Conversation: Kurt Busch

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. -- Kurt Busch is everywhere. He's in Chicago at a Cubs game. He's in Houston at the Super Bowl. He's in Concord, N.C., at the Roush Racing shop, ensuring his cars are ready to race to the front.

He's moving his family and shaking down cars.

Right now, he's intently watching younger brother Kyle in the Goody's Headache Powder 200 at North Carolina Speedway, where he's just concluded Happy Hour practice for the season's second race.

KURT BUSCH  •  Roush Racing Team Page  •  Driver Page  •  2003 Stats  •  2004 Stats  •  Conversation: Kurt Busch - 01|05|04  •  Gillette Young Guns Challenge

And he's conversing with NASCAR.com's Marty Smith, about underground pizzas in Vegas to the infamous Steven Bartman episode at Wrigley to his parents' transition from The Strip to suburban Carolina farm life.

With the way last season ended, was this the longest offseason ever? I'm sure you were chompin' at the bit to get back after it, after the disappointing finale.

Busch: No, time passed pretty quickly. With moving my family out to North Carolina and working hard on the cars, making sure things were turning out good at the wind tunnel.

Obviously, it was different than 2002, when we won three of the last five races - I couldn't wait to get back to the track. It was just a different set of circumstances, but I'm always willing to jump in the car and go.

So you're whole family came over? You moved them all from Vegas to Charlotte?

Busch: Yeah, they're up, just outside of Mooresville (N.C.). They're off in a farm area, and Dad's learning how to be a farmer with his 1962 John Deere tractor (laughing).

So it's kind of funny. Mom, she's been a city girl all her life, from Chicago to Vegas, so it's a little different for her. Grandma loves it and it's nice to have the family back together.

Was that the most disappointing four-win season ever? You guys were good, but didn't get a top-10 finish.

Busch: Yeah, we got yanked out that last race when (Kevin) Harvick wrecked us. But it was just a great year. The team swept Bristol. Then, to win at California and Michigan, a two-mile type racetrack, it really sent a message as far as our versatility and being able to adapt to all the different changes.

Have you met fellow Sharpie athlete Terrell Owens yet?

Busch: No, I haven't just yet (laughing). I think I might need to sign a steering wheel or something after we win, toss it into the crowd.

So I'm assuming your refrigerator is probably full of leftovers, seeing as how you have an abundant supply of containers to choose from.

Busch: There are a few Rubbermaid products out there that can help you out. But I'm not much of a leftover guy, so I use those for holding Sharpies and making sure we're organized as well as we can be.

Nice sponsor plug, man. So I read a while back that when you head back to Vegas you buy some pizzas for the guys you used to work with, when you worked for the city?

Busch: Yeah, I was on the graveyard shift when I worked for the city at the Las Vegas Valley water district. I went back, hung out with the guys with a couple days here and there. They start at eight o'clock, so you go in and see them at night.

It's kind of cool. Just go to the job site, the boys got the pizza ... When you work at night, you have to wait on traffic to subside, you're not allowed to be in the street until a certain time.

So you get all your equipment, get prepped for the night and you have all your supplies. Then you go and chill and have some pizza for a bit right there in the street.

You had a big summer last year, baseball-wise. You guys toured around all over the place, going to different parks. Where all did you guys go?

Busch: Um, we hit a bunch of them. I think I have 17 of them checked off my list now. We had a trip scheduled up in the Northeast, to start in Toronto, then to go to Fenway, then to Philly and on down to Camden Yards in Baltimore.

But we had to go back for a family emergency and only got to hit Fenway. That was one I could let slide. Got to meet (Boston Red Sox owner) John Henry, hung out with him in his box, and right up front. Saw all the players there. But still, it's Wrigley for me. I saw Fenway, but Wrigley still has that special place in my heart.

Speaking of, given a few minutes with that fan (Bartman) that knocked the foul ball away from Moises Alou, what would you say and/or do to that guy?

Busch: He was in the wrong place at the wrong time (laughing). As far as his interference with the play, it's a call where you almost want to shelter yourself from a foul ball. But man, it's the (World) Series on the line! We were up three games to one!

You just can't push everything in one direction, and actually call him out on the Cubs not getting to the Series. They were up three games to one, and a lot of elements led to them not making it to the final games.

What's your take on A-Rod to the Yankees? Does it make you want to puke as bad as it makes me want to puke?

Busch: It's horrible. I don't know where they get all their money. I don't know how they can spend all that money over the other teams.

