KURT BUSCH STARTING MILLER LITE DODGE SIXTH AT LAS VEGAS
-Anticipating Adverse Weather On Saturday, McCauley-Led Team Focuses On Race Setup-

LAS VEGAS (March 10, 2006) – For the first hour of today’s 90-minute practice session leading up to qualifying for Sunday’s UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 here at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Miller Lite Dodge driver Kurt Busch didn’t even show up among the 20 fastest competitors.

            No reason to be alarmed.  It was all part of crew chief Roy McCauley’s game plan in preparing for Sunday’s race here on this 1.5-mile track. 

            When the afternoon was over, Busch had earned the sixth starting spot for the race and the entire team departed the garage area with broad smiles on their faces.

            “We’re ready for Sunday, regardless of what happens here tomorrow,” a jovial Busch said, after posting a lap of 171.027 mph (31.574 seconds) to claim the third-row-outside starting spot for Sunday’s race.  “We worked on our race setup for at least 50 percent of the practice – probably a whole lot more.  Roy has been looking at the forecast here for tomorrow and it doesn’t look very good.

            “When we finally did do our mock qualifying run, we ran a (31.) 64 and that was second-fastest at the time.  We wound up seventh overall in practice and picked it up almost a tenth (of a second) when we went out to qualify.

            “Regardless of what the weather gives us here tomorrow – whether that 80 percent rain chance comes true or not – Roy made a great call here today for us to focus so much time on the race trim for Sunday.  Even if we do get to practice tomorrow, it’ll only mean that we can have additional track time to get the car even better.”

            Greg Biffle, the 31st of 49 drivers who made qualifying runs, turned in a fast lap of 172.403 mph (31.322 seconds) to knock defending NEXTEL Cup champ Tony Stewart (172.068 mph/31.383 seconds) off the pole and claim the second pole of his 117-race career.  Current points leader Jimmie Johnson starts third after turning in a lap of 171.597 mph.  Kurt’s younger brother, Kyle, starts fourth, with Kasey Kahne fifth.  Starting behind Kurt and round out Sunday’s top 10 starters are Joe Nemechek, Jeff Burton, Matt Kenseth and Brian Vickers.

           “It was a good run today for the Miller Lite Dodge,” said Busch  “This is my hometown, and I want to do it for the home crowd on Sunday. This is a tough 400 miles. You’ve got to pass cars and try to stay up front all day. That’s what it takes to win here… track position. We made the right adjustments all day and that’s what we need to do. That gave us some ideas once we got back out to race as to what we could do to this car to make it better as a race car. Like I said, if we don’t get to practice tomorrow that’s OK. The biggest thing is 400 miles, not just one lap.”

           Weather permitting; Saturday’s Cup action includes practice sessions from 9:00 a.m. till 10 a.m. and 10:35 a.m. till 11:20 a.m.  The 400-mile, 267-lap UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 is scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. local time (4:30 p.m. EST) and features live coverage by FOX-TV and the Performance Racing (Radio) Network.

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