TEAM REPORTS (VARIOUS LOCATIONS) - PENSKE RACING

ARCA RE/MAX SERIES

After starting on the pole, Sam Hornish Jr., driver of the No. 27 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger, overcame early pit stop problems in Friday's ARCA RE/MAX 200 at Michigan International Speedway to claim his stock car career-best finish in his inaugural ARCA race.

Hornish, whose crew had difficulty refueling his Dodge prior to the 100-lap race's mid-point, fought his way from 20th to second in the final 60 laps. During that time span, he narrowly missed an accident involving Justin Allgaier, who was battling for the lead at the time, and he engaged in an intense duel with Tim McCreadie for the runner-up slot.

¿I had fun out there today.¿ Hornish said in his post-race media center press conference. ¿We had the problem with not being able to get fuel in the car, which hurt us, but things like that happen from time-to-time. I really wasn¿t too worried about it because we were here to learn. The Mobil 1 Dodge handled well and we were able to get back through traffic and I was able to get that valuable seat time.¿

Hornish, who has three Indy Car wins at the 2-mile oval, led the first 29 laps before the refueling problems during the second and third caution periods dropped him to 20th. On lap 26, Hornish entered the pits for a routine stop -- four tires and fuel. However, the team could get the car's gas tank only half full. During the third of seven caution flags, while the rest of the lead-lap cars remained on the track, the team brought Hornish to his pit on lap 41 to top off the fuel.

Exercising patience, Hornish methodically worked his way through the field. By lap 72, Hornish found himself engaged in an intense duel with Tim McCreadie for second place. With 24 laps remaining, the two were battling fender-to-fender. Lap after lap, Hornish would pull to the inside of McCreadie in turns one and two, fall in behind him on the backstretch, then attempt to pass him as they exited turn four. Hornish finally accomplished his mission 11 laps from the checkered flag.

¿I had to work pretty hard getting around the 31 [McCreadie]," Hornish said. "I pretty much burned off the right-front tire, which kept us from really challenging for the lead there at the end.

"As a race car driver, I liked the way it was going in the beginning. But as a student, trying to learn and getting more seat time, practice and working on adaptability, that was probably the best scenario we could have asked for. We had times where we were working on slower traffic, working on restarts, and trying to do the best that we could do out there. And on the other hand, we were able to do a lot of side-by-side racing. I think we had it all today.¿

Hornish will be back at Michigan International Speedway in August for the Busch Series CARFAX 250. He will drive the No. 12 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger in that event, which will begin at 3:30 p.m. EDT.

NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES

BROOKLYN, Mich. (June 17, 2007) ¿ Bad luck plagued Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman in Sunday's Citizens Bank 400 at Michigan International Speedway, relegating the Penske drivers to 25th- and 37th-place finishes, respectively.

Busch's bad luck occurred during a round of green-flag pit stops late in the 200-lap race on the 2-mile track. Newman's sour day started early and never stopped. The ill-fated day left Busch 16th in the point standings, 144 points behind 12th-place Dale Earnhardt Jr. with 11 races remaining before the "Chase for the Championship" begins. Newman dropped two positions to 15th, 75 points out of 12th.

Busch was running a strong fourth in his Miller Lite Dodge Charger when the third round of green-flag pit stops was cycling through. During that segment, the Las Vegas native pitted on lap 153 for four tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment to the left-rear tire.

However, only two laps later Busch, who was back in fourth, told his crew he felt a bad vibration. The vibration worsened and the team was forced to pit again on lap 165 to address the problem. The issue was found to involve the lug nuts on the right-front wheel.

The vibration again reared its ugly head on lap 173. By lap 181, Busch once again was forced to pit. After pitting on lap 182, Busch dropped to 29th. Busch, who led once for two laps, fought his way back up to 25th before the race ended.

"That's a pretty tough pill to swallow right there," Busch said. "We were definitely top-five here this afternoon before the problem. All we can do is try to get it all together and go after it again next week on the road course in Sonoma [Calif.]."

Crew chief Troy Raker said the loose lug nuts with 50 laps remaining did some damage to the wheel studs.

"That came back to bite us and we had to make the other pit stop," Raker explained. "Kurt drove his heart out and the guys gave us great stops all day except for that one problem."

Newman's problems began just 13 laps into the event when he cut a left-rear tire. A portion of the tire came off the wheel and wrapped around the Alltel Dodge Charger's rear-end housing. The Alltel team lost three laps while the crew cut away the hot tire.

"We just caught a piece of debris or something and it popped that tire," Newman said about the incident. "It wrapped itself around the caliper and rotor and stuff and it cost us three laps."

It also left Newman 43rd and on a lap to himself. At this point, his only hope of gaining positions hinged on other competitors' departure from the event.

On the restart following the second of four caution periods, Newman was attempting to regain a lap by passing then-leader Jeff Gordon and Jeff Green's lapped car in a three-wide situation. Green's car caught the rear of Newman's and sent the Penske driver spinning on the backstretch. When the smoke had cleared, seven cars had been involved in the incident.

Newman had to make another green-flag stop for four tires and fuel on lap 114. The final yellow flag waved a lap later and Newman found himself four laps down. That left him 37th at the finish.

"We had a real good car," Newman said.

"We¿re just like everybody else. We'll work hard on our road course program and hopefully, Sonoma goes better for us."

The NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series travels to Sonoma next weekend for the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway. The season's first of two road-course races will be broadcast on Sunday at 5 p.m. EDT on TNT and PRN radio.