LV’s Busch places 19th, 3 laps off

Monday, Nov. 13, 2000 | 10:19 a.m.

Kurt Busch scored his third top-20 finish in six NASCAR Winston Cup starts by driving the No. 97 John Deere Ford to a 19th-place finish in Sunday's Pennzoil 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Busch qualified 10th for the penultimate race of the 2000 season and ran in the top 10 for the first 50 laps before his car developed handling problems. The 22-year-old native of Las Vegas finished the race three laps off the pace set by race winner Tony Stewart.

Busch lost a lap to the leaders midway through the race, then lost two more laps when he was penalized for speeding on pit road during a green-flag pit stop on lap 205.

"It still wasn't a bad day for the John Deere team, but we want to start making a more consistent run in the top ten," Busch said. "We did it at the start of the race for the first 50 laps, but now we need to hold on to that for a longer period of time."

Busch's qualifying run on Friday marked the second time he had qualified 10th; he also started 10th in his Winston Cup debut at Dover Downs International Speedway in September.

"We're getting there and we improved the car by the end of the race, so we can walk out of here with some notes for next year," Busch said. "That tells you something about this team, though: We're not happy just getting a top-20 finish, we want to be where Mark (Martin), Jeff (Burton) and Matt (Kenseth) are on a weekly basis. We did that in qualifying this week, and that gives us a little something extra heading into Atlanta."

Busch will make his seventh and final Winston Cup start of the season next Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, then will compete fulltime in the Roush Racing Ford as a Rookie of the Year candidate next season.

Gaughan, 25, needed only to start the race to clinch the championship. He finished the 12-race season with two wins, nine top-five finishes and 11 top-10 showings.