Busch, No. 18 team able to use Pocono as test session

It was hard to tell exactly how Kyle Busch felt in the aftermath of Sunday's Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway.

Because by the time most of the media corps reached his hauler, Busch was long gone -- in good company at a venue where a lot of helicopter trips get drivers and key team personnel to local airports -- and the garage quickly empties.

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I wanted to try something a little out of the box than what we'd been doing and what we knew we could get back to, and I think we'll be just fine.
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STEVE ADDINGTONBut the beauty of Busch's so-far dominant season in the Sprint Cup Series is that for every lightning bolt launched by the sometimes temperamental Las Vegas youngster, his Joe Gibbs Racing crew chief, Steve Addington, keeps the situation grounded.

That was the case Sunday at Pocono, where Addington said his No. 18 Toyota crew did a fair bit of R&D work, aimed at the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship that begins in six races.

It gave Addington some comfort despite the fact that Busch finished 36th Sunday, after finishing last here a month ago.

Addington said the point situation, even though Busch's 253-point lead over Earnhardt Jr. coming into the event had shrunk to 176 points after it; made him more inclined to do development work than anything else.

"Yeah -- coming in here I wanted to do it," Addington said of some front-end work the team tried at Pocono. "I wanted to try something a little out of the box than what we'd been doing and what we knew we could get back to, and I think we'll be just fine."

If the Chase started today, Busch would have a 40-point edge on Pocono winner Carl Edwards, based on 10 bonus points per win. Busch has seven victories, while Edwards has four minus the 10 points he lost when his car failed post-race inspection after he won at California.

That puts Addington in tweaking and tuning mode for a few more races.

"We came in [to Pocono] and we said we've got a little bit of a cushion [in the points] here, so we were gonna try to make the car better with some stuff we thought we were gonna make gains on, and I think we did a little bit," Addington said. "They were not big gains, but we made a little bit better gains and I think we're headed in the right direction."