NASCAR Cup Series

Kurt Busch chasing title, history

Published Oct. 15, 2010 1:00 a.m. ET

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Larry McReynolds

Kurt Busch is attempting to complete the Charlotte Motor Speedway Triple on Saturday night. If you remember, he won the Sprint All-Star Race and the Coca-Cola 600 in May, and now he’s going for the sweep.

I have mixed feelings on his chances. If you base it on his performance in May, then you have to believe he has a shot. You know we came close to pulling it off in 1991. Davey Allison was driving the No. 28 car that I was crew chief on and we won the All Star and 600. We came ever so close in the Fall Charlotte race but finished second.

With that said  we know a lot of things have changed for Kurt since May. Unfortunately that group is bobbling and struggling right now. So when I factor that in, I am not sure I have a great strong feeling that they are in position to do this.

What’s interesting is Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 bunch is just the opposite. Back in May, they struggled through the all-star event and the Coke 600. In fact you could say it was a complete 1000 percent disaster for them. Now if you look at their last three races these past weeks, they’ve posted three top-three finishes.

I think Saturday night will be so unpredictable. There are just so many teams that ran well in May that are like the No. 2 car, that are just are bobbling and struggling right now. On the flip side, like the No. 48, there are teams that really struggled in May that are running pretty darn well right now. You also have to put the Roush Fenway and Richard Petty Motorsports group into that mix.

This is the only Saturday night race in the Chase. It’s one of only three 500 mile races left – Talladega and Texas are the other two. This is also one of the few night races that the teams and drivers will get the chance to practice in similar conditions to how they will race. Most of the others hold practice during the day.

The other thing to keep in mind is we saw a lot of engine attrition last week at California and it was only a 400 mile race. So this race will have the engine guys nail-biting a little bit. It will be a very cool evening so those motors will be making a lot of horsepower. That plus 500 long miles can make for an engine builders nightmare. I talked to Doug Yates already about this and his engine folks are pretty anxious. Twenty-five percent of the Yates Engines had problems last Sunday. So will they lean towards the conservative side? I don’t know that answer. That will be a storyline we all will need to watch Saturday night.

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