Kurt Busch (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charge), Finished 1st

TAKE US THROUGH THE WIN - “It’s just great to be part of Penske Racing and to have the privilege to drive for this team and of course today, with such a great race car prepared by Pat Tryson (crew chief). Everybody has a hand in this car and the way Troy Raker has led us up to this point taking over for Roy McCauley, who took a leave of absence with his wife Amy. We wish her all the best in her struggles, her trials. She’s doing well. It’s always been in the team’s mind on what we’ve gone through this year internally, emotionally and so to have such a solid day today with leading laps, I am sure each one of the crew guys is thinking how good this feels as well as the obvious, the people here at Pocono Raceway were treated to a good race.

“It was very solidifying for me today to drive the Miller Lite Dodge (Charger) into victory lane. It was a great handling car. I couldn’t thank the team enough. I did the smallest part, because a lot of work goes on behind the scenes putting this race win together.”

ANY SCARE DURING THE RACE THAT YOU MIGHT NOT WIN? “There were a few points where the car got tight and the car was bit to loose to maintain the pace. Guys caught us at those times, but long green flag runs kept us stretched out.

“You never for one instance think you have the race in the bag. The only time I really thought it was coming to the checkered out of turn four on lap 199 coming to 200. You just can’t count your chickens before they hatch in this game. It felt good to have that solid of a race car underneath me. I kept my head down, and just kept bearing down on what we needed to do today. The big picture was to gain some points and yet we didn’t gain many. Dale Jr. had a great run. Everyone up the Chase picture was running strong.

“The other big picture is to drag everybody to victory lane; all these crew members and everybody back at the shop got to enjoy this win.”

WHERE DID YOU FIND THE RAILS TO DOMINATE THIS RACE? “We went through a few changes in happy hour yesterday. Pat was trying some big rear springs and big rear shocks, soft front springs and heavy front shocks to get the attitude of the car right. We see the front end pinned and the rear end high. Sometimes you can go too far and it makes the car ill handling, but I think we came up with the best compromise.

“This weekend, I really had a feel for the car. I told him I wanted softer springs and he found the right springs and the right shocks when I told him I thought we were too aggressive. It takes that combination of driver, crew chief and team to win.”

HOW DOES IT FEEL TO WIN FOR MILLER? “I enjoy the way people in Milwaukee get pumped up by their racing program. They always strive to be the best beer, but they always tell me go get that 8 car. I think I did this one more justice, taking Miller Lite to Victory Lane. This Busch made the best beer choice!”

COMMENTS ON FINAL PASS FOR THE LEAD – “He got real tight into the tunnel turn and then it snapped loose on him coming off. I tell a lot of young drivers that come in here that the tunnel turn is very important to your success but you can’t discredit turns one and three. You have to have turn one to pass people and then you have to have turn three to get down that long straightaway. But I still believe, and I told Pat this weekend, that we have to get better in the tunnel turn if we want to win. I felt that’s where it came true.”

COMMENTS ON GETTING DODGE BACK TO VICTORY LANE – “I’ve always thought that Dodge was a great program and they do the right things for us. We just need to do more things for them and that’s take them to victory lane, especially on an oval. But our balance may have been a bit off with front downforce to rear downforce. We drove in to victory lane today but we have more work to do. The COT is the challenge as well, we have to run it next weekend at Watkins Glen, then on to Michigan.

“It’s going to be a nice balance all the way down into the Chase with what we have to do aerodynamically and mechanically with the new car.”

COMMENTS ON AVOIDING TALK ABOUT THE 100 POINT PENALTY BY EASILY MAKING THE CHASE – “To get to your point, I think it’s important to understand that Dale Jr. lost 100 points earlier this year. That might be the case in point of why we’re racing each other for this final spot. Competition is tough, it’s fierce and you slip up just a little bit in the top 10 and you find yourself on the outside looking in. I’ve definitely put on a different thinking cap since Dover. That situation has reminded me of what I can do in a race car and what I better do. And that is to drive it conservatively and get the best points finish I possibly can each and every day.

