Kurt Busch driven to pull rare double
Indy 500 by day, Charlotte nightcap
Kurt Busch is going for the ultimate double in auto racing: Competing in IndyCar’s Indianapolis 500 during the day and then jetting to Charlotte to compete in NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 at night on Memorial Day weekend.
Confirming his plans Tuesday on “Fox & Friends,” Busch will be the first driver in a decade to chase the double-double. Robby Gordon was the last to give it a whirl in 2004.
“It’s a big day for us,” Busch said. “The logistical side is a big challenge, and the other challenge was getting two teams like this, with the caliber of Andretti Autosport and Stewart-Haas Racing, lined up.”
Busch tested an IndyCar for Andretti in May 2013 when he spent the day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, reaching 218 mph.
Busch will drive a Dallara-Honda for the Andretti team at Indianapolis before catching a private jet to drive for Stewart-Haas in NASCAR’s longest race.
“I’m a loyal guy, and the coaching I received from Michael Andretti during that rookie orientation day was priceless,” Busch said. “For him and IMS to invest in that day was a big moment. So I always hoped to do it with Andretti Autosport. NASCAR and IndyCar gave us their blessing.” Gordon punks again: Jeff Gordon has become the King of the Road when it comes to cool pranks.
He followed up his first Pepsi commercial — pretending to be a potential client at a car dealership — with a sequel: Pranking a journalist who labeled the commercial a fake.
Gordon pretended to be an ex-convict turned taxi driver who is asked by a policeman to pull over and “makes a run” for it — with Travis Okulski, who works for the auto media outlet Jalopnik, in the back seat.
“It was an adrenaline rush for me,” Gordon said recently. “An hour later I felt like I had just won the Daytona 500.”
“We had a safe word, which was Nebraska. I didn’t come up with it. They said, ‘ Here’s the word.’ I had an earpiece where I could hear the crew talking, they could hear us and see video live of what was going on inside the car and so there was that moment that if it got to that point we called that word and it all stopped. And when I first took off and I hit about 80 miles per hour and he started kicking that glass, I came this close.
“You don’t know what that situation is going to be like until you have that person in the back of the car who is really scared. I just knew that it all was going to be over very quick and luckily when I opened that door and saw that smile on his face, it made it all worth it.” Tweet of the week: “Just got settled in Vegas and all I can say is Hell yeah!!!! #4thewin” _ @KevinHarvick, celebrating his victory at Phoenix last week.