There is no doubt Kyle Busch has been a factor already in the 2009 season. The young hot-shoe got the season off to a bang, tallying six wins in all three series - two in each division. However, the last few weeks have seen the Joe Gibbs Racing driver struggle to catch the breaks needed to produce the results.

Following his win in Bristol in March, the younger Busch struggled at Martinsville - getting caught up in an early incident, suffering from repeated tire failures and pit road miscues. In Texas, the driver of the No. 18 led only two laps before finishing the day in a disappointing 18th-spot. Heading into Phoenix, Busch was looking to turn his luck around and score his third Cup Series victory of the year. While he was a threat for the win, a simple mistake once again cost the kid they call ‘Rowdy’ the results he was looking for.

Entering the pits fourth under the final caution of the day, the Steve Addington-led crew got the No. 18 off pit road behind Mark Martin, putting Busch in striking distance with only a handful of laps to go. Unable to celebrate their quick pit work, NASCAR determined Busch had violated the pit road speed upon exit, forcing him to the back of the longest line.

“At the last box they said we were .005 too fast leaving pit road,” crew chief Steve Additionton explained. “What are you going to do? You have to go to the back and get what you can out of it.  We didn’t have the best racecar, but we had a lot better racecar than we’ve had here in the past couple of races.  This is the first time we ran this setup, so we’ll look forward to coming back here in November.”

Unable to make up the ground lost, Busch ended the 500-kilometer Subway Fresh Fit 500 in the seventeenth-position.

“We came here with a new setup and we weren’t the best car, but we made a huge improvement from last year,” admitted Busch.  “We didn’t want to see that caution come out at the end.  The guys had a great stop and (NASCAR) said we were too fast exiting in the last pit stall and it killed our day.”

Despite the unexpected finish, Busch was able to hold on to the seventh-spot in the series standings. Heading to Talladega next weekend, the 23-year-old will look to keep his nose clean, avoid the ‘Big One’ and put himself in position to earn that third Cup Series victory of the season.

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