LOOKING IN ON: MOTOR SPORTS

Thursday, Sept. 27, 2007 | 7:22 a.m.

Postseason struggle

Kurt Busch has been down this road before.

After 17 regular-season races, Busch found himself 236 points out of 12th place in the NASCAR Nextel Cup standings and in danger of not qualifying for the Chase for the Nextel Cup for the second year in a row.

Busch, a Las Vegas native, put together an impressive streak - including a pair of victories - over the next nine races and qualified for the Chase.

Now, two races into NASCAR's postseason, Busch again is faced with the prospect of overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds if he is to capture his second Nextel Cup championship. A broken part in the carburetor of his No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge two weeks ago and a blown tire last weekend have left Busch 11th among the 12 Chase drivers and 151 points behind front-running Jeff Gordon with eight races remaining.

Finishes of 25th and 29th are a stark contrast to the way Busch opened the Chase in 2004, when he won the championship. Busch won the first race of the Chase that year, turned in two top-five finishes after that and never relinquished the points lead.

"I'm pretty frustrated right now because we had cars strong enough in both races to be up there with the (points) leaders," Busch said of the past two races. "A broken 50-cent part got us at New Hampshire and the tire cost us at Dover.

"What's so frustrating is that - at worst - we had top-five cars in both races. If we could have just managed that, we'd be sitting there only 10 points out of the lead right now without even leading a single lap."

Busch was running fourth Sunday when his tire blew and he crashed out with 14 laps remaining in the race. Had he maintained that position, Busch would have moved up to eighth in points and would be trailing Gordon by only 67 points. Instead, Busch and his Penske Racing team are left to ponder the what-ifs.

Busch and his crew chief, Pat Tryson, huddled Monday at the team's shop in Mooresville, N.C., and agreed they have to approach the last eight races in much the same manner they did the final nine events of the regular season.

"We'll be trying to win poles in order to get good spots on pit road (and) we'll be after every bonus point we can get," Busch said. "We'll be doing everything we can to win all of the remaining races.

"We have to look at it as, let's stay focused and do everything we possibly can. Then, as far as the points go, let the chips fall where they may. That's all you can do."

Busch is able to keep a positive outlook because many of the tracks coming up are venues at which he has performed well .

"We think our intermediate track program with the old car is second to none right now," he said, eyeing the five upcoming races at 1.5-mile ovals.

"I can't wait to get to Talladega with the strength we've been showing there and at Daytona. Our (Car of Tomorrow) program has made so much improvement. Like I said, we're top five at worst on those tracks. We've really dug ourselves a hole - a deep one - but we'll be doing everything possible to dig back out."

NHRA safety

When one of John Force's drivers, Eric Medlen, was killed in a testing accident in March, Force vowed his multi car team wouldn't race again until he was satisfied he had taken every step possible to minimize the effects on the driver of the violent side-to-side shaking that killed Medlen.

When Force and his team returned to the track - at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in April - they had instituted several safety changes, including adding padding to the roll cages around the heads of the drivers. Force's safety changes were shared with the National Hot Rod Association and adopted by all the other teams.

Kenny Bernstein, who was involved in a violent crash Sunday with Force at the NHRA national event in Texas, credited those safety changes for allowing him to walk away without injury.

"Those big roll pads we have near our head that were beefed up as a result of the safety improvements John Force Racing is researching helped me a lot," Bernstein said. "When we suffered the impact of the hit, my head was moving side to side and I got a little headache, almost like it feels when you experience tire shake.

"It would have been a lot worse had we not had the roll pads."

Force wasn't as fortunate. The 14-time NHRA funny car champion suffered a broken left ankle, a deep laceration on his right knee, broken fingers and lacerations on his right hand, and a dislocated left wrist when his car broke in half after the impact with Bernstein's funny car.

Kurt Busch's average finish in the first two Chase for the Nextel Cup races.

100

Career NASCAR Cup victories for team owner Jack Roush. One of Roush's drivers, Carl Edwards, won his third race of the season Sunday at Dover International Speedway.