LOOKING IN ON: MOTOR SPORTS

Thursday, June 15, 2006 | 7:20 a.m.

Kurt Busch finds himself on the outside looking in with 12 races remaining in NASCAR's "regular season."

Busch, the 2004 Nextel Cup champion and a Las Vegas native, is 17th in points after 14 races and trails the 10th-place driver, younger brother Kyle Busch, by 187 points.

And although it appears as if only the top 10 drivers in points will qualify for the 10-race Chase for the Nextel Cup, Kurt Busch said he and his Penske Racing South team aren't reaching for the panic button.

"We look at it where there's still plenty of races for things to go wrong and things to go right," he said. "Hopefully, we're on the right side of things with our team because we have had our share of bad luck and misfortune."

Busch got on the right side this past Sunday, snapping a four-race stretch of finishes outside the top 10 with a second-place effort at Pocono Raceway. Busch and the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge team qualified second for the race, had great pit stops and ran among the top five all day.

"There was no better over-the-wall performance out there than what my guys put together," Busch said of his pit crew. "They had me in and out at the front all day long. That last stop - they said it was something like a 12.3(-second stop) - that was pretty spectacular.

"If we can continue to (have races like) that and position ourselves, we can make this Chase."

Roy McCauley, Busch's crew chief, said his driver is using the "Matt Kenseth model" to keep his spirits up and focused on the goal of qualifying for the Chase.

Last year, Kenseth was 24th in the standings and 320 points out of 10th place after 14 races but rallied to qualify for the Chase.

"We're making up a chart that reflects those numbers to see how we're progressing compared to what (Kenseth's team) did last year," McCauley said. "They were 320 points back after 14 races, and we're 187 right now."

It "looks like we have a pretty good jump entering Michigan, but it'll be interesting to chart our progress and compare from week to week."

The series is at Michigan International Speedway this weekend, where Busch has one victory (2003) and three other top-10 finishes in 10 career starts.

Bill Lester will attempt to qualify for his second NASCAR Nextel Cup race Sunday at Michigan International Speedway in the No. 23 Bill Davis Racing Dodge.

In March, Lester became the first black driver in nearly 20 years to qualify for a Cup race; he finished 38th.

"Hopefully, we got some of the hoopla out of the way during the Atlanta race and this time around we can focus solely on the racing end of it," Lester said.

"I've always liked racing in Michigan and have been able to put together a couple of decent finishes in the past couple of years there in the Truck Series, so our confidence level as far as being able to have a little bit better race than we did in Atlanta is pretty high."

Also noted

8.2

Kurt Busch's average starting position in the first 14 races of the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup season

Consecutive seasons in which 13-time National Hot Rod Association Funny Car champion John Force has won at least one national event

"I've heard him say that he has beat me, and he is a liar. Never, ever, ever."

Denny Hamlin, on fellow NASCAR Nextel Cup driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., with whom Hamlin regularly plays auto racing video games