Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Busch, Spencer return to scene of the ‘crime’

Friday, Aug. 23, 2002 | 8:51 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

As he prepared to return to Bristol Motor Speedway -- the site of his first NASCAR Winston Cup victory back in March -- Las Vegas native Kurt Busch insisted his much-reported feud with Jimmy Spencer is in the past.

After on-track run-ins with Spencer last October in Phoenix, last March at Bristol and earlier this month at Indianapolis, Busch knew he would be the focus of attention the minute he arrived at the track.

"That's part of the media's job, but it seems funny to bring attention to something that's not very relevant," Busch said. "We've got two wrecked racecars, he's got a second-place finish and what's in the past is in the past. I'm much more of an individual that's going to race somebody instead of wreck somebody."

But that doesn't mean Busch thinks he did anything wrong with his bump-and-run move to take the lead from Spencer late in the March race at Bristol. Busch said he would use the same move -- on any driver -- if the situation presented itself during Saturday night's Sharpie 500.

"I obviously have to watch myself, but there was nothing wrong with what I did last time," Busch said. "So if I do it again, I don't think there's anything wrong with it.

"Some media members might think there was something wrong with it, NASCAR might think there's something wrong with it so, obviously, we've got to mind our P's and Q's around (Spencer), which is pathetic because we shouldn't have to be put in that position."

Since his win at Bristol, Busch has flirted with victory on several occasions -- most notably at California Speedway in April -- but has yet to find Victory Lane. Busch said earlier this year his goal was to finish with four wins.

"We dominated Fontana and should have won that race, but Jimmie (Johnson) got by us with gas only on the last pit stop," Busch said. "At Charlotte, we were leading with 80 laps to go and we dropped a cylinder. At Dover, we got a flat tire and went two laps down before we got both of them back and finished 12th.

"We had another flat tire at Loudon when we had a great racecar, so we've just had some misfortune. I don't know why we've had those flat tires because we haven't been aggressive in our setups, but I guess it's just part of the learning curve and part of the mistakes you make before things start going your way.

"You have to have everything go your way (to win a race) but the key is you can't panic. You have to take and absorb whatever bump comes your way, just like a shock absorber does, and get back on the track as quick as you can."

Harmon's car was destroyed when it hit a gate on the outside wall exiting Turn 2. According to a track official, the gate had not been properly secured prior to the start of practice and gave way when Harmon's car made contract. Johnny Sauter's car then hit Harmon's car after it had come to a rest on the track.

Harmon was taken to a nearby hospital for evaluation, was released and returned to the track.

Fellow driver Kenny Wallace called it "the worst wreck in NASCAR history" in terms of damage to Harmon's car.

Bahre conceded that the pavement in turns 3 and 4, repaved in June, had not been given enough time to cure.

"The top basically came off, but nothing broke up," Bahre said. "It didn't really break up ... it was sort of like a sand part on the top. That stuff, it's like if you threw sand on the track."

Bahre said the track would not be 100 percent when the Winston Cup Series returns in September, but he plans to repave the entire surface during the off-season.

Las Vegas resident and CART regular Patrick Carpentier said he expects the Champ Cars to run laps about five seconds slower than the more sophisticated -- and lighter -- F1 cars.

"I think my engineers calculate that the top speed will be very similar (to F1), within a few miles an hour," he said. "We think the CART car is going to be pretty much as fast (on the straightaways) as F1. But as for the lap, we think that F1 car is going to be faster by about five seconds.

"I think with an unlimited budget and the use of carbon fiber brakes (in F1), they can use a lot of stuff which makes the cars about three or four hundred pounds lighter than the Champ Cars. So they can go around corners and under braking, which is where you make the most time, and you have low-speed corners so they can brake a lot later than the Champ Cars and that's where they make their time."