Penske Racings Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch Working well

Well, now that Ryan Newman has a couple of top 10 finishes in a row and his teammate Kurt Busch is doing well also, I have been reading a lot of stories with titles like "Penske teams show good signs " , "Penske on verge of turnaround?", "Two more top-10 efforts boost Penske's stock" and "Welcome Back, Mr. Penske". I have been thumbing through these articles.

One big thing that is happening it seems like is that Newman and Busch seem to end up working together. It is great to have a team mate that you can work with.

This year Newman and Busch are sharing set ups and talking to each other about strategy. That is not how it has always been at Penske Racing. When Matt Borland was the crew chief for Ryan Newman's #12 Dodge, he kept a lot of the information about the #12 to himself and did not "share". And before that, Newman's team mate Rusty Wallace was calling his own shots so not much was exchanged there either.

Roger Penske has been quoted several times saying that the two teams are working closely and well together.

It seems to be working, and while I am not a Kurt Busch fan, I hope for Newman's sake that the two teams keep working closely with each other.

Keep an eye out, you will usually see the #12 and the #2 running one in front of the other or at least in the same vicinity. Usually the #2 is leading, but hopefully that will change as well.

Mike Pratt