Looks like Penske... #2....

Reigning Cup champion Kurt Busch leaving Roush Racing





By MIKE HARRIS, AP Motorsports Writer

August 9, 2005

Reigning Nextel Cup champion Kurt Busch has signed a contract to drive for Penske Racing South in 2007 and has asked to be released from his current contract with Roush Racing, apparently in hopes of replacing retiring Rusty Wallace next season.

Don Miller, president of the Penske team, confirmed Busch's signing to The Associated Press on Tuesday.

``Yeah, we have signed him up for 2007,'' Miller said. ``As for anything else, the lawyers tell us we can't really comment. We'll just have to see how things shake out.

``Kurt Busch is a great driver and Ryan (Newman) said he is looking forward to having him as a teammate and working with him.

Newman is the current teammate of Wallace, the 1989 series champion, who is retiring at the end of the 2005 season.

In a statement, Roush said the team will wait for ``an indefinite period'' before making a decision on Busch's request to leave after this season. The team said it would have no additional comment on the split.

Busch stands fifth in this year's points race, 277 points behind leader Tony Stewart. After a slow start to his Cup defense, he has finished in the top 10 in five of his past six races, including Sunday's 10th-place finish in the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard in Indianapolis.

With victories this season at Pocono and Phoenix, Busch seems a solid bet to be among the top 10 drivers in the points standings when NASCAR resets the field for its 10-race Chase for the Championship following the Sept. 10 race in Richmond, Va.

Busch has been with Roush since 2000, when owner Jack Roush hired him to drive in the Craftsman Truck Series.

He won four races that year and finished second in the points standings, leading Roush to move him straight to NASCAR's top series without the traditional intermediate stop on the second-tier Busch Series.

He won his first Cup race in 2002 and had four wins that season. For his Cup career, Bush has 13 wins in 171 starts.

Busch is one of five drivers racing in the Nextel Cup series for Roush. The others are Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards.

Busch, who turned 27 last week, was the third-youngest champion in NASCAR history when he won the title last season.

He recently said he felt his team was poised to make a run for back-to-back titles, something no one has done since Jeff Gordon in 1997 and 1998.

``We're up to the challenge again,'' Busch said. ``At this point in the season, everybody feels a little bit of pressure to lay the hammer down a little bit harder.''

Busch has a history of feuds with rival drivers -- Jimmy Spencer punched him in the nose in 2003 -- and run-ins with NASCAR officials.

Earlier this year, after a tantrum at Darlington that included expletives directed at NASCAR officials over his in-car radio, Busch was placed on unofficial probation by NASCAR and given notice that the sanctioning body would tolerate no more bad behavior.

Updated on Tuesday, Aug 9, 2005 2:02 pm EDT