Busch posts another top-10 finish

Monday, Nov. 11, 2002 | 10:17 a.m.

AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Had it not been for a mishap on pit road 30 laps into Sunday's Checker Auto Parts 500, Kurt Busch might have been celebrating his third win in the past four races.

Instead, the Las Vegas native was relegated to a sixth-place finish at Phoenix International Raceway that moved him into third place in the NASCAR Winston Cup points standings going into the final race of the season.

Despite damaging his front end when he collided with Kenny Wallace coming out of the pits, Busch led twice for 117 laps, including a 31-lap stretch late in the race.

On his final pit stop, however, Busch's crew made an adjustment to tighten the handling on his No. 97 Ford but he wound up with an ill-handling car. Although he came out of the pits in third place when race winner Matt Kenseth and runner-up Rusty Wallace took only two tires, Busch was unable to run down the leaders in the final 50 laps.

"That last set (of tires), we made an adjustment to tighten the car up but it went loose on us so that was why we fell back a little bit," Busch said.

"I ruined (Kenny Wallace's) door and I ruined our chance to keep the toe straight so it made for an interesting day; the car would adapt differently to different tire sets. We would make an adjustment to make the car tight and it would go loose on us, so we were really struggling down in (turns) one and two when the shade was coming onto the track."

Busch said his crew didn't risk taking on only two tires on the final pit stop because of the earlier damage.

"We were pinned up against a rock and a hard place with our toe being bent out," Busch said. "We got in that wreck on pit road so we were scared a little bit about what our right-front tire wear was doing so we had to be conservative.

"We took four tires and it ended up where two tires were quicker today so we're still scratching our heads about that."

Although Busch was denied his fourth straight top-five finish, the 24-year-old was pleased to learn he had jumped from fifth to third in points.

"It's almost scary because we're only nine (points) out of sixth," Busch said. "All in all, it was a good day for the Rubbermaid Ford, (to take) third place in points. It's going to be a tough one next week -- we could slide back but yet we can maintain that third in points."

Busch, who officially was eliminated from championship contention Sunday, is eight points ahead of Jimmy Johnson and Rusty Wallace and nine points ahead of Jeff Gordon going into the season finale Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Fittipaldi, who qualified 17th in the 43-car field, had a problem with his radio and ran out of gas early in the race. After losing two laps while pitting under the green flag, Fittipaldi was involved in a hard collision with the wall in Turn 3 on lap 258 after getting tapped from behind by Jason Leffler.

"I really don't know what happened," Fittipaldi said of the incident. "I was trying to finish the race (when) the number seven hit me from behind.

"My spotter told me that he was on the inside and I gave him enough room. I don't know what happened -- maybe he wasn't looking, but it was a pretty big hit."

Fittipaldi is moving from CART to NASCAR next season and will drive selected ARCA, Busch Series and Winston Cup races for Petty Enterprises in preparation for a full-time Winston Cup ride in 2004.

Although he finished second Sunday -- his fourth runner-up finish this season -- Wallace clearly was disappointed that he wasn't able to leave Phoenix with his first win of 2002.

"Oh, man, I wanted it real bad," Wallace said. "I just didn't get it.

"We had a pretty easy top-five, top six car all day long and I really felt we could have won the thing at the end there, but Matt (Kenseth) was just too tough."

The Chevrolet Monte Carlo will be sponsored by NetZero, Sprague's sponsor this season in the Busch Series, and the new team will receive technical assistance from Hendrick Motorsports.