The Kurt Busch I know

It seems like a very long time ago now, but when Kurt Busch was making his way through the formative NASCAR ranks, I worked with him a little.

The same Kurt Busch who has made headlines recently after he was released by Penske Racing drove for two seasons in the NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour. I was the Media Coordinator for the Tour in those days and I had plenty of opportunities to interview him. He won races and was the Rookie of the Year in 1998 and our champion in 1999.

Kurt was great to work with, from my perspective. He was a good and willing interview. He has a good sense of humor. I enjoyed talking to him. I still see him infrequently because our paths sometimes cross in the course of a racing season and he always makes it a point to say hello. In my experience, Kurt Busch is a great guy.

I’ve seen the clips of Kurt’s recent flare-ups on You Tube, like many other people have, and I do not write this to make excuses. There have been other incidents through the years, too. But until you’ve been in the pressure cooker that is NASCAR Cup racing, you can’t begin to understand the stress those drivers are under. It is an intense world.

In eras gone by, promising race drivers had to work their way through the stock car step ladder. They’d progress from one lower-rung series to another, from local racing to regional competition and then on to national competition. Finally, if everything worked out, a talented driver might get a chance to race in the Cup series.

The really talented, connected and sponsored drivers made it to Cup by the time they were 25 or 26. Thus, they got to stock car racing’s highest levels with a bit of maturity simply due to their age.

Nowadays Cup teams pluck drivers out of the local ranks while the drivers are still in their teens, still learning to shave. A year in the NASCAR Trucks or maybe the Nationwide Series and these youngsters are thrown into the Cup arena. Swim or become chum.

Kurt Busch started his Cup career at a young age and now, a Cup champion, he is a proven commodity behind the wheel. Nobody doubts his talent or his drive to be a winner. Let’s not forget that when he won his Cup title, he had a wheel break off early in the final race. With his championship hopes hanging by a thread, he was able to jerk his three-wheeled car onto pit road to have the thing re-fitted. He resumed the race and won the title.

That talent was evident when he was racing on the Southwest Tour. I enjoyed watching him drive. And I’ll enjoy watching him drive again next year.

Thanks for reading.