Back to the Beach

“Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.” That’s just one of the many lines made famous in the 1985 cult-classic film “Back to the Future.” The quote is attributed to fictional inventor Doc Brown as he is addressing young Marty McFly’s concerns for the amount of road needed for the time-traveling DeLorean to get up to 88 mph to make the jump to the future.

The competitors of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series won’t be time-traveling anytime soon, but a time warp will be felt as the series turns its attention to the place where the 2012 season started for the next race on the schedule. But roads will be needed, as it’s time to go back to the beach for the Coke Zero 400 on Saturday night at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. The Coke Zero 400 has annually commemorated the Fourth of July holiday weekend. It also has come to be known as the halfway point of the Sprint Cup season. This weekend’s race is the 18th on the 36-race schedule.

Given the significance of this weekend’s race, it’s appropriate to go back to where it all began several months ago. Kurt Busch and the No. 51 Phoenix Racing team set out for 2012 with high hopes at the season-opening Daytona 500. Phoenix Racing team owner James Finch puts great effort into the organization’s superspeedway program, and the handling of the team’s car in practice throughout preseason testing and Speedweeks generated much optimism in the Phoenix Racing camp. But a lap-one accident that sent the No. 51 Chevrolet to the garage for several laps relegated Busch to a 39th-place finish. The team once again flashed its superspeedway strength a couple of months later at Daytona’s sister track – Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. Busch ran among the leaders throughout that race before getting taken out of contention in a late-race accident that resulted in a 20th-place finish.

To say Busch and the team go into the Coke Zero 400 looking for redemption is an understatement, and they’ll arm themselves with their handiest speedway car. It’s the same car they ran at the Daytona 500, which is also the same car driver Brad Keselowski drove to the team’s lone win in April 2009 at Talladega. Adding to Phoenix Racing’s confidence is the guy sitting behind the wheel again this time around. Although Busch has yet to score a points-paying win on one of NASCAR’s two superspeedway tracks, his prowess on the superspeedways has grown considerably since making his debut on the big tracks during his rookie season in 2001.

2004 Sprint Cup champion Busch enters this race with the third-highest driver rating among current drivers at Daytona. His stats at the 2.5-mile superspeedway oval include 10 top-five finishes and 12 top-10s in 23 career Sprint Cup points-paying starts. He has three runner-up finishes in the Daytona 500 – 2003, 2005 and 2008 – and has led at least one lap in nine of the last 12 races there. He goes into the weekend having led 223 laps over the last 15 races at Daytona – third among active drivers.

With Fourth of July celebrations Wednesday spilling into the Daytona race weekend, fireworks are sure to be flying both on and off the track. Speeds this weekend will be significantly more than double that 88-mph threshold from “Back to the Future,” but fans can expect to see some serious action when the series heads back to the beach.

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