News Article
Kurt Busch 2004 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series Champion
September 7, 2004
 | | Kurt Busch celebrates his 2004 NASCAR Nextel Cup championship. |
It all started for Busch at Dover International Speedway
It all started for Kurt Busch at Dover International Speedway on September 24, 2000. Making his first ever NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series start, Busch qualified 10th in the MBNA.com 400, and finished the race 18th.
Busch began his Sept. 2000 weekend at the Monster Mile by winning the MBNA E-Commerce.com 200 Craftsman Truck Series race in controversial fashion. Busch won the pole, but hit the wall in practice and was forced to start at the back of the pack. He quickly made his way to the front, and encountered race leader Mike Wallace.
With just three laps to go, Wallace and Busch were coming out of turn four when Wallace went high, at just about the same time Busch was trying to go high himself. Busch?s #99 Ford hit Wallace?s #2 Ford, spinning Wallace out while Busch maintained control. The race restarted at lap 202 under the green-white-checkered rule, and Busch held off teammate Greg Biffle for the win.
Depending on who you talked to, both were to blame. Busch claimed Wallace had slipped a few times in laps leading up to the end, and that Wallace was trying to block him on the low side coming out of turn four. Wallace claimed he already had position on the track and that Busch intentionally hit him, spinning him out of control and costing him the chance to win the race.
?It was a good show,? concluded Busch. ?I think [the fans] got their money?s worth. It was just a dogfight.?
This sort of controversy has followed Busch throughout his career, and the Sept. 2000 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Dover was no different.
Four Years Later...
Four years after his first Cup start at Dover International Speedway, Busch is the 2004 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup champion, with the hardware ? and .2 million dollar check ? to prove it.
Busch takes a victory lap
As the winner of the first ever NASCAR NEXTEL Cup championship, Busch will have his name etched in the record books forever, next to the likes of Earnhardt, Petty and Gordon.
Busch made his way into the new-for-2004 ?Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup? by being in the top ten in points, and then utilized consistency, and luck, to win owner Jack Roush's second consecutive championship. Roush?s #17 Dewalt team and driver Matt Kenseth were the 2003 champions.
?This is what a team does to win a championship ? they persevere on a day such as this,? said Busch. ?All year long we?ve done things like this, whether we put ourselves in a hole or whether we had a small problem.?
?Just an unbelievable day," Busch said after the final race at Miami-Homestead Speedway. ?To be able to persevere such as we did again ? to overcome all the different obstacles [and] to put together a great season such as we did. With the regular season [we did a] superb job and then with the playoffs ? outstanding. One little slip here or there [but] we were able to make up for it.?
?I'm completely exhausted about what these final 10 races meant,? Busch said. "But it's a true testament to what a team has to do, to what a driver has to do, to what an owner sees as a leader and the way that you have to compete at your top level for 10 races against the 10 toughest competitors.?
|
