NASCAR Talk

Shortly after winning the 50th running of the Daytona 500 on Sunday, Ryan Newman and his car owner Roger Penske sat down to talk to the press about the experience and how it felt to win their first Daytona 500 for Penske Racing.

You can find out what Ryan thought about actually fulfilling his dreams from when he was a young boy in Indiana, how he attributes success to his family, and what it was like to be enshrined in concrete (or at least his hand prints and footprints) in victory lane. Just read the transcript of the Press Conference after the jump.

NASCAR, Ryan Newman Press Conference Transcript

(more…)

For the 2008 Sprint Cup season, Penske Racing will be adding a third team to run full time. The #77 Red Bull Dodge will be driven by Indy Car League racing superstar Sam Hornish Jr. Since the #77 team has no owner points from the 2007 season, normally, Hornish would be required to qualify for the first five races of the season starting with the 50th running of the Daytona 500 in February. However, Penske Racing has realized this dilemma and come up with a solution that has now been officially approved by the powers that be in the NASCAR front office.

Kurt Busch, driver of the Penske Racing #2 Miller Lite Dodge will give his owners’ points to the #77 team, guaranteeing Hornish a spot in all of the first five races of the 2008 season. Busch should have no problems qualifying for the races on time, but if he does run into a rough spot, as a former champion, he has up to five provisionals he can use to get into the races.

So what do you think of this move by Penske Racing? Is it fair? Should brand new teams benefit from the hard work of someone else and just be handed their starts on a silver platter? Shouldn’t those drivers have to prove themselves and qualify their own cars? I suppose it really is no different than a rookie sliding into a seat vacated by a veteran (I’m looking at you, David Ragan) or even teams who use past champions to qualify for the first 5 races before replacing them with a different driver (ahem, Dale Jarrett and David Reutimann). Considering I’m not a huge fan of the top 35 rule anyway, I find all of this point sharing shady. Unless NASCAR finally buckles down and closes all their loopholes (or gets rid of the champion provisionals and top 35 guarantees) there really isn’t much that can be done. Let me know what you think in the comments section below.

NASCAR, Penske Racing, Sam Hornish Jr., Kurt Busch

Name: Kurt Busch
Car #: 2
Series: Sprint Cup
Sponsor : Miller Lite
Manufacturer : Dodge
Car Owner : Roger Penske
Team : Penske Racing
Crew Chief : Pat Tryson
Birthday: August 4, 1978
Hometown: Las Vegas, NV
Personal: Married to Eva Bryan.

Kurt Busch, much like his younger brother Kyle, started his racing career in a go-kart riding around the neighborhood. It wasn’t long before he was racing in the Dwarf Car Series around Las Vegas, and he won the Rookie of the Year honors in that series in 1994. He won back to back championships the next two years in Dwarf Car and Hobby Stock series.

Kurt made the jump up to the NASCAR Southwest Touring League in 1998, winning the Rookie of the Year honors. Soon after in the year 2000, Jack Roush hired him to run the full Craftsman Truck Series schedule and a few Cup Series races on top of that. Following tradition, he won the Rookie of the Year honors in the Truck Series and earned himself a spot in a full time Cup car the following year. This time, however, he finished second in the Raybestos Rookie of the Year points standings.

In 2004, the first year of the Chase format, Kurt brought home the championship trophy for Roush Racing. However, at the end of 2005, Kurt announced he would be leaving Roush Racing to drive the #2 Miller Lite Dodge for Penske Racing. He has consistently made the Chase, and finished 7th place overall in 2007. In fact, since Kurt was a rookie in the Cup series in 2001, he has finished no lower than 11th in the championship points standings.

Kurt Busch Websites:
Penske Racing
Kurt Busch Official Site
NASCAR.com Driver Page

NASCAR, NASCAR Driver Bios, Kurt Busch Bio