Following Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 500 at Phoenix International Speedway, Shell-Pennzoil Dodge driver Kurt Busch will travel to New Orleans, La., for a special event for sponsor Shell. On Monday, November 14th, the driver of the No. 22 Penske Racing Dodge will take an hour-and-a-half helicopter ride over open water to visit one of Shell Oil Company’s largest and newest oil rig platforms – BRUTUS. Brutus TLP (Tension Leg Platform) is an eight-slot platform with facilities processing capacity of 120,000 barrels of oil per day.
Brutus is Shell’s newest TLP rig and is located 165 miles southwest of New Orleans in 2,985 feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico. The visit is geared to give Kurt a better understanding and knowledge of Shell exploration and development business, particularly in deepwater drilling.
After a safety briefing in the am, and the flight to the rig; Busch will spend time touring the oil rig structure including the control room, well bay, drilling rig, crane cab and underwater hull. He will join the crew of over a 125 workers for lunch and will spend time greeting them and signing autographs afterwards.
–Kurt Busch and his Steve Addington-led No. 22 Penske Racing Dodge Team will be racing the “PRS-748” chassis this weekend at Phoenix International Raceway. The action in the desert this weekend will mark the first time out for the car in the “Double-Deuce” Shell-Pennzoil colors. However, Penske Racing teammate Brad Keselowski drove this car dressed in the No. 2 Miller Lite scheme during the Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte (finished 18th), in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis (started fifth & finished ninth) and the September Dover race (started 15th & finished 20th). The “PRS-749” chassis, which Busch raced in both Richmond races this season, will serve as the backup Shell-Pennzoil Dodge Charger this weekend.
–Shell-Pennzoil Dodge driver Kurt Busch labels this weekend’s race on the resurfaced and reconfigured Phoenix International Raceway as a “big wild-card race.” His commentary:
“The scenic location, the grandstands and the facilities may remain the same, but this is definitely not your old PIR that everyone had gotten accustomed to,” said Busch. “It’s a case of throwing all your old notes and data out the window because it is like racing at a brand new track. All the knowledge you’ve gained and logged before there doesn’t apply now. It’s just a totally different track. After the testing we all did there, we’re coming in there knowing there’s only going to be one groove. It won’t be very wide. Restarts will be treacherous. We’ll see how it shakes out. It will be a ‘fill the tank up with gas at the end and ride it to the end’ with how the tires are not wearing out there. It’ll be a big wild-card race as far as the big picture is concerned. It’s a huge challenge, but it’s the same situation for everyone out there. I just hope like everything that if there’s a late caution, I am running in an odd-number spot and can line up on the inside for the restart. If you’re stuck on the outside there at the end, it could be a huge blow. With every position meaning a point in the standings, it could be very wild at the end of this one on Sunday.”
–A quick comparison of the 2010 and 2011 seasons at this point for Shell-Pennzoil Dodge driver Kurt Busch:
Entering last November’s Phoenix race, the ninth race of the 2010 Chase…
…Kurt Busch ranked 11th in the Sprint Cup point standings. With 5,890 points, he trailed leader Denny Hamlin by 435 points. He was 402 points behind second-place Jimmie Johnson and 376 points behind third-place Kevin Harvick. He trailed fifth-place Matt Kenseth by 110 points. After 34 races, his record boasted two wins, nine top-five finishes and 16 top-10s. He had claimed two Coors Light Pole Awards. He had led a total of 822 laps, spread out among 61 occasions in 16 of the races. He had completed 97.666 percent (9,961/10,199) of possible laps. He had a 11.147 average start and a 15.441 average finish with two DNFs.
Entering this weekend’s race at Phoenix, the ninth race of the 2011 Chase…
…Kurt Busch is ninth in the Sprint Cup point standings. With 2,229 points under the new points system, he trails leader Carl Edwards by 87 points. He is 84 points behind second-place Tony Stewart and 54 points behind third-place Kevin Harvick. He trails fifth-place Brad Keselowski by 38 points. After 34 races, his record boasts two wins, eight top-five finishes and 16 top-10s. He has claimed three Coors Light Pole Awards. He has led a total of 713 laps, spread out among 59 occasions in 19 of the races. He has completed 99.216 percent (9,992 of 10,071) of possible laps. He has a 12.029 average start and a 13.824 average finish with three DNFs.
–Shell-Pennzoil Dodge driver Kurt Busch is in the thick of the battle for the most Coors Light Pole Awards for the 2011 season. With only two races remaining, Busch is part of a three-way tie, with Greg Biffle and Ryan Newman also having three poles so far this year. The winner of most poles will win $100,000 from Coors Light. The award will be presented at the Myers Brothers Luncheon during Champions Week in Las Vegas. “We’ve been looking at that situation for several weeks now,” said Busch, who claimed three consecutive Coors Light Pole Awards during the month of June. “Biffle has been on a hot streak lately, but I think we’ve got a good shot at it, too. We enjoy a great relationship with our friends at MillerCoors and we hope we can win their overall award and pick up the big check while we’re out in Vegas for the banquet.” Busch has yet to win a pole at Phoenix, but he has scored three outside poles, including one for the February race at PIR. He has claimed two career poles at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
–Shell-Pennzoil Dodge crew chief Steve Addington will be serving as Kurt Busch’s team leader for his 71st points-paying race this weekend at Phoenix. The affable veteran team leader is looking forward to the final two races of the 2011 season. “We’ve just had a rough time out there since Talladega,” offered Addington. “We know our Shell-Pennzoil Dodge Team is capable enough to end this season off on a high note. Kurt and everybody else on our team are hungry for another win or two in the next couple of weeks and we’ll all be out there giving it everything we have to get the job done.”
