 | | Kurt Busch (left) used to struggle with his Southwest team giving him fake times for the driver's meeting. Credit: Autostock |
By Dave Rodman, NASCAR.COM
July 12, 2005
12:48 PM EDT (16:48 GMT)
Defending Nextel Cup Series champion Kurt Busch is trying to get his 2005 title hopes back on track in the No. 97 Ford. Busch, while hanging onto a spot in the top-10 with only eight races remaining until the cutoff for the Chase for the Nextel Cup, has battled every misfortune that he mainly dodged a season ago. During a break in the action at Pocono Raceway, Busch sat down to answer 10 questions not necessarily related to his racing career. 1. What's your dream vehicle that you don't already own? Kurt Busch: I want to get my dad's 1932 three-window coupe back that he built. It took him seven years to build it, and when we were kids we always had doors laying in our dining room. We had gas tanks in the bathtub. No, it wasn't that bad -- but it took him seven years to build. He built his 1932 Ford and he sold it for money so I could go to college. So I want to find that car and get it back for him. Q: That's great news, because I was afraid you were gonna say he sold it to finance you and Kyle's racing careers. Kurt Busch: No (laughing) -- it was supposed to be college. (College) didn't turn out that good -- but I'm glad racing did. 2. If time on the road weren't an issue, what would be your ideal pet? Kurt Busch: I would say horses, because horses bring a sense of calmness and openness -- and if you're not paying for them, then they're really nice (laughing). It just seems like you're able to enjoy the characteristics of horses in many ways. Q: It seems to me in North Carolina there would be some nice horse riding country -- either on your spread or somewhere close by? Kurt Busch: Yeah -- as long as the stink from the barn is far enough away. 3. What's your biggest pet peeve while driving on the road? Kurt Busch: Stop signs and red lights. Q: So you're a momentum kind of guy? Kurt Busch: Yeah (laughing). We like to keep the speed built up. 4. Racing means travel, so what's your worst hotel experience? Kurt Busch: It was in my orientation to Southwest Tour racing, back in the day. My team threw my mattress ... I mean, I was in bed by 9 o'clock, all focused and ready to get out for the race the next day. And they threw my comforter and me in the Jacuzzi tub of the hotel. And when I came back into the room, my mattress was out in the parking lot with a lamp plugged in next to it. So that was my worst hotel experience. Q: That's interesting. Most guys somehow got into the wrong establishment -- but it sounds like you got in with the wrong crowd. Kurt Busch: It was just my group letting me know, I was in for a rude awakening (laughing) going on the road with them. 5. What's your favorite food? Kurt Busch: How about a Wrigley Field hot dog? That's my favorite food -- going to the ballpark, especially to watch my Chicago Cubs and having a hot dog.  |  | 10 QUESTIONS | |
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Q: You gotta keep a hot dog in your mouth to fight the urge to sing, right? Kurt Busch: Oh no, man (laughing). You got to enjoy the seventh inning stretch. It's like a religion up there. It's just a great park to go and visit, and just a true American pastime. That stadium is just the whole heritage of baseball. 6. If you had to choose, would it be being honest, or being nice? Kurt Busch: Honesty goes so far and it will take you in so many directions. And being nice, sometimes the nice guy finishes last. 7. What's your fondest childhood memory? Kurt Busch: It's got to be watching my dad, when I was 13 or 14 years old, and I had snuck into the pits. He won the dirt car nationals that year at Phoenix. It was at Manzanita Speedway. And I was in the infield watching it, and I watched him cross the start/finish line because I was his only crew guy -- I was there by myself. |  | | Credit: Autostock |
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I watched him win and I ran over to the scales and I couldn't believe what had just happened. Q: We've got to keep this legacy going on, of children following their fathers into the sport -- so how did you sneak into the pits? What's the best way you found to do that? Kurt Busch: You just lay in the back seat and put a blanket over you. You end up looking like a stack of blankets or just part of the back seat. 8. What would your dream date be? Where and with whom? Kurt Busch: Wow. That's pretty big. Q: Now, you can go with political correctness and you'd be in good company. Kurt Busch: I understand that, but I'm going to go with Jessica Simpson because she's new, she's on the market and she's ready to rip. And we've got to take her somewhere that would be off the beaten path and have good food, where we could put our toes in the sand. I'd really put a number on her -- I'd win her over quick. 9. Sounds like you might have already had this one covered with your Featherlite Series bunch -- but what's your worst prank, either perpetrated by you, or done to you? |  | | Credit: Autostock |
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Kurt Busch: My old Southwest Tour team -- they were a bunch of gagsters -- and they always tried to tell me the drivers' meeting was at a different time (than it was). I'd always be two hours early, and I once missed it, and that's why they always do that to me. They tell me the drivers' meeting is at a time and my whole day is always scattered -- because I don't know what time the drivers' meeting is. 10. What would you consider your "Welcome to NASCAR" moment? Kurt Busch: Probably it's got to be "the finger" out the window from Dale (Earnhardt) Sr. at Daytona. It was my first Daytona 500 and I got "the finger" out the window. Q: What brought that on? Kurt Busch: I thought I was minding my own business in the middle lane, but when it's Senior you gotta move over and let him come through. He was on his way to the front. | 
