Kurt Busch building momentum for long haul at Stewart-Haas

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Kurt Busch's crew chief was consigned to his motor coach because of a kidney stone.

Busch's No. 41 Chevrolet developed a worrisome vibration, then he turned Jimmie Johnson in a corner while contesting third place.

A penalty for an unattended tire on pit road sunk him deep in the field.

He recovered to lead but surrendered it to pit with a scheduled 24 laps left, plowed into Carl Edwards and finished 15th.

Now that, Busch said, was an encouraging Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. And that is a truly incredible – but incredibly true - statement from a former series champion whose assessments have often skewed acerbic.

"We had a very eventful day," Busch said. "I don't even know how to describe it. This is a good sign."

For a driver who has been dogged by negative circumstance – self-generated and not – in a career including 25 wins and the 2004 Sprint Cup championship, Busch overcame a passel of pre-fab excuses to turn a 15th-place finish into momentum entering the Toyota Owners 400 on Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway.

Busch's analysis seemed rooted in the mechanics of grooming his Stewart-Haas Racing machine into a more consistent contender.

In his first season with the team in 2014, he won at Martinsville Speedway to nab a Chase for the Sprint Cup berth but fizzled in the postseason and finished 12th in points.

This season, after missing the first three races serving a NASCAR suspension stemming from a domestic abuse allegation, Busch was strong immediately, perpetuating progress established late in 2014 when he was assigned Tony Gibson as crew chief. He finished fifth at Phoenix in his return and was passed for the lead by Brad Keselowski on the final lap at Fontana and finished third. Busch had led laps each of the past three weeks but finished 14th at Martinsville and Texas. One slot lower at Bristol didn't feel like a regression given the circumstances, apparently, especially after leading six times for 98 laps.

"We had good long run speed (at Bristol) and that is the most positive thing to take from the last couple of weeks where we didn't have that long run speed," he said. "I think we found some good things in our Haas Automation Chevrolet."

The weirdness began just before the race Sunday when Gibson was forced to seek medical attention and ceded the pit box to engineer Johnny Klausmeier (Gibson passed the stone early Monday morning and plans to return at Richmond). Events seemed in control enough when Busch advanced from his seventh starting position to the lead from Lap 70-125.

Running inside the top five on Lap 279, Busch wavered under Johnson, sending both cars awry. Deep in the field after pitting for tires, Busch advanced through the field again but lost much of that position after his crew was assessed an uncontrolled tire penalty on a later pit stop. He traversed the field to lead again from Laps 444 through 477, when he and Klausmeier were forced into a crucial decision over old tires. After a pause, they opted to pit.

"We had 100 laps on our tires. I thought we needed to pit. Klausmeier thought we needed to pit," Busch said.

Busch began rocketing through the field on new tires and was hovering outside the top five with five laps left in the scheduled distance when he mashed Edwards from behind after his No. 19 Toyota went askew and impacted the wall.

"We had fresh tires coming up through. Edwards pushed the cushion," Busch said. "He hit some ice, I hit the same stuff or he was throwing the marbles out on the track and I just got sucked right in there. I was like, 'I'm avoiding the wreck,' but I couldn't do anything to avoid them."

But he apparently avoided the figurative wreck of a season-jarring public fit of pique in a race rife with potential triggers. Instead, Busch left Bristol 22nd in the driver standings but espousing positives and potential.

"We salvaged 15th," he said. "The car could have won. We will get it. We are not going to get one win. We are going to get many wins."

Follow James on Twitter @brantjames