Dodge Motorsports PR
Charlotte Motor Speedway
Sprint All-Star Race
Kurt Busch Open Interview NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
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KURT BUSCH (No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T) CAN YOU TALK ABOUT ALL THE EXCITEMENT OF ALL-STAR WEEKEND AND COMING BACK TO CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY? “It’s great to go out there and race for no points and a million bucks. It’s a great atmosphere. I love running under the lights here at Charlotte – the energy level, the excitement. It’s a week-long event of fun that leads up to Memorial Day – of course it’s the Coca-Cola 600. First things first, we’re looking for a great run. We’ve been throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the car recently and this is a nice weekend for us to try and find some small adjustments that will make our car better and find more of a direction to head with our Shell/Pennzoil Dodge. It’s good to come back to a track where we’ve had some success and evaluate where we are.”
WITH ALL THE RACES THAT YOU’VE WON, WHERE DOES LAST YEAR’S ALL-STAR RACE WIN RANK? “It was a special night. To be part of the winners – to be up there with guys like Darrell Waltrip, Dale (Earnhardt) Sr., the names that have won that race, it’s almost like the fraternity of winning a (NASCAR) championship; there’s only a select few that have done it. To have won my first race at Bristol, bring home a championship and to have that sweep here last year at Charlotte, it ranks right up there. It’s a top-three event through my career. It’s really a special night to be able to pull it off and claim a million bucks in one night.”
DOES THE FIRST NEW HAMPSHIRE RACE LOSE ANY SIGNIFICANCE BECAUSE THE SECOND EVENT THERE ISN’T THE FIRST RACE IN THE CHASE? “No, it’s still a very important race. It’s part of the Chase. Those 10 tracks that are in the Chase, those are coveted dates. We have our Daytona 500. We have our Brickyard 400. And then you have 10 Chase races that are very important. Since it’s not the first one (Chase race), it doesn’t lose any of its prestige. There’s still great racing for those New England fans. We start (the Chase) now in Chicago. Chicago is a bigger market – it’s the second biggest market that we race in – and the way that NASCAR wants to structure things with ISC and all the partnerships, that’s why some of the things got moved. It doesn’t matter. If you have one of those 10 Chase races, those are very important dates. New Hampshire is a great track.”
