MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- The experimenting, or "messing around," as crew chief Dave Rogers calls it, is ending for Kyle Busch's team.
Busch enters Sunday's race at Martinsville Speedway 10th in NASCAR Sprint Cup points with Rogers, who joined the team late last season. Rogers came from Joe Gibbs Racing's Nationwide program and had no experience with the current Cup car before the move.
It's been an adjustment.
"It's the most difficult car I've ever worked with," Rogers said Friday. "It's a whole lot less forgiving than the Nationwide car.
"Each race we've gone down a different path, trying to see which one works better for us. We've have similar results at all the races, we've been about a seventh- to 10th-place car at most races except Bristol, where we were off. We're going to start to hone on one package to do more fine-tuning. It's time to stop messing around and pick a package."
Friday, though, was not the best day for Busch, who was 32nd fastest in practice.
Even with some struggles, Busch likes what Rogers is doing after replacing Steve Addington late last year.
"I just didn't feel like we had enough leadership skills around the team (last year) and things like that to keep us championship caliber year after year," Busch said.
HARVICK STARTS FIRST: For the third time in the last four Cup events at Martinsville Speedway, rain forced the cancellation of qualifying. (Lineup in Scoreboard. B5)
The lineup was set by car owner points and the rule book, putting series leader Kevin Harvick on the pole for Sunday's Goody's Fast Pain Relief 500. Matt Kenseth starts second.
Starting first, Harvick's team had first choice of pit stalls and chose the one nearest the pit exit. Jimmie Johnson, who starts third, says that is a valuable stall because it's easy to exit on the short track.
"It is a huge advantage," Johnson said. "I have been very fortunate to be in that stall and those guys (Harvick) are going to be tough."
Cup teams did get to practice before the rain arrived. Ryan Newman was fastest, at 96.934 mph.
BACK IN ACTION: Kevin Harvick spent Thursday testing at North Wilkesboro Speedway for this weekend. It was Harvick's first time at the historic track, which will be open for some racing later this season.
"The surface is fine," Harvick said. "They've done a really good job of cleaning it up. Obviously, they still have a lot to do with some of the facility. We were one of the first ones there just trying to feel out what it would be useful for and things like that."
BREAKING BAD: Charlie Glotzbach, injured in last weekend's old-timers race at Bristol Motor Speedway, told Sirius NASCAR Radio on Thursday that he broke his sternum, bruised some ribs and suffered a cracked bone in his lower back.
Glotzbach was injured when he T-boned Larry Pearson's car as it slid down the track after hitting the wall.
Glotzbach was released from a Bristol hospital Wednesday. Pearson has been transferred to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte.
Contact Dustin Long at 373-7062 or dustin.long @news-record.com
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