Thursday, Jan. 20, 2011
Denny Darnell
Scott Sebastian
Dodge Motorsports PR
Daytona Int’l Speedway
NASCAR Preseason Thunder
Kurt Busch Open Interview
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
KURT BUSCH (No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger) HOW’S THE 22 TEAM SHAPING UP? HOW IS THE TEST SESSION SHAPING UP? “It’s just good to be back behind the wheel. I’ve got a great crew and a great team with a new look. We’ve got a charged-up attitude this year, going out there and doing the best that we can and be the best that we can. Steve Addington is leading a great group of guys. We didn’t have hardly any turnover. We actually added a new engineer position to our program. We’re a stronger team with more people coming to the track each week. And with the new look, Shell/Pennzoil, a great group of people. A great sponsor that’s very excited about a motor racing program. I actually have a trip set up to go to their Houston headquarters here shortly. It’s just exciting to have a new look on the car and to have the new number, No. 22. It will take a little while for all of our fans and everybody to get adjusted to. And then, when everyone stops calling me Kevin (Harvick), we’ll be settled in. It’s just fun. It’s a great group of people. Roger Penske himself put together this program last year and now it’s come to reality. It’s just great to be at the track and underway.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THIS YEAR BEING THE 10-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF DALE EARNHARDT’S DEATH AT DAYTONA? HOW HAVE THINGS DEVELOPED OVER THE LAST 10 YEARS? “Just his name and the Earnhardt legacy and Daytona mixed into the same sentence is so powerful. For him to go 20 years before he won his first race here in 1998, it was amazing to watch. The outpouring of support from all the teams, of course the fans, the other drivers. He’s always been the “Intimidator” and always been one that was an innovator out on the track with the draft. When he passed away, we lost so much of our leadership in the garage area and how he communicated with NASCAR to develop rules or explain to them how the cars needed to be changed or adjusted. The one thing that came from his passing was the safety innovations in our sport and that has continued on with his legacy. We’ve kept so many drivers safe since that point. It was a tough race. That was my first ever Daytona 500. To have that type of news, to have those type of feelings of ‘What am I getting into?’ We just lost the most iconic individual of our time other than Richard Petty and here I am starting my first race. It’s been an amazing 10 years since it’s happen.”
HOW MUCH CAN YOU CARRY OVER DATA FROM THE OLD DAYTONA TRACK TO THE NEW SURFACE?
“I’m more or a learn-as-you-go. With the restrictor plate size that’s just been adjusted, we’re not seeing much tire wear. You want to improve on your fuel mileage. I think that you’re going to see a lot of fuel-only type pit stops. You’re going to have to try and bank as many thoughts as you can in your mind with how you’re going to react and apply those. Being in the Shootout Saturday night to start things off is going to be a wild start to things. We’ll learn a lot these three days on how drafting is going to settle in.
IS THERE ANYTHING THAT YOU CAN LEARN? “I think that it’s a whole new game. My mentality is like when they repaved Talladega, except for four lanes of traffic. It’s just going to be that much more exciting.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE SPRINT CUP POINTS SYSTEM? “I’d like to go back for myself and research and plug those numbers in from past years and see who comes out on top or to see how things change around to help fine-tune it a little bit more. In the end, you still want it to be about consistency, but you have to be consistent for those 10 weeks. When you sit there and change around points a hundred different ways, we still end up with the same champion nine times out of 10.”
WILL DAYTONA’S NEW SURFACE BE MORE LIKE TALLADEGA OR MORE LIKE DAYTONA? WHAT KIND OF MIX WILL WE SEE? “One thing that is of note for us that is significant is that we have three restrictor-plate cars built for the 22 Shell/Pennzoil team. This is our “B” car. This isn’t even our “A” car. We wanted to do that in-case there is trouble in some of these drafting sessions down here. There’s five drafting sessions and ample time for things to happen. We still have to protect our best piece and that is the most important thing for Speed Weeks; making sure that we put the best possible product on the starting grid for the Daytona 500. It’s going to be about survival and in a sense, it’s going to make it like Talladega versus old Daytona.”
