Three days removed from one of the most memorable moments of his racing career, Kurt Busch is still answering questions concerning his very

first professional foray into NHRA Pro Stock drag racing.

Taking questions on a pre-arranged NASCAR teleconference, Busch let his enthusiasm for the recent weekend on the NHRA circuit shine through.

“It was such a great time that I had there with the fans,” remarked Busch, revealing one of the most significant differences between the NHRA pit area and a NASCAR garage.

“The grandstands are right there. (Fans) file out of the grandstands, then you have the perfect pit-area-type atmosphere. It's easy that way because all the cars are towed through the pits. Nobody really drives through like we do with our garage area, where there's the hot pit area.”

 

Three days removed from one of the most memorable moments of his racing career, Kurt Busch is still answering questions concerning his very first professional foray into NHRA Pro Stock drag racing.

Taking questions on a pre-arranged NASCAR teleconference, Busch let his enthusiasm for the recent weekend on the NHRA circuit shine through.

“It was such a great time that I had there with the fans,” remarked Busch, revealing one of the most significant differences between the NHRA pit area and a NASCAR garage.

“The grandstands are right there. (Fans) file out of the grandstands, then you have the perfect pit-area-type atmosphere. It's easy that way because all the cars are towed through the pits. Nobody really drives through like we do with our garage area, where there's the hot pit area.”

While handling the different demands of having the fans just few feet away from his race car, Busch also learned another significant difference between the NHRA pit are and a NASCAR garage.

“It was an incredible experience,” Busch extolled. “Everybody was welcoming us into their group. The fraternity of drivers was encouraging us, offering advice, trying to help us. It was really a unique feeling to be the new guy but also to be the one with the notoriety from the Sprint Cup Series, and the excitement level for the energy of everybody there.

“I mean, even Jason Line, the only guy that's won so far this year, came up to me and said, 'Thank you for being part of our division and shedding light on the Pro Stock division.'

“I said, Wow, I'm just little ol' me.

He said, 'You come with a lot more weight than you know, and anything you need, I'm here for advice.'

Rookies in the NASCAR world don't quite get the same welcome, whether they're wet behind the ears or heaped in experience from another form of racing.

Then there was the experience itself of staging, bringing up the rpm's and hitting the throttle for a run down the quarter-mile. It is according to Busch like running a 500-mile race in under seven seconds.

“It's an amazing feeling,” related Busch. “You're sitting in the staging lanes trying to go through your head on what you have to do to do the burnout, to stage the car, shift it properly going down the racetrack.

“When they pull you up there, you fire the engine up. If you don't have lane choice, you wait to see what lane you're going to get. There's little differences between each side on what you have to look at when you look at the Christmas tree.

“Doing the burnout, you have to set the line lock at 1200 pounds on the brake pressure. You actually start the burnout in third gear, hit fourth gear, hit fifth gear. You're actually wide open in fifth gear during the burnout, which is pretty intense.

“You have to slow the car down after the burnout properly, put your tire right back in the same marks where you did your burnout. (There is) just a very small margin of error that you're dealing with. You have to get everything just exactly right.

“I feel like in drag racing you have the perfect run to start with. It's just how you execute is how many hundredths or thousandths of a second that you lose during your run. Whether you're steering the car too much, whether you're off a little bit on your line, whether you hit your shift marks exactly perfect, it's a tough game.

“Reaction time of course is one of the most important elements. You have to go just right on the Christmas tree.”

Reaction time was important to the outcome of the race, however fan reaction was important to the success of the weekend and from the looks of those crowded around Busch's pit area the weekend was a huge success. Two of those “fans” are iconic members of the drag racing community.

Busch shared the stage Thursday afternoon with Big Daddy Don Garlits and John Force.

“I was just humbled to have the opportunity to share the stage with those legends, what they've done in the drag racing world will never be equaled.” admitted Busch. “It might be, but those were definitely the top of the top. To be mixed in with them, to have that notoriety, it was an unbelievable experience.

“I'm just the new guy racing Pro Stock, but look at the cars those guys have driven. Look at the crazy things those drag racers have done over the years. Primarily 'Big Daddy', with no safety hardly in mind back in the day. It was just go as fast as you can go. The side effects they would deal with later. With John Force, being 61 years old, still winning championships, having his near-fatal crash three years ago. The safety things he's implemented into their sport the past few years.

“It's amazing to sit there and listen to their stories and be compared to them, to share the stage. I'm just beside myself. It was just an overall grand experience that I will never forget.”

Busch is certainly ready, emotionally, to give it another go. Unfortunately, the NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule only offers one more open weekend where the NHRA will be racing – Denver in July.

“I feel like we're just limited so much on the schedule, it's tough to get out there and say we're going to do more races,” explained Busch. “The only one that does line up is in July. It's the Mopar Mile High Nationals, which would be a great fit.

“For me, I think we need to be focused on our Cup car at that point in the season. It's the end of July. We have August and a little bit of September before we have to be locked into the Chase. If we're not running well in the points, we don't need to go Pro Stock racing.

“Only time will tell. We'll know what type of feeling we'll be having with our Cup car on the NASCAR side. I still feel like I have 10 or 15 years left racing a Sprint car. If I do, the NHRA Pro Stock will have to wait. Right now my love and my heart is in NASCAR. This is where I want to be and I want to deliver a championship to Penske Racing. And we have to work on those things to make it happen.”

While Busch may have a deadline on deciding if he could run the Denver event, there is deadline on his love for NHRA drag racing, in the gratitude he feels towards all the new friends he made in the pits and to Dodge and Shell for helping to make the weekend a reality.

“The opportunity I had to go out there and be competitive, I just have to thank Dodge and Shell for giving me that chance to go and play.”

 

 

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