As the son of a minister who now sits on the pit box as crew chief for driver Kyle Busch in the Nationwide Series, Jason Ratcliff has witnessed a great deal throughout his life.

He talked recently with NASCAR.COM about some of his past experiences and about some of his hopes for the future.

“

We got the driver's championship underneath our belts in 2009, and so far this year we've done exactly what we set out to do. Both of them, I think, are equally special. And I'm just wondering now what we do next year.

”

-- JASON RATCLIFF

Question: Let's get this out of the way first. How did you feel about having to wear a pink firesuit as part of a promotion for Busch's No. 18 car at Richmond?

Ratcliff: It was fun. Of course when the commercial first came out, I really got a kick out of it. When Kyle first said we were going to be running a pink car, to me the best part of the commercial was the helmet that he wears at the end that has the kitty cat on it. So I was kind of laughing at him, and he said, 'Well, you know, since you think this is so funny I'm going to fix you up and get you the pink suit.'

I didn't mind being part of the joke. ... The only thing about it was when I got it, there were so many different things on the suit that that they had to silk screen 'em on there, and it was real thin. So it was almost like wearing pajamas. I was more uncomfortable by the feel of the firesuit than I was by the fact that it was pink.

Q: So you're still not sure it was street legal?

Ratcliff (laughing): If a fire broke out, I definitely needed to run -- because it definitely was not fireproof.

Q: You guys won the Nationwide Series championship last year and this year have a series-record 11 wins in 23 starts with Kyle behind the wheel. Are you guys having a better year this year than last year?

Ratcliff: I think we are accomplishing what we set out to do this year -- just like we did last year. You know, in 2008 when Kyle was able to win 10 [Nationwide] races and match Sam Ard's record, obviously going into 2009 that was a goal we had. We knew we could achieve that. ... You know how it is. You base your goals off what you've done in the past and you want to set 'em high. So in 2009, we wanted to try to better that and win 11 races -- but our bigger goal was to win the championship. And so I think we focused on the championship and we played out our strategies and the way we approached each race was with the No. 1 goal of winning the championship.

In 2010, we approach it differently. When you're going for a championship, sometimes you have to be conservative. Sometimes you have to settle for those second-place finishes, for the sake of getting what you can get in hopes of winning the championship. This year, second-place finishes don't matter. I'm not so sure we couldn't have won 11 or more races last year if we hadn't been running for that championship. There were several second-place finishes where maybe we could have pushed it a little more from Kyle's standpoint, or maybe I could have been a little more aggressive from the pit box.

So I think both seasons have been successful because we accomplished what we wanted to accomplish. We approached both of them differently. We got the driver's championship underneath our belts in 2009, and so far this year we've done exactly what we set out to do. Both of them, I think, are equally special. And I'm just wondering now what we do next year. (Continued)