down a lap early forcing him to play the lucky dog game finally ending 16th on what could have been a very bad day. Kurt had fallen to fourth place in the Chase through 6 races.

Texas saw Kurt make a short-term comeback as he finished with his fifth top ten of the year but the recovery was short lived as Talladega turned into a nightmare. It seemed like every time there was an accident during the Aaron’s 499 Kurt looked to be responsible. Having been involved in three mishaps on the afternoon, Kurt still had the Dodge Charger in position to challenge for the win when a green flag pit problem late in the race took him out of contention, finishing 18th.

Richmond never was a track that Kurt ran well on, in fact his 22nd place finish exactly equaled his 21 race average on the ¾ mile oval, but something certainly tipped over the high strung driver last Saturday night. Qualifying in 36th place most certainly contributed to what was bothering Kurt. I’m sure he was frustrated with a car that evidently didn’t respond to any of the changes the Penske team tried to make it competitive.

Here are some post-race comments made after a public off-color radio tirade Kurt unleashed at his Penske team in general and Penske technical director Tom German in particular… "It was a very frustrating and long night for us. We put ourselves behind in qualifying and had to start from the back. Once the race went green, our car just wore through tires by 40 laps into a run. We never could get back on the lead lap and just when I thought that our car was getting better, we got collected after the 42 (Juan Montoya) and 39 (Ryan Newman) got together.
“We probably had the strongest car running laps down at the end, but when you get more than one lap down; your day is pretty much done. That was certainly the case for us here tonight. We just weren't very good tonight."

Even with 17th, 16th, 10th, 18th and 22nd place finishes in his last five Cup races respectively, Kurt remains sixth in the Cup Chase…

Kurt's latest tirade makes me wonder about a couple of things… I wonder how much his younger brother’s success is wearing on Kurt on one hand, and then I have to wonder how much it bothers Kurt that Kyle is evidently having success on cleaning up his act too, while Kurt can’t seem to control himself…

Is the use of hard language such a big deal in this day and age? Will Shell / Pennzoil have something to say? Will Roger be forced to step in?