–Shell-Pennzoil Dodge driver Kurt Busch takes a trip down memory lane every time the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series visits the one-mile Phoenix International Raceway.
“Phoenix will always be a special track for me and it’s almost like a homecoming each and every time we race there,” said Busch. “So much has changed at the track through the years, with them building the tunnel into the infield and adding all those thousands of seats.
“When I think back to all those many years ago when my dad carried me to PIR to see my first-ever live Cup race – my first time ever to watch the big boys race – it always brings a smile to my face,” said Busch of his first visit to PIR for the 1991 Pyroil 500, the fourth Cup race held on the “Desert Mile.” “When I think back to running on all the short tracks like we did and winning the old NASCAR Southwest Tour championship at Phoenix, it’s a flattering feeling.”
Busch recently recalled the specifics regarding his first-ever visit to PIR. “I was 13 years old and it was such a really big deal when my dad carried me to see my very first big NASCAR Cup race at Phoenix,” he said of his PIR pilgrimage to the race on Nov. 3, 1991. “Growing up in racing like I did and having my parents take me to the short tracks when I was just a toddler really helped put racing in my blood so early in life.
“Watching all the big races on TV back then just added to the desire to get to see one live,” Busch said. “NASCAR added a new date at Phoenix for the Cup cars on the schedule back in 1988. It automatically became the big hot ticket event for all the racers out West. Growing up in (Las) Vegas like we did and without the big track there not getting a Cup date until 1998, Phoenix was where it was at back then. They came in there and made it such a tremendous racing weekend. Not only did they have all the big guys – the Cup teams – racing there, they ran the final race of the NASCAR Southwest Tour there, too.
“My dad didn’t get to go to that first race back in ’88, but he went to the races in ’89 and ’90,” Busch said. “Then in 1991, he told me pretty far in advance that he was taking me to the Phoenix Cup race that November. It was like a kid anticipating Christmas for me back then. I just couldn’t wait. We got to go down into the pits before the race and I thought that was so cool. When they fired up the engines for the race, it was something like I’d never heard or seen before.
“My mom and dad have kept a picture of me there at the race and when I look back at it now, it’s really neat,” Busch said. (Image is available by request.) “There I am, way back then as a skinny little kid, standing in front of Rusty’s (Wallace) pit area before the start of the race and posing in front of the Miller Genuine Draft pit box. My dad was a dealer for a tool-manufacturing company and they sponsored Dale Earnhardt. We had our Dale Earnhardt tee-shirts on and were having more fun than we’d ever had. We’re standing there holding up Rusty’s No. 2 pit sign. That’s pretty cool to think about that day way back then and see how far we’ve been able to come.”
–Shell-Pennzoil Dodge driver Kurt Busch had mathematically clinched the 1999 NASCAR Southwest Series points title prior to the season finale at Phoenix on Nov. 5, 1999, but it wasn’t official until that race concluded. “We had won four straight races and were looking for the fifth straight win in the final race of the year at Phoenix,” Busch recalled. “Unfortunately, we got caught up in a crash during the race and finished way back in the field. The good thing, though, is that we had such a big lead in the points that we still won the championship by over 300 points.
“One of the major things I’ll always remember from that race was when the dust had settled and we got all the media attention for winning the championship,” said Busch. “It was the first big national TV interview I did. Dick Berggren was the interviewer and I was pretty darned nervous, to tell you the truth. He did a lot to keep me calm before we went on the air and the interview went very well. I’ll always remember that and be thankful to him for that.”
Much has happened to Busch in the years since the early chapters of his racing career led to significant role in big-league NASCAR Sprint Cup racing history. He is certainly one of the “big boys’ of the sport now. There’s the one win, four top-five finishes and 10 top-10s in 17 PIR Cup races. Then, there’s the 2004 Cup championship with a total of 24 wins, 88 top-fives and 169 top-10s overall on the Sprint Cup tour as Busch heads into his career’s 399th start this weekend at PIR.
“Like I said, it’s a very flattering feeling and I still have to stop and pinch myself sometimes.” said Busch, a badge-carrying honorary deputy for noted colorful Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. “The Phoenix track will always be special to me for as long as I live.”
–Shell-Pennzoil Dodge driver Kurt Busch’s career Sprint Cup record at PIR boasts one win, four top-five finishes and 10 top-10s in 17 races. He has a 12.9 average start and a 12.9 average finish. He has been running at the finish in all of the races and has finished in the lead lap in 13 races. He has an incredible 99.7 percent lap completion average (completed 5,357 of 5,374 possible laps), with only 17 unfinished laps. He has led 691 laps during his career at PIR.
TRPR