Hopefully, when they come up with a standard of how much money a team can spend, the Yankees will lose half the people they have and they'll have to do like the (Cleveland) Indians are with a young team.

You've got to work the talent into the guys. And with the Cubs, they just picked up Maddux so they're spending some cash. They've got a pretty strong pitching staff. It's weird to see baseball and comparing to racing and what we do. But there are a lot of parallels.

Especially with expenditures quickly becoming such a big deal in NASCAR right now. Everybody's talking about field fillers and what-have-you. How do you see the sport progressing right now monetarily?

Busch: Crew guys are getting paid a bunch of money to jump over the wall, and then you have a montage of sponsors covering all the different areas for the teams. You've got to find the associates (sponsors) and keep the primaries.

It's an industry that could really sell a big ticket, when it comes down to the final TV numbers and what gets exposed, and how it gets exposed. Whether you're a strong racecar driver on the track or whether you're a strong racecar driver off the track. There's so many different ways, and that's what keeps our sport so versatile.

	Busch finished 16th at Daytona and eighth at Rockingham this year. Credit: Autostock

Switch to Bristol for a moment. You've won three of the past four races there -- an unbelievable feat. There's only seven guys, I think, ever, that have won three races there, and you've done it in two years?

Busch: That's a cool place. It's just something where you show up and you know you're at a different style of racetrack, you know you have to have a different mindset.

It's cool. It feels like you're a Roman God racing chariots around in the Coliseum. That's as much thrashing as we get done, in there. Sometimes it's that rough, but when you're out there leading it's as quiet as can be.

Now your little brother is coming up through the ranks. He'll race the whole Busch Series season this year. What should we expect out of him?

Busch: He's going to be a quick learner. He can adapt to any style of racetrack. And as far as knowing what competitors he's got to race against, he's really a sharp student when it comes to that. He's willing to learn, and he's open to any advice. That's what's going to make him a successful star, is being open and willing to learn.

What was your initial reaction to him signing with Hendrick Motorsports?

Busch: I thought it was a good thing, but I thought it could have worked out a little better on the Roush side of it. But all in all, it'll make the Busch Brothers a better pair out on the racetrack - family-wise, business-wise, and being able to race because he's being taught by a different group than I was taught by.

So we'll be able to get together and compare. I don't think it'll be setups, wont' be much of that just because of the teams and classification on things. But as far as knowing what to do when on specific racetracks, his group will help him differently than mine, and we'll be able to compare notes and be stronger.

And you're the newest group of brothers. There's a pretty storied history of brothers in this sport and you guys are going to be passed that torch.

Busch: Yeah, we're pretty cool with one another. We want to race hard and we'll never take one another to gain an advantage. So it'll be cool. He's going to run his first Cup race in Vegas, and then just kind of blend and sprinkle in other races later on.

But it'll be great for him to challenge the other Busch Series starts, and to learn what he has to do there and bring his skills to Cup.

You were discussing your father's John Deere tractor a little bit ago. I was going to ask you about the John Deere car. I miss the John Deere car. Did you have the hook up when you drove that car?

Busch: Almost. I worked with them just for about seven races, then the CEOs changed and the whole marketing group behind it changed so they pulled the sponsorship from our Cup car.

And that opened the door for Newell-Rubbermaid to come in. It's fantastic, just working with different sponsors and seeing the direction of how their marketing plans have to work. I wish I had a better connection at Deere, because I need to get some more tractors.

If you do, I'll have to hit you up. I love John Deere. So anyway, I understand you went to the Super Bowl and you're working NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue's charity, too?

Busch: Yeah, it's a charity called Rebuilding Together. And that's really a program that the NFL started, but we're getting our initiation in it through Irwin Industrial Tools.

They're supplying tools, supplying people, supplying the actual contractor to go to these houses and rebuild them. So I met with the contractor at the Super Bowl. He was the first guy to win this prize.

We hung out at the Super Bowl and watched the game, and went to some houses and started throwing some hammers and nails around. We'll do that all across the country, whether it's different parts of the Southwest or where the contractor's from in the Midwest or where Irwin Industrial Tools is from, in the Southeast. So all over the country we'll be rebuilding houses, and associating that with Tagliabue and the NFL.

Awesome, man. Did you go to any Super Bowl parties?

Busch: Went to a couple here or there, and it's a whole different game. I mean, I'm sure people come to the Daytona 500 to party and to have a good show. But there's almost not a game there when you get involved with so many parties and so many people.