Overheating car sends Busch to 36th-place NAPA 500 finish

Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2000 | 10:07 a.m.

Kurt Busch's seven-race NASCAR Winston Cup Series trial run came to a close Monday with a 36th-place finish in the season-ending NAPA 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Jerry Nadeau won the event, the first victory of his career. Darrell Waltrip wrapped up his career with a 34th-place finish.

Busch, a 22-year-old native of Las Vegas, started 24th and was running in the top 15 for much of the race until his No. 97 Roush Racing Ford Taurus developed overheating problems.

While running in 13th place, Busch was called into the pits on lap 299 to have water injected into the engine's cooling system. A water hose malfunction forced Busch back into the pits twice and cost him nine laps on the track.

"We had a problem with the car overheating and it forced us into the pits for an unscheduled stop with less than 25 laps to go," Busch said. "We thought we had a top-15 finish locked up, but those are the breaks sometimes.

"We deserved better than we finished today. We had good pit stops, solid restarts and a good-handling car. I think we proved we could run in the top 15; we just needed a little luck. We'll have our chance and we'll have it soon enough."

In seven Winston Cup starts, Busch posted two 10th-place qualifying efforts and three top-20 finishes. His best finish was 13th place in the UAW-GM Quality 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway near Charlotte, N.C.

Busch will run the entire 36-race Winston Cup Series in 2001 for Roush Racing as a Rookie of the Year contender. The 2001 season opens Feb. 18 with the Daytona 500 and the series will visit Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 on March 4.

"I want to thank John Deere for their support in giving me my start in Winston Cup competition, and (crew chief) Jeff Hammond for providing experience and leadership to a young, aspiring team," Busch said.