Shape Up and Race Straight
How Did Nascar Superstar Kurt Busch Spend One Of His Treasured Off Weekends From The Sprint Cup Circuit? By Debuting His Mopar® Hemi®-Powered 1970 Dodge Challenger Super Gas Car At The Nhra Gatornationals.
Competitors on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series treasure off weekends nearly as much as they do victories. So when No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge driver Kurt Busch triumphed in the Kobalt Tools 500 (see sidebar) at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 7—with the next weekend an open one on the Sprint Cup calendar—it was reasonable to assume that a lot of celebration mixed in with a little R&R awaited Busch in the days ahead. A reasonable assumption—but a wrong one nonetheless.
Instead, the cheers of Victory Lane had barely faded before Busch’s thoughts turned to Florida’s Gainesville Raceway and the Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals. There, the 2004 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion would make his NHRA debut in his Mopar® HEMI®-powered 1970 Dodge Challenger Super Gas car, trading in his usual high pressure, circle-track “office” for the straight-line racing thrills of the drag strip.
“It’s very enjoyable to have this time away from the NASCAR circuit and the high-pressure zone that we are always in,” said Busch. “This is big pressure, too, with these guys in NHRA, but just like the paddock, the way it’s set up, it’s an open paddock. Fans can walk around and enjoy and see things from the inside out, where in NASCAR it’s tough to get into the garage area. It’s fun to be part of the program this weekend.”
Busch got seriously bit by the drag racing bug when he hung out with Don Prudhomme at the U.S. Nationals a few years ago and then attended the inaugural NHRA event at zMAX Dragway in Concord, N.C. (basically NASCAR’s backyard) in September of 2008. He soon purchased a 1970 Dodge Challenger on eBay and set about getting the car prepared to race in the NHRA Sportsman Super Gas class—which, of course, involved an injection of serious Mopar power.
When complete, Busch’s Challenger boasted a stroked 6.1 liter Mopar HEMI engine, pumping out 1,167 horsepower and registering off the charts on the “wow” factor. After about 30 hours of practice at Roy Hill’s drag racing school and two test sessions, and with a Mopar decal emblazoned on the front of his drag machine, Busch was eager to make his NHRA debut in Super Gas time trials at the Gatornationals on Thursday, March 11.
Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other ideas. Rain fell on Gainesville Raceway, postponing the action and turning the Sportsman pit areas into a mud bowl. Busch wouldn’t hit the quarter-mile at Gainesville until Sunday, March 14, but that didn’t stop the Penske Racing driver from acting as goodwill ambassador to his many NHRA fans. Busch signed countless autographs, participated in media interviews almost nonstop, and visited the Mopar Image Center on the Manufacturers Midway to join in a special Team Mopar autograph session with Mopar-powered NHRA Pro Stock drivers Allen Johnson, V. Gaines and Vinnie Deceglie. He was also a frequent (and inquisitive) visitor to Team Mopar driver Johnson’s pit area.
“He’s real interested in drag racing,” said Johnson of Busch. “He spent quite a bit of time over at the trailer, sitting in the car, checking out our data graphs on the computer, and we talked a lot during the Team Mopar autograph session. After each of our runs, he would come back to the rig and check out our graphs.”
Finally, the wait ended for Busch and the renowned roundy-rounder made his official straight-line racing debut on Sunday morning. Busch recorded an impressive 9.94-second elapsed time (ET) in his maiden run during time trials. He faced Wes Neely in the opening round of eliminations, where his day ended despite an improved reaction time and a 10.10 ET. Mr. Neely took away a story to tell his grandchildren (“No, really, I did beat a NASCAR champion in a drag race!) while Busch took away nothing but positive vibes—and an urge to hit the strip again as soon as possible—from his Gainesville outing.
“It’s been fun putting this car together,” said Busch. “Me and my buddy [and crew chief] Jesse [Walker] kept bouncing ideas off each other. It’s been one thing after the next. We’ve had some great support from Dodge and Mopar.
“It’s been an honor and a privilege to be part of the Gatornationals. As many off weekends as we don’t have in the NASCAR circuit, I’d love to come and run some regional events and get our feet wet and get the mojo going. Running in the Super Gas division, it’s really neat, the camaraderie with the guys, hanging out in the pit area and just being one of the group.”
Looks like the drag strip has claimed another convert. See you at the quarter-mile again as soon as your NASCAR schedule allows, Kurt!
Busch Banks Win in Blue Deuce Dodge at Atlanta
Kurt Busch took Dodge to Victory Lane again in the Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 7. Busch won last year’s spring event at AMS in impressive fashion, leading 234 of 330 laps. This time around, he led 129 in the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge to claim his 21st NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory.
Busch led the final 10 laps in the Kobalt Tools 500 including two restarts for a green-white-checkered finish due to mishaps. Collecting the maximum 190 points, Busch vaulted from 19th to 10th in the driver point standings after the victory, and had moved all the way up to sixth in the standings at press time.
Penske Racing had all three Dodge Chargers in the top 10 at the 200-lap mark with Sam Hornish Jr. running sixth and Brad Keselowski right behind in seventh. Both drivers ran as high as fourth, before different issues negated a top-10 finish. For Hornish, it was a mechanical problem (valve issue). For Keselowski, it was a case of being wrecked intentionally by another driver – Carl Edwards (see Finish Line on page 54).
“The Deuce is back baby,” said Busch following his victory. “For Dodge, this is a great win. When Kurt wins, somebody wins a Dodge Challenger, so hopefully you have your UPC labels in. I’m so excited for this team and all of our sponsors right now.”
