Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
RACING FOR HIS TOWN
Q+A: Daytona 500 champion Kurt Busch — ‘I want to deliver for my hometown (Las Vegas) crowd’
The new NASCAR racing season has started well for hometown hero Kurt Busch. He won The Daytona 500 on Feb. 26, and he was back home in Las Vegas on Thursday to be inducted into his Durango High School Hall of Fame ahead of today’s NASCAR Kobalt 400 race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Although he finished seventh in his second race of the season, Folds of Honor Quik-Trip 400 in Atlanta last Sunday, he is still atop the Top 10 Power Rankings. “I haven’t won at Las Vegas Motor Speedway yet, so there’s a little bit of an anxiety,” Kurt told me.
It was officially announced Wednesday that NASCAR has given a second race to our city starting in September 2018. I tweeted the news last Sunday, and it became official Wednesday.
“It’s a good anxious, though,” continued Kurt.
“It’s a unique feeling of coming back home — a place where I grew up at the little bowling track next door, and there’s the extra fans and friends and a little bit of pressure — just because I want to deliver for my hometown crowd.”
I think of The Daytona 500 as the ultimate mecca of NASCAR. You were one lap away from not winning and finishing second. What was it like crossing the line as the winner?
It’s like a childhood dream flashing through your mind, and literally it felt like there were cold chills and spikes going through my body of emotion and triumph. It’s so difficult to achieve, and, when you’re crossing the line and there’s the commotion and the radio chatter and the flashbulbs going off in the grand stands, there’s a quick pause of this sheer joy that encompasses you. It’s really a unique feeling to win that great American race.
Was it an added thrill this year because, if I’m correct, it didn’t look as if you were going to win until the last lap?
Yeah, it’s part of the strategic positioning in that race where you deal with the different pit sequences, and to be able to avoid some of the crashes that were happening, luck was on our side. At the end, my strategy was to make a move on the last lap, so it’s like I got jumped up and see the moment according to the plan that I drew out on paper.
I’m not going to phrase this question very smartly, but teach me, help me understand why if you win at the pinnacle one week don’t you win the next race? If a boxer goes into a ring, for example, and he scores two knockouts in a row, chances are that he’s going to score a third knockout. Why doesn’t that happen in NASCAR?
It’s because of the competition value on how many competitive teams there are and how many sets of circumstances have to lead toward a victory and have a Super Bowl type of win. And that’s just Daytona!
There just can’t be the emotions that carry over to the next week … where you’re still in celebration mode from such a big win on such a big stage. It’s a competition value every week. You’re racing against the best of the best, and certain tracks and combinations really shine through on specific racetracks ...