TEAM REPORTS (VARIOUS LOCATIONS) - Penske Racing Race Report

Ryan Newman led once for four laps en route to his fifth-place finish in Sunday's Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, while Kurt Busch fought back from one lap down to place eighth.

The Penske Racing teammates were the only Dodges to finish in the top 10 in the 334-lap event on the 1.5-mile track. The top-five finish also was Newman's best performance at the facility since he won the Samsung 500 in 2003, and it allowed him to gain two positions in the point standings. With two races remaining, Newman is now 14th, 68 points behind the 13th-place Dale Earnhardt Jr.

"It was a good run for us to finish in the top five with the Alltel Dodge," said Newman, whose team earned its third Checker's/Rally's Double Drive-Thru Challenge Award by being the team that finished on the lead lap and spent the least amount of time on pit road during the race.

"Nevertheless, we didn't have the best race car on the short run. We had a decent race car in the long runs. The short runs got us behind and we had a few of those there at the end. The two-tire call was a good one to get track position. We just didn't have a fast enough race car to stay up front."

Newman led late in the race when crew chief Mike Nelson decided to change only right-side tires on the Alltel Dodge during the event's 12th and final caution period. Newman took the lead on lap 302 and held it until the race restarted on lap 306 when Matt Kenseth passed him for the No. 1 position. Still, Newman managed to hang on to fifth to be the race's top-finishing Dodge.

Busch clawed his way to a top-10 finish after experiencing a wheel issue that left him a lap down at one point and suffering front nose damage on his Miller Lite Dodge. Before those issues occurred, however, Busch led twice in the race's first half for 10 laps.

Busch's problems began on lap 133 when he received right-side tires only during the sixth of 12 caution periods. He was forced to pit again the next lap around after running over debris and suffering a flat left-rear tire. That relegated him to 21st for the lap 141 restart.

Busch had made his way back up to 17th some 10 laps later, when the seventh caution flag flew. The lead-lap cars remained on the track and Busch started picking off cars one by one when the green flag waved. By the halfway mark at lap 167, Busch had climbed to 11th. He was seventh at lap 182 and cracked the top five at lap 188.

Busch pitted on lap 191 for four tires and air pressure adjustments. However, only four laps later, he told his crew that he was experiencing a serious right-front vibration. Busch held on for the next 14 laps, hoping for a yellow flag to address the problem. He never got it and was forced to pit under the green on lap 205. The right-front wheel was loose. Busch lost a lap and dropped to 23rd.

A seven-car accident off turn two on lap 221 left Busch's Miller Lite Dodge with nose damage. During the ninth caution period, Busch's crew beat out the damaged sheet metal with a mallet and patched the hole. He then regained his lost lap on the next caution period, passing Bobby Labonte to put himself into the Lucky Dog position just as the 10th yellow flag waved for Greg Biffle's spin in turn four.

Busch was 16th on the lap 238 restart and displayed the same strength he possessed earlier in the race. He was back up to 10th at lap 248.

During Busch's pit stop during the final caution period, the Miller Lite Dodge received air pressure changes to the left rear and right front, along with a minor wedge adjustment to the left rear. Those changes, however, made his car too loose and Busch had to settle for an eighth-place finish.

With two races remaining in the season, Busch maintains ninth in the standings.

The NEXTEL Cup tour now heads to Phoenix International Raceway for next weekend's Checker Auto Parts 500. Sunday's Checker Auto Parts 500 is scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m. EST with coverage on ABC and MRN Radio.

Busch Series

FORT WORTH, Texas (Nov. 3, 2007) - Despite a strong start in Saturday's O'Reilly Challenge at Texas Motor Speedway, Sam Hornish Jr. experienced early misfortunes with his No. 12 Kodak Dodge Charger that relegated him to a 31st-place finish in the NASCAR Busch Series race.

"Obviously, we wanted more out of it, but we got to run 194 laps here, which is another place where I have minimal amount of track time (in a stock car)," Hornish said. "So, I'm happy that we got to run as long as we did. It could have been pretty bad if we were totally taken out of the race on that spin."

Hornish, who started 16th, began the 200-lap race with a loose handing race car. On lap 21, Hornish spun off turn four, nearly missing the 1.5-mile track's wall and bringing out the race's second of four caution flags. Hornish glided through the frontstretch apron's grass, but his Dodge suffered a cut right-front tire in the process, which tore off the front fender.

"We got a little bit loose and had to get out of it," the defending IndyCar Texas race winner said. "I thought everything would be OK until the cut tire tore up the fenders coming into the pits. That pretty much made it impossible to keep up with a good speed. But we stayed out there and got a bunch of laps in.

"I was really happy with the guys on the Kodak Dodge team because they didn't give up at all. They got the car fixed, allowing me to get more laps."

Prior to the incident, Hornish was running laps two-tenths faster than the front-runners.

Hornish pitted three times to repair his race car during the second caution period, maintaining lead-lap status. However, the damage to his car proved too extensive to race competitively with the lead-lap cars for the remainder of the race. Determined to get much needed seat time, Hornish made the best of the situation and brought the car home six laps down.

"It's been a couple mo nths since I've been in a stock car race," Hornish noted. "These guys have more experience in the last two months running stock cars than I've had in my entire life, but that's part of the learning process. Knowing how loose the car needs to be at the beginning of a run to be good at the end. Every track is different. Some tracks, you don't want it to be so loose at the beginning. It's all a learning process and you never know until you go and do it. I'm going to keep my head up and hopefully, continue improving."

Hornish's next NASCAR Busch Series appearance in the No. 12 Kodak Dodge Charger is next weekend at Phoenix International Raceway for the ARIZONA TRAVEL 200 on Saturday at 4 p.m. EST.