Kurt Busch doesn't mind the NHRA straightaways
Kurt Busch might race in circles, but he's certainly no stranger to the straightaway.
In the days leading up to the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway, Busch dropped by zMax Dragway for a day at the drag strip with Top Fuel superstar Brittany Force.
Force, daughter of 16-time NHRA Funny Car champion John Force was in Concord, NC., promoting the NHRA Carolina Nationals, September 16 - 18, while Busch was making an advance media appearance for the October 8 NASCAR Bank of America 500 during the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
The two drivers engaged in a good-natured two out of three match race behind the wheel of brand new Camaros, a series in which Busch claimed the victory. He then offered Force a first-hand view of racing on the iconic 1.5-mile superspeedway across the street, an experience the 330-mile per hour driver explained as "insane."
"She hammered me on the tree," admitted Busch. "But I ended up prevailing in the best of three."
There was no way Busch could let himself get beat by another NHRA female on the drag strip. Back in 2011, Busch entered and raced Pro Stock at the NHRA Gatornationals, qualifying No. 9.
Busch matched up with Erica Enders in the first round. She beat him to the finish in his first and only NHRA professional drag racing experience.
"I didn't want to lose two big debuts to females out on the dragstrip but so be it," Busch said. "They're the talent that is out there, and they're the ones laying down the lap times."
In Busch's defense, the drivers he faced were no novices. Enders is a two-time champion in Pro Stock, one of the more challenging cars to drive in NHRA competition, and Force was the most recent Top Fuel winner at zMax Dragway.
For Busch, there isn't much downtime from the rigorous 38-race schedule to get out to the drag strip often. Busch has a drag race vehicle of his own, an eight-second 1970 Dodge Challenger, which he drove in Super Gas competition at the 2010 NHRA Gatornationals.
"I haven't made any passes lately with it," Busch said. "I got it down all the way to an 8.1 [seconds], trying to get a 7-second pass out of it. Right now it's at 175 miles per hour."
One thing Busch learned early on is there's no room for error in drag racing. It's virtually impossible to make up for a mistake when you race for seconds and 1320 feet, as opposed to hours and 500 miles.
"In drag racing, once you lose .01 of a second you can't go try to get it back," Busch explained. "It's gone, and you just have to manage the path the best you can afterward whereas in oval racing it's constant laps after laps. If you mess up in turns one and two you can try to go back in three and four to gain better momentum to even out the lap time. And then there's the strategic side of oval racing, where you're out there with a pit strategy against the other guys."
Another aspect of drag racing which has made a good impression on Busch is the pathway of drag racing for aspiring youth to travel.
"Drag racing is a great way to get kids involved in a nice safe atmosphere in a nice little Junior Dragster type division," Busch said. "It's safer than what you would say a go-kart would be for a road racing kid. Some of the quarter-midget stuff is tough on young kids with the danger aspect. So drag racing does a good job of being safe and appealing to the young demographic but really all forms of motorsports are a lot of fun nowadays."
If there were more than 52 weekends in a year, you might see Busch at a drag strip more than his average of twice a year. On this day in Charlotte, Busch was able to relax in much the same ways he does on his rare excursions.
"What (Force) does on the drag strip and what I do on the oval, we have a lot of fun with it," said Busch. "It's fun to get out of our comfort zones and just go fast."
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Bobby Bennett is the Publisher/Editor of CompetitionPlus.com, a leading independent online drag racing magazine, since 1999. For the latest in dragster news worldwide, visit www.competitionplus.com or follow on Twitter @competitionplus
