Kurt Busch, a lifelong Cubs fan, is blogging for Players Only throughout the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Busch is fourth in the drivers’ standings entering Sunday’s Chase finale in Homestead, Fla.
Man, it’s hard to believe that another season is coming to an end this weekend in South Florida. It has been exactly five years since we won our NASCAR Sprint Cup championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
A lot has changed in those five years. I was with Roush Racing when it came down to the final race of the 2004 season, the same 400-miler at Homestead, where we had an incredible race and overcame all kinds of obstacles to beat Jimmie Johnson for the title by just eight points. Since then, I’ve switched teams, switched manufacturers and had a couple of different crew chiefs.
One of the biggest things that hasn’t changed since then is Jimmie and the strength of his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team. What they have been able to accomplish is amazing.
Jimmie enters this weekend in the catbird seat and ready to celebrate a fourth consecutive points championship Sunday after the Ford 400. Anything can happen, but I certainly like his chances. He just has to finish 25th or better to win it.
As for our team, we still have quite a bit on the line at Homestead this weekend. We’re coming in there fourth in the points standings and only 42 points behind third-place Jeff Gordon. The sixth-place finish we had last Sunday at Phoenix was a big boost for us. We were able to close the gap between us and third place and increase our buffer from only seven points up to 74 points on fifth-place Tony Stewart.
Sunday’s race will be the final time that Pat Tryson will be on top of our pit box calling the shots for our team. He decided back in the summer that he would be moving on to another team next season.
We’ve shared a lot of success together. In the 92 races with Pat as crew chief, we have scored five wins, 18 top-five finishes and 41 top-10s. Pat has led our team into the Chase for the title during two of the three seasons we’ve been together.
We’ll be going all out to win Sunday’s race and a good indication of that is our decision to bring out our Texas race-winning car. It’s a great car.
So, if everything goes our way, we’ll be able to celebrate one final victory with Pat Tryson as our team leader and finish third in the final points standings.
They were still talking last week about the huge celebration we had after the big Texas win. I can guarantee you that if we win at Homestead on Sunday, we’ll throw an even bigger party. It’ll be like a race win celebration and going-away party for Pat all wrapped up in one.
