Busch hungry to win the final race in the "old" car

For the first time in awhile, the Miller Lite Dodge never really threatened to take the lead at any point during a race, and we basically held our ground all day in Phoenix, shuffling between fifth- and 20th-place depending on pit cycles and strategy. We had a strong car in the spring race here, but with this COT you have to keep experimenting with setups to try to find that magical combination. We made a bunch of changes to the car during practice and tweaked it the entire race, but nothing seemed to make a big difference.

The week leading up to the race included a day on the track in Las Vegas raising money for Victory Junction Gang Camp and the Kurt Busch Foundation. We did the second of our "Ride with Kurt for the Kids" fundraisers, and again the turnout was tremendous. I can't thank people enough for their time and contributions, including many of the other race teams who donated autographed race memorabilia that we auctioned off.

The Miller Lite Dodge was pretty good in the early practice Friday and we turned in a decent qualifying run that put us in ninth position for the race. We tried some new setups in the two Saturday practices, with varied results. That's kind of how it is with this COT right now; you can have a good car for a few laps, only to see it go away entirely, which forces more experimentation. We're making progress with this car, but still have plenty of work to do.

Saturday night, Roger Penske officially welcomed Sam Hornish Jr. into the stock car wing of his garage at an event at the Penske Museum at the "Captain's" auto dealership in Scottsdale, Ariz. Ryan Newman and I are looking forward to having a third Penske car on the track, because ultimately that means more information to share and more drafting teamwork when the situation calls for it. It's going to be a huge challenge for Sam, but he's a great driver and will no doubt get better with each race. It wasn't that long ago that I was the new guy in the Penske garage and it's easy to remember how helpful everyone was, so I look forward to extending that same welcome to him.

The race Sunday was one of the more uneventful ones for the Miller Lite Racing team, from the standpoint that we weren't up front during the race and didn't have any bad luck or contact either. We just didn't have a car capable of competing with the leaders. The crew made some pretty dramatic adjustments to the car throughout the race, but the Blue Deuce remained difficult to handle in the corners and we couldn't get anything going. It was another learning experience with the new car, and we'll plug away in the offseason to get a better grip on it. But I have nothing but confidence in the guys in the shop, and I know the Miller Lite team is dedicated to bringing home a championship in the near future.

Now we're moving on to the last stop of the season and the final race ever for the "old" car. I guarantee you every team wants to go down in the history books as the last car to win one of these races, and we're no different. We're running "Roger" down to Homestead, which is the car we won the rain-delayed Michigan race with, so we think we'll be competitive at Homestead. No matter what happens in the race, we'll have a few months to think about it once it's over. The entire Miller Lite Racing team wants the positive feeling of a victory to linger over the winter months, so [crew chief] Pat Tryson, the crew and I will be pulling out all the stops to get into Victory Lane.

Until next time,
KB