Busch says Penske needs to improve, won't speculate on new driver

[Raven]

By SceneDaily Staff
Friday, July 25, 2008

Penske Racing's Kurt Busch says that he believes the team is interviewing a handful of candidates to replace Ryan Newman next season, but he agrees with Newman's assessment that the team needs to step up in some areas.

Busch, who is in his third full season with the organization - and in his worst points position in years, says the organization is working to both improve its overall performance and to find a driver for the No. 12 NASCAR Sprint Cup entry next season. Busch, who heads into this weekend's Allstate 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway 18th in the standings, says he thinks the group could do a little work to boost its attractiveness to a driver.

"That's what's on the burner right now at Penske Racing is finding a new teammate," Busch said Thursday. "&hellip At Penske Racing, maybe we need to be a bit more attractive if we want to find a top-notch type driver that wants to come over here and compete. We need to get our cars a little faster, we need to get the motors a little more powerful, all the things that I think Newman mentioned. So we've got our work cut out for us, we're working hard finding new people. That's the same thing that we're doing with finding a driver is we've got four or five that we're interviewing and we're going through the process to find out who's going to be the best fit."

Busch doesn't think the team needs a major overhaul or anything like that. He just believes it could use some work when it comes to streamlining the internal process. That could make the team more competitive overall. This year, Newman is the group's top performer at 16th in the standings. Rookie Sam Hornish Jr. is 33rd. Both Newman and Busch have victories, though, with Newman taking the season-opening Daytona 500 and Busch winning on fuel strategy at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

"I think that there's some of the things that can be adjusted very easily and then there's plans that have to be put into place to get us to where we need to be," Busch said. "We've asked our engineering department to step it up, to bring us some more quality ideas, and they haven't, and then &hellip also I've noticed there's a timeline of things that if you ask for something it takes a little bit longer than it needs to. By the time you wanted to get that part bolted onto your car, three weeks have gone by and the competition's already got that. So we just need to be a bit more proactive, and I think this situation can help us build a stronger program."

As to who will replace Newman, Busch refused to speculate. Asked specifically if David Stremme was a candidate and who else might be involved, he chose not to enter the debate.

"I think that you're right in mentioning his name," he said. "It wouldn't be my place to bring up the names of the others &hellip There's quality drivers out there, and we're going to find one of those to help make this team stronger and build it up to where he'll be able to work with Sam, myself and make this team a more impactful team to where we can actually go out there and compete for the top-fives week in and week out."

Ok Rusty, Kurt Busch just said "Penske need to improve", so because of that criticism, does that mean Penske is gonna release him too? See how easy it is to make Rusty look very stupid?