* Kurt Busch won the Subway Fresh 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, scoring his 12th NASCAR NEXTEL Cup victory in his 158th career start. His last victory came in New Hampshire International Speedway in September 2004, 17 races ago.
* Busch became sixth different winner in eight races in 2005.
* Busch climbed from fourth to second in the NASCAR NEXTEL CUP point standings. Busch has ranked in the top 10 in the point standings since Rockingham last February, 43 straight races.
* It marked Busch’s first victory in six races at Phoenix and his fourth straight top-10 finish at the Arizona superspeedway.
* Busch begins the 2005 season with five top-10 finishes in eight races.
* Busch scored the fifth victory for car owner Jack Roush at Phoenix International Raceway. Thos five victories have been posted by four different drivers : Jeff Burton (two) along with Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth and Busch (one each) . This was Roush’s 78th victory as a car owner and fourth this season.
Notebook Items
* Michael Waltrip (second) posted his fourth top-10 finish in 17 races at Phoenix International Raceway. It was his first top-five finish since he finished fourth at Infineon Raceway last June. It is his best finish at Phoenix. Waltrip has scored three top-10 finishes in eight races this season. He climbed from 24th to 18th in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup point standings.
* Jeff Burton (third) posted his sixth top-10 finish in 11 races at Phoenix International Raceway. Burton scored his best finish since he finished second at Daytona in July 2003 and his first top-10 finish in 2005.
* Dale Earnhardt Jr. (fourth) scored his fourth straight top-five finish in six races at Phoenix International Raceway. This is his fourth top-10 finish in 2005. He climbed from 15th to 12th in the point standings. He ranked 27th after Las Vegas, five races ago.
* Brian Vickers (fifth) his first top-10 finish in three races at Phoenix International Raceway and his career-best finish in 49 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup races.
* Bobby Labonte (sixth) scored his sixth top-10 finish in 13 races at Phoenix. Labonte scored his first top-10 finish in 2005.
* Kyle Busch (eighth) was the highest finishing Raybestos Rookie-of-the-Year contender for the fifth time in 2005. It was the second top-10 finish of his 14-race career.
* Johnny Sauter (ninth) posted his first top-10 finish in 24 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup races.
* Jimmie Johnson (15th) ended a 13-race top-10 streak that began at Charlotte last fall. He remained first in the point standings with a 173-point lead over second-place Kurt Busch, the largest point lead of the 2005 season.
* Mark Martin (16th) has been running at the finish in 30 consecutive races , the longest current streak.
* Tony Stewart (33rd) dropped from 11th to 14th in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup standings, his lowest points position since he was 14th after Pocono in July 2003.
* Nine of the top-10 positions in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup point standings changed at Phoenix.
* Looking ahead to the Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup, only 18 drivers remain within 400 points of current point leader Jimmie Johnson.(NASCAR Statistical Services)(4-23-2005)
