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| Kurt Busch is 6/1 to win at Texas Saturday night |
When the Haas Automation team arrived at the 1.5-mile oval in November 2014, it had a different, yet familiar look thanks to a crew swap between the teams of Busch and Danica Patrick that went in place in preparation for the 2015 season. Busch, spotter Rick Carelli, and the No. 41 team’s pit crew were the only remaining members from the Haas Automation team that began the 2014 season. Crew chief Gibson, the mechanics, engineers and entire road crew from the No. 10 team began working on the Haas Automation Chevrolet.
In the 33 previous races in 2014, Busch scored his 25th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, six top-five and nine top-10 finishes. It’s not to say that performance was lacking, but the consistency needed to contend for the championship wasn’t where it needed to be.
The pairing of “old-school” guys for the final three races of the season quickly produced positive results. The pairing netted an outside pole in the season-ending race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, two top-10 finishes and an average finish of 8.7 in those last three races. It’s been more of the same in 2015.
A look at Busch’s career shows that he’s seemed to thrive when he’s paired with a crew chief who shares that same, old-school mentality that Gibson has. Busch has been quick to compare Gibson to Jimmy Fennig, with whom he won 14 Sprint Cup races and the 2004 championship.
In the nine races since the SHR team swap, Busch ranks seventh in fastest laps run, according to NASCAR’s Loop Data statistics. He’s eighth in laps led. His average running position of eighth is third-best, as is his average driver rating. What’s even more impressive is that he’s competed in three fewer races than the drivers ranked ahead of him in the standings.
Except for a 14th-place finish at Martinsville when the series last raced two weekends ago, Busch has placed no worse than 11th in every race since Homestead last year. He arguably had a win slip away three weekends ago at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, but he was able to salvage a top-five finish there, as he did at Phoenix International Raceway the week prior.
The Las Vegas native would like nothing more than to score his first win of the season and his second in the Lone Star StateSaturday night and virtually lock himself into the 2015 Chase for the Sprint Cup. With the 16-driver Sprint Cup championship format, scoring a win virtually guarantees a driver and his team a berth in the Chase, provided they are among the top-30 in driver points.
KURT BUSCH, Driver of the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing:
You scored a top-five finish in your first Sprint Cup start at Texas and have 13 top-10 finishes in 243 starts there. Why has it been such a, as you call it, bread-and-butter racetrack for you?
“I think it’s the way the banking transitions into the straightaway, into the corners. It’s a very smooth racetrack but, at the same time, it’s a driver’s racetrack because of the way the asphalt is worn out. You have to manage the tires. You can’t just go all out for the whole fuel run. Making sure that the car uses all four tires is an important trait to finding success at racetracks that are worn out.”
You have one Sprint Cup victory at Texas. What would it take for you to win there again?
“It’s being able to get that throttle-on time through the center of the corner and being able to leave it on the floor. You have to be able to jump on the gas early at Texas and make sure you’re able to leave it on the floor all the way around the corners.”
What makes Texas Motor Speedway unique?
“I just love the speeds at Texas Motor Speedway. They say that bigger is better, and everything is that way in Texas. That racetrack has that mentality. It’s big, it’s fast and it’s a fun track when you are dialed in.”
Kurt Busch’s Texas Motor Speedway Performance Profile:
| Year | Event | Start | Finish | Status/Laps | Laps Led | Earnings |
| 2014 | Duck Commander 500 | 11 | 39 | Accident, 327/340 | 0 | 80,865 |
| AAA Texas 500 | 4 | 8 | Running, 341/341 | 15 | $134,665 | |
| 2013 | NRA 500 | 2 | 37 | Running, 316/334 | 0 | $117,603 |
| AAA 500 | 31 | 17 | Running, 332/334 | 0 | $133,505 | |
| 2012 | Samsung Mobile 500 | 27 | 13 | Running, 333/334 | 0 | $148,638 |
| ×AAA Texas 500 | 18 | 8 | Running, 335/335 | 0 | $155,493 | |
| 2011 | Samsung Mobile 500 | 10 | 10 | Running, 334/334 | 50 | $167,127 |
| AAA Texas 500 | 14 | 30 | Running, 331/334 | 0 | $137,340 | |
| 2010 | Samsung Mobile 500 | 11 | 4 | Running, 334/334 | 2 | $239,123 |
| AAA Texas 500 | 6 | 24 | Running, 333/334 | 0 | $139,773 | |
| 2009 | Samsung 500 | 28 | 8 | Running, 334/334 | 1 | $151,000 |
| Dickies 500 | 3 | 1 | Running, 334/334 | 89 | $440,575 | |
| 2008 | ×Samsung 500 | 23 | 23 | Running, 337/339 | 0 | $102,125 |
| Dickies 500 | 40 | 41 | Engine, 267/334 | 0 | $95,205 | |
| 2007 | †Samsung 500 | 17 | 11 | Running, 334/334 | 42 | $157,233 |
| Dickies 500 | 6 | 8 | Running, 334/334 | 10 | $165,783 | |
| 2006 | Samsung/RadioShack 500 | 7 | 34 | Running, 286/334 | 0 | $124,633 |
| ×Dickies 500 | 3 | 8 | Running, 339/339 | 37 | $164,833 | |
| 2005 | Samsung/RadioShack 500 | 19 | 7 | Running, 334/334 | 2 | $134,975 |
| Dickies 500 | 18 | 10 | Running, 334/334 | 0 | $163,000 | |
| 2004 | Samsung/RadioShack 500 | 12 | 6 | Running, 334/334 | 1 | $147,050 |
| 2003 | Samsung/RadioShack 500 | 30 | 9 | Running, 334/334 | 0 | $133,150 |
| 2002 | Samsung/RadioShack 500 | 19 | 23 | Running, 332/334 | 1 | $80,900 |
| 2001 | Harrah’s 500 | 16 | 4 | Running, 334/334 | 0 | $162,150 |
† Qualifying canceled due to weather, starting position set via car owner points.
× Race length extended due to green-white-checkered finish.
- True Speed Communication for Stewart-Haas Racing
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