“We’ve thrown away quite a bit of points this year, (through) driver mistakes. Such as Charlotte, leading the most laps and wrecking, Daytona leading the most laps and wrecking. Texas; Phoenix, we had fuel mileage issues there and we took a top five car at both those tracks and finished in the teens. So we can add up our points. I’m not going to look back on that 100 points and think that it’s a deficit, it’s only turned us into a stronger program.”

COMMENTS ON THE GETTING THROUGH THE CRASH TOWARD THE END OF THE RACE – “There was tons of smoke coming out of turn one. So I had to check up quite a bit, so if the yellow wasn’t called we probably would of lost the lead at that point. We were able to snake through there, not that big of an issue.”

DO YOU FEEL LIKE THE BATTLE LINES ARE BEING DRAW BETWEEN YOU AND

THE NO. 8 CAR? “Yea today was definitely interesting. To hear that the 8 car had spun

coming off of turn three at on point, I was thinking right then and there, ‘wow we’re going to have a good points day’. Then we have a slower pit stop and the 8 is the guy I have to chase down for the lead. So you know it’s going to come down to the final race at Richmond. We feel like we have a good group of race tracks coming up. I hope we’re able to catch guys in front of us, such as Bowyer and Truex, my little brother might have had a bad day. But you just hope there’s more guys in the mix. Even though you win and the guys you’re racing finishes second, that’s just a tribute to the competition at this level. There’s no time for resting and there’s no time for looking back.”

TALK ABOUT WORKING WITH TEAMMATE RYAN NEWMAN – “I had a great teammate actually help me out in the tunnel turn that paid dividends to us passing two cars in one lap, and that was Ryan Newman. He came to victory lane and congratulated us. The team chemistry is really on its peak right now with the way we share information and help each other on the track. If we have a fast car guys know it out on the track and Newman definitely helped us get to this point.”

Pat Tryson (Crew Chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger)

DID YOU HAVE ANY IDEA THE CAR WOULD BE THIS DOMINANT - “I think we felt it was pretty good in practice but we had no idea we were going to be the dominant car. I thought we were for sure a top five car in practice. It actually turned out to be better than we thought. Hopefully we’ll get some more like that.

TELL US ABOUT THE RANGE OF EMOTIONS YOU’VE HAD IN THE PAST MONTH AND A HALF – “You’re working real hard and trying to get things better. All of a sudden it doesn’t work out and you’re at a pretty low point. The fortunate part for me is that when I was at that low point there was a lot of interest and a lot of good people that called and talked to me. I think I made the right decision for me. Hopefully it works the best for everybody. We’ve got a long way to go. We have to get this Miller Lite Dodge in the Chase. For me it’s been it’s been great and I feel better everyday. The working relationship that’s there for me is a perfect fit and hopefully it stays that way.”

DO YOU THINK YOURE PAST EXPERIENCE IN THE CHASE WILL BENEFIT YOU MORE THAN THE OTHERS YOUR RACING AGAINST – “I think the key thing is to stay focused and not get too far ahead. Each week is a new week. No matter what we did at Pocono we’re going to roll into Watkins Glen with a clean slate. We’ve got to keep the pressure on but yet not press too hard. Today was reminisant of a Rusty Wallace kind of day out on the race track. I always watched him as a kid, racing the Kodiak car and then the Miller Lite car through the years. The guy was fast and he’d let you know he was fast. Today I didn’t look up in the mirror that often, I just kept hitting my marks and digging. At one point, Pat said we were eight seconds ahead but you just bear down and that’s what we did today.”

DO YOU THINK THE PERSONELL RESOURCES AT PENSKE MAKE UP FOR THE FACT THAT YOU’RE ONLY A TWO CAR TEAM – “I’ve been where there’s five cars and where there’s single cars. But having the right teammates is more important than having the numbers. Everybody has to want to work together and like working together. Obviously four is better than two if it’s working right. But if it’s not working right it can be worse than two. The important thing is to have the relationship amongst everyone working right and right now I think we have that and hopefully we can build it stronger.”