Friday Garage Report - Daytona

Friday brought another day of me alone in the garages while my NTC relaxed before the big weekend at the pool, hot tub, and beach and waited on Bob to arrive.   While Friday was a little slow out on the track with most teams (including ours) choosing to skip one or both practices, it was not a slow day for Kurt.    He was in uniform and doing appearances from 8:45 am until the minute before the garaged closed at 4 pm – while most of the other drivers were well out of there by 2 pm.  

One of the coolest appearances was when several of the HOF nominees showed up at the hauler for a photo opportunity with Kurt.    Can you name them?  (Mostly I am asking you this b/c I an only name 3 of the 4!  Ooh bad fan!!)

 

It was interesting to listen in on them asking Kurt to describe the “new” way of drafting on the track and how Kurt described the track as “almost boring” because the surface is so smooth so you no longer have to “wheel it” as much or worry about getting out of shape and instead focus so much more on partnering up.   I dunno about you guys but it seems far from boring out there to me.

Kurt also was visited by one the rep of his new sponsor TAG Heuer..  You may have seen Kurt’s new line of sunglasses – well TAG Heuer brought a pair for every single one of the guys on the crew.   They were pretty stoked!   They also got super swank TAG Heuer watches from Kurt for Christmas this past year.   Here is Stretch modeling for me!

 

For some of you super astute Kurt fans – you may have noticed in Victory Lane on Thursday Kurt was not wearing his new shades.  That’s because he “lost” them…he apparently left them in his rental car unknowingly and a couple of the guys took his car out Wed night and when they got back the gate to the drivers lot was locked so they parked the rental right outside.   Well of course the car got towed!   Craig,the coach driver, found the rental and unbelievably Kurt’s red sunglasses were still in there.

The two new Ms. Sprint Cup ladies were also hanging about and asked me if I could take a picture of them with the “newest driver on twitter” (Be sure to follow @KurtBusch22 and @22carPR).  Of course I was happy to do it and get a picture with them myself in return.  

Man I wish I had those sunglasses I lost running to Victory Lane!  The squinting and the sun burn starts here!

Kurt was also did appearances for the Paralyzed Veterans of America and has taken this charity on as one of his focuses again this year as well as multiple TV, radio and print media interviews.   A few of you caught me in the background when Kurt was being interviewed by Dick Bergeren on SPEED. 

I did pass along the message that Kurt Busch Nation would *really* like to get their hands on the NHRA Pro Stock die cast and Kurt said he would be making that happen.   I also hear that Kurt Busch.com would be updated this week – apparently both Kurt and Penske’s website had some problems getting updated from the company hosting them and now should be done. 

The crew was endlessly working on the car and towards the end of the day there were only a few loyal fans left in the Fanzone area looking in through the windows.  To prove we have the coolest crew in the sport – Dave Winston, our head engineer, spotted two little girls and their dad watching and he went out of the garage around to the window and got them and brought them into the garage to take pictures by the car.   They were so over the moon and are now three more #22 team fans for life.   Dave will henceforth be known as the “Dream Maker”…LOL Since the entire crew doesn’t have a nickname anymore (Oilslicks?  Shellraisers?) I am making it my mission to come up with individual names for each!

L to R - Steve-O (rear end mechanic) Chris (Steve-O's son & our gas man), Addington and the Dream Maker!

Kurt and TR came running back to the garage with seconds to spare before it closed at 4pm and I hooked up with TR to finally pay him back with dinner for all the love he gives me.   He took me on a tour of Daytona Beach showing me all the highlights and where history was made.  I saw where Rusty & Dale Sr. kept their yachts and where Mr. Penske parked his when he was in town.   He showed me many of the driver condo’s and the France family compound as well as many of their offices.  TR then took me by the bar where the points system was first hammered out on a napkin and then the hotel where they finalized it.  I saw the airplane hanger where FOXsports did all the photo shoots for the season and the hospital were Dale Sr. was taken.   History and stories too much to recount.

Another funny story – we had to head back to TR’s hotel because just like the crew his official Penske/Pennzoil/Shell shirts were not all in yet and he was expecting a box of them that day.   TR was out of shirts and asked if I would be willing to iron a few of them for him!   I was cracking up and happy to do it since I need to pay TR back anyway I can but I am not much of a domestic girl it took me almost 30 min to do two shirts! LOL  I told TR to tweet about it but he said his wife would kill him for asking me to do this!   I think he looked pretty wrinkle free on Saturday and Sunday.   Sadly I have no pictures of this....

TR and I headed out for dinner and beers and got caught up on all kinds of good stuff.  There were plenty of racing personalities at the restaurant including Hollywood Hammond who stopped by to say hello.   We headed back to the hotel bar to finish watching the truck race with some of the #22 crew who were hanging out there and rooted on Parker Klingerman.   Another late but fun night for me – thank goodness I run on adrenaline at the races!