Kurt Busch Interview

SCR: Compare Kurt Busch now to Kurt Busch three or four years ago.
BUSCH: A little less hair. (He laughs.) A little bit more wisdom and the patience to see the bigger picture. Before, just like with my career and all through racing, it was a year here and on to the next series. A year there and on to the next series. I didn't realize all that when I made it to the top level and didn't acknowledge the fact-and respect the fact-that this is Cup racing.

SCR: If you summarize your first few months with Penske Racing, what is the first word that comes to mind?
BUSCH: Family. Family atmosphere. That's the one thing. You're able to enjoy the racing part of it because everybody has the same direction. They have the same goals. Everybody wants to win here, but there's the family aspect. Roger called me Christmas day and wished me Merry Christmas and invited me over to the Super Bowl (party) that he was putting on in Detroit. Just the whole team, everybody from Roger on down, seems more like family.

SCR: You're replacing one of the sport's top drivers of all time. Was there any pressure there?
BUSCH: There's definitely some pressure following Rusty and filling in the shoes he left behind. But there's no way I could ever do that in a short amount of time. I need to spend quite a bit of time adding up to the legacy that Rusty has created. I don't expect to do it in one year. I don't expect one win to do things. But in working behind him and following his ways, especially with the Miller Lite group, he's very helpful and he's a great mentor.

SCR: Did you ever look at this as an opportunity to lift what might have been an underperforming team in recent years? Did you ever look at it in those terms?
BUSCH: Not really. But when you say that, I look back at my stint with the 97 (Roush) car, where it wasn't even a race winner, and it didn't have many Top 10s. I think it had three in three years, and we turned it into a championship organization. I did it with some great help from Jimmy Finnig. I feel like I've got that same positioning with Roger, with Roy McCauley, and everybody at Penske to do that with the 2 car. We'll see what we can do. I mean, it's in the early stages.

SCR: It's no secret that Rusty and Ryan Newman didn't get along. Tell me about your relationship with the 12 team.
BUSCH: I think it's turned out to be great, with our initial conversations before Daytona on how we felt we needed to operate and what the differences were. I even had times when I sat down with Rusty, and Roger, and just threw some questions in at the dinner table one night, not even trying to find a motive, but just to find out how Rusty felt about it, to learn why it didn't work, because teams have to be able to help each other to be successful at this level. I came from an organization where there were five cars, and now there are only two. We have to have these two working together strongly to create that element of five.

SCR: What one driver during your Cup career has offered the most advice? Who have you turned to the most?
BUSCH: Recently it's been Rusty, but before that it was Mark Martin, with his wisdom and how he was in the sport young, and early in his career, and got bumped out but came back. Then there's however many years he's been competitive every single year and still is. Even in his 'retirement' years, he can win a championship. His advice and how he races and how he protects his car and how he's able to continue on at such a veteran stage in his life is amazing.

SCR: Let's turn an earlier question around a little. If you had to summarize in one word your time at Roush Racing, what's the one word that comes to mind?
BUSCH: It was definitely a long haul in just a short amount of time, for a few reasons-from my growth as a driver; for the team to come from just a scab together deal to a championship formation; and then just the odd feeling of working for Jack and not knowing if I had a secure place there all the time. That was a weird feeling.

SCR: You're currently 16th in points, and last year at this time you were Ninth. The stats are similar in terms of wins and Top 10s, but still you're not quite at the level you were at one year ago. Can we look for a better second half? Are you coming together as a team?
BUSCH: Coming off 2004, our championship year, we felt like in 2005 we were even a better team than our championship year. Then it came up short at the end. Obviously, with me switching teams, Jack wanted to position me in a worse spot. But this time around we've now started with a new group of guys, with new communication, and I think in just the few short races we've had, we've come a long way.

SCR: Your younger brother, Kyle, currently sits four spots ahead of you in points. Is there a sense of pride or a sense of envy?
BUSCH: It's good to see a Busch in the hunt, right there in the thick of things. Maybe it needs to be the other one, but maybe both of us can make it. We both root for each other, but we both want to race the other competitors as well.

SCR: If I said Kurt Busch is the most misunderstood driver on the Cup tour, what would your reaction be?
BUSCH: I would agree with that. What happens is there's a young driver like myself-I'm the one I'm naming, I'm not talking third person-and I created some problems early on and said some wrong things or picked on the class bully and won some races where the fans said, Who is this guy? Where's he from? What's he doing here? He's right in there in the thick of things, but he shouldn't be there because he's too young. I showed confidence, but everybody thought it was cockiness, and then that turns into somebody writing this and somebody believing that. Before long, I'm on GQ's most hated (athlete) list. It just snowballs. I think now it's beginning to turn the corner. If I meet 10 people, all 10 go, Wow, you're really not such a bad guy. So I think that's starting to come back around.

SCR: From what you just said, there's a lot of similarity between your career and the career of Darrell Waltrip 30 years ago. Has he ever offered advice?
BUSCH: (He laughs.) Oh yeah, I crawled on my knees in his motor home a few months ago and asked for advice. The same thing with Rusty. There are many drivers who have a perception, but yet it's that fire in the belly, that drive to go and win races, that sometimes camouflages everything that's out there. You almost live in a surreal world because you're trying to win and you're trying to be successful. I've now learned how to balance that out a little better.

SCR: But without that drive you wouldn't be here.
BUSCH: That's right. (He laughs.) I think that's what helped me jump straight from Late Models to Trucks to Cup. Sometimes things help you for a reason and things hurt you for a reason. What it's done for me through my six years in Cup racing is make me a more mature and developed person.