BUSCH’S STRONG ATLANTA RUN FOILED BY INCIDENT ON RESTART
-Three-Wide Racing Sees Miller Lite Dodge Forced Into Outside Wall & Relegated To 37th-

HAMPTON, Ga. (March 20, 2006) – Miller Lite Dodge driver Kurt Busch looked to have a car capable of winning today’s rain-delayed Golden Corral 500 here at Atlanta Motor Speedway, before an incident on Lap 126 claimed the competitive strength shown earlier in the race.

            Busch started today’s race in the ninth spot, but wasted little time making his way to the front.  He was third after 20 laps and in second after 27 circuits.  A 12.755-second pit stop under the second caution period of the day helped put him into the lead for the Lap 48 restart.  Busch would go on to lead on three occasions for a total of 22 laps.

            The No. 2 Dodge Charger was a fixture among the top three through the fourth caution period of the race.  However, while running third after the Lap 126 restart, Busch got booted into the fourth-turn wall while running three abreast.

            After the impact, Busch limped around the track, hoping to get a caution to work on the car under yellow.  That break never came and he was forced to pit under green on Lap 154.  Adding insult to injury, the fifth yellow flag of the race flew only 10 laps later.  Busch fell to 38th in the running order and was four laps down to then-leader Tony Stewart. 

            The remainder of the race saw the Miller Lite Dodge running at a middle-of-the-pack pace and unable to make up the lost ground.  With such a low attrition rate, one that saw only two cars retired to the garage area at the end of the race, Busch and his Roy McCauley-led team could muster only a 37th-place finish for today’s effort.

            “That was such a shame and it’s pretty hard to take,” Busch said, when he had cooled off after the race.  “I really didn’t know exactly what happened there, except that the 29 car (Kevin Harvick) just ran over me and put me into the wall.  It just took us out of the thing.  My spotter (Jeremy Brickhouse) later came over the radio and explained that the 40 car (David Stremme) stacked it three-wide by getting under Harvick.  He ran into Harvick and Harvick ran into me.

            “Regardless, that’s such an unnecessary deal right there,” Busch continued.   “We had a car that could have won here today – at worst, a top-five car – and here we are with another terrible finish.  It’s so disappointing.”

            Up front, it was pole-winning Kasey Kahne driving his Dodge Charger to his second career win and the first here by a Dodge driver since Richard Petty won in 1977.

            With the final 57 laps run under the green, several drivers were forced to pit near the end of the race, relegating them back in the finishing order.  At the finish, it was Kahne winning by 1.874 seconds over Mark Martin.  Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished third, with Jeff Gordon fourth and Tony Stewart fifth.  Jimmie Johnson, Paul Menard, Kyle Petty, Dale Jarrett and rookie Reed Sorenson rounded out today’s top-10 finishers.

            After four races, Johnson leads Kahne by 50 points in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup point standings, 690 to 640.  Matt Kenseth is third with 612, Martin fourth with 600 and Casey Mears fifth with 554.  Busch is 27th in the standings with 354 points.

            The series now heads to Bristol Motor Speedway for the first short-track race of the 2006 season.  Practice and qualifying is set for Friday, with the Food City 500 scheduled to begin at 2:00 p.m. EST on Sunday.

            “Man, hopefully we’ll have a lot better luck at Bristol,” said Busch, who won his first career Cup race there in 2002 and has four career Bristol victories entering this weekend.  “Bristol has been a great place for us when we needed it most.  It’s my favorite track of them all.  We’ll just get up there and do all we can to get the great finish this team is capable of.”

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