Ever since Kurt Busch won at Bristol Motor Speedway in August, he's been driving as if that danged ol' billy goat, which has cursed his beloved Cubbies for so long, has been riding shotgun. As the Cubs surged to their division title and, now, to the brink of the World Series, Busch has finished 38th or worse three times since winning the Sharpie 500.

And in that time since his volatile, emotional victory on Aug. 23, Busch has fallen from sixth in the points race to 10th -- only 62 points ahead of Michael Waltrip in 11th.

It has been quite a different story from last season, when Busch used a late-season surge to rise from 12th to third in the points standings and start the whispers about a possible championship bid this year. Busch carried the momentum from last year into the beginning of this season, winning twice in the first 11 races to garner a third-place position in the points.

Despite winning twice since then, Busch also has struggled at times. He has six DNFs and seven finishes outside the top 30. On good days, the pits stops have been on point. On bad days, they've been terrible. On good days, the team has felt like anything is possible. On bad days, the team's scratched their heads and wondered what has gone so wrong. And, mind you, lately the bad days have outnumbered the good.

"(Last year) was a complete success and this year we tried to build off of that," Busch said. "We were able to start out in that fashion, but you could say there are a lot of things that are out of your control that I had to adjust to and now we've been able to absorb that, with template changes or with different calls on the racetrack. So we haven't had as much luck as we had last year. I believe we only had three or four DNFs last year and this year we've had a total of six. Things that are out of our control are adding up to where we are in points right now.

	Busch has four Cup wins this season, but he's also getting booed regularly.

"It's just a matter of having everything going your way and we had a lot of luck at the end of last year to help us obtain those victories. But with Martinsville ahead of us, Atlanta and then Miami -- the reconfiguration of the track down there -- we do have to go back and look at those notes. With the way we've been running lately, that's all that we can do is just go back to the solid footing we had last year at this point and just go off of those notes, instead of trying to do what we've done this year because it seems like it just hasn't turned out for us."

While some have suggested that Busch's struggles stem from being distracted by his altercation with Jimmy Spencer or his teammate Matt Kenseth's title-bid, Busch says the team is mentally focused. He says the problems have more to do with Ford being at a disadvantage to Chevrolet right now, since the Chevys have had almost a full year to get used to the new body NASCAR allowed them to use this season.

"I believe what has happened over the past few months is that the Chevys have been able to polish up on what they can build for downforce," Busch said. "Last year you saw seven Fords in the top 10 in points and this year you're only gonna see two Fords in the top 10 in points at the end of the year, so it's been a big swing in the manufacturers as far as which way the rules have gone."

Busch's crew chief, Jimmy Fennig, vouched for Busch's ability to drown out distraction -- particularly the aftermath of his run-ins with Jimmy Spencer. Now, Busch is roundly booed at the racetrack and has become a favorite for fans to love to hate.

"Kurt is doing an awesome job with that," Fennig said. "There is no change at all in Kurt. His drive to win is there. The fans, he kind of blocks that out. As soon as that car starts up, he doesn't really pay attention to Jimmy Spencer or what happened. He's focused on winning that race at that time. Kurt's a competitor. He's an awesome race car driver and I don't even think that bothers him anymore."

Although Fennig said the Fords may be at a disadvantage right now, he believes that is not all. He said things will certainly be better when Ford introduces its new Taurus for next season. But, the team should not rely on that change, alone. Fennig said the team needs to look within itself, too.

"Our pit crew on good days -- I wouldn't replace them for anybody," he said. "But I would say our pit crew is an average pit crew. Like I say, we have our good days and we have our bad days.

"We're looking at changing a few positions at the end of the year. Right now we're pretty content with what we have, but I see we need to get better and we've got to wait until the end of the year when more people are available."

But both Busch and Fennig are confident that the team can kick the goat out of the car, so to speak, by rallying to a strong finish. They hope that means a top 10 finish for the year, but their main focus is on wrapping things up, shifting focus to 2004 and going back to being a championship contender.

"We've got to get some bad luck out of the way," Fennig said. "We lost some motors this year. We had flat tires. We had some stuff that was very unlucky, and we've got to keep working on our race cars and give Kurt better race cars. That's what we're working on right now as we speak -- the 2004 cars.

"It's just all the little stuff that bites you at a racetrack. Flat tires, we had one at Pocono running good. We had one at Daytona running good. We had one at Charlotte running good -- running over stuff has hurt us. Those are three DNFs because of flat tires."

Said Busch: "I think we are focused and can finish strong again. That's where we're at right now. We want to finish strong, work hard (this winter) and come out of the gates in 2004."

Rupen Fofaria is a freelance writer living in Chicago and a regular contributor to ESPN.com. He can be reached at rfofaria@espnspecial.com.