Brickyard 400 Winner Gordon Falls Short
By Dick Mittman
allstate400atthebrickyard.com
Monday, November 22, 2004
Kurt Busch is $5.2 million richer because the good luck all gamblers dream about in his hometown of Las Vegas rode with him Nov. 21 on the way to winning the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series championship.
About 6 inches was the difference between Busch celebrating with champagne or crying in his beer with team owner Jack Roush and his Sharpie/IRWIN Industrial Tools Ford team at the end of the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
That was about the clearance between Busch driving flat into the attenuator on the nose of the pit entrance wall and sliding by safely on three wheels, reaching the pit and not losing a lap after suffering a broken wheel early in the race. Busch then raced on to finish fifth and scored just enough points to edge Hendrick Racing teammates Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon by eight and 16 points, respectively.
Johnson and Gordon finished second and third in the race, respectively, behind winner Greg Biffle. If Johnson had won the race that went four laps beyond the scheduled 267 laps due to a late caution, he would have won the title by two points. Biffle also drives for Roush Racing.
Busch, 26, led all but two weekends in the inaugural 10-race "Chase for the NEXTEL Cup" after finishing seventh in the first 26 races designating which 10 drivers would compete for the title. The huge winner's check will be officially presented at the Victory Banquet on Dec. 3 in New York.
"It's unbelievable to be able to put such an effort into what it takes to make a championship-caliber team," Busch said. "Many things have to fall into place."
As it turned out, luck became the key ingredient in the deciding race.
On Lap 93, Busch encountered a bad vibration on the right-front wheel and turned in toward the pits. As he approached the entrance suddenly the right-front wheel broke off and rolled away. Busch somehow turned the car just enough that it barely squeezed by the nose of the pit wall.
Fortune continued because Busch's departing wheel headed toward the track, triggering a caution period. He three-wheeled his car into his pit, quickly got new tires and remained on the same lap, back in 25th place. He had been running third at the time.
Then it just became a matter of battling his way back to the front. Busch continued to feel a vibration and worried that the wheel would separate again. But when you're drawing aces in a showdown, no one else in the game has a chance.
"Just an unbelievable day," said Busch, "to be able to persevere such as we did again, to overcome all the different obstacles (and) to put together a great season as we did."
Busch, who said he won the championship for veteran chief mechanic Jimmy Fennig, drove to 10th place in the Brickyard 400 that Gordon won for the fourth time on Aug. 8. Busch departed the classic event at Indianapolis in seventh in the standings, 480 points behind Johnson.
During the 26 races leading to the Chase, Busch won March 18 at Bristol and July 25 at New Hampshire. Then he repeated at New Hampshire to start the Chase in late September, and this gained him a tie for the lead with Dale Earnhardt Jr. He dropped a point behind Gordon after the second race, then slipped 13 points to the rear of Earnhardt after Talladega.
But a slip of Earnhardt's tongue and ensuing 25-point penalty put Busch 12 points in front two days later and seemed to change the entire complexion of the Chase. Busch pushed his lead to 96 points at Martinsville with a fourth-place finish and it was a sufficient cushion, despite a 42nd place at Atlanta, to hold on through the last four races. His lead had dwindled by 88 points before the final checkered flag was waved at Homestead.
Earnhardt and Gordon were the only other leaders. Earnhardt dropped out with a pair of 33rd-place finishes in races six and seven of the Chase. Gordon scrapped and scratched but could not pull off a victory in the Chase races, falling just short of his fifth NASCAR championship.
Johnson gave his all in the last six races, winning four and placing second at Homestead, but still that wasn't quite enough. Biffle became the winning buffer that gave the championship to Busch.
Tony Stewart appeared to have the race won, but he had to back off when his car began to run out of fuel on the extra laps. He finished fourth. Ryan Newman also had a shot at winning when a blown tire with three laps to go sent his car into the wall.
Mark Martin, nearly 20 years older than Busch, rolled home 11th and moved around Earnhardt into fourth in the final standings.
Busch scored 1,486 points in the 10 Chase races, 33 more than Johnson and 46 more than Gordon.
THE CHASE (Final)
1. Kurt Busch 6,506 (Chase finishes: 1-5-5-6-4-5-42-10-6-5)
2. Jimmie Johnson -8 (6,498; 11-10-37-32-1-1-1-6-1-2)
3. Jeff Gordon -16 (6,490; 7-3-19-13-2-9-34-3-3-3)
4. Mark Martin -107 (6,399; 13-2-15-20-13-12-2-15-2-11)
5. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -138 (6,368; 3-9-1-9-3-33-33-1-11-23)
6. Tony Stewart -180 (6,326; 39-6-6-14-10-15-9-8-17-4)
7. Ryan Newman -326 (6,180; 33-1-16-33-14-3-17-2-34-30)
8. Matt Kenseth -437 (6,069; 2-32-14-17-11-16-41-36-20)
9. Elliott Sadler -482 (6,024;8-20-22-4-7-32-36-38-23-34)
10. Jeremy Mayfield -506 (6,000; 35-7-38-5-30-6-26-21-19-35) ***
2005 tickets: The 12th Brickyard 400 is scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 7, 2005. Customers who are upgrading or purchasing Brickyard 400 tickets for the first time should act quickly to increase their chances of obtaining their desired seats.
To purchase tickets, camping or parking, contact the IMS ticket office at (800) 822-INDY outside the Indianapolis area, (317) 492-6700 locally or log on to www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com.
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