My Favorite "Twits" and a Beer Challenge

Yes, I am aware no less than three weeks ago I said I would be blogging more often - well, we can all see how successful I have been at that!   I have another That's Debatable blog in the works but I got a few interesting tidbits from Miller Lite Racing that I thought I would pass along...

Let's start with my favorite Twits...
The Brew Crew has entered the wide world of Twitter and are "tweeting the Chase" from the track and the Penske garages for the next ten weeks.    Luke (shocks), Darin (engines), Stretch (mechanic), Bill (interior/gas), Mule (tires) as well as Pat Tryson and the rest of the pit crew will be answering questions and giving us exclusive updates and insights in real time.   You can follow them on twitter as "@BlueDeuce2Win."   Be sure to ask them who their favorite tool cart girl is...

Penske Racing is also hosting a Chase contest through its Twitter page. Followers of "@penskeracing" can participate by tweeting their guess as to where Kurt will finish in that week's race. Those that correctly guess Kurt's finishing position will be identified and up to 10 winners will be randomly selected to receive a free Penske Racing t-shirt.  One weekly grand prize winner will also be selected to receive an autographed No. 2 car diecast signed by Kurt.

On Another Note...
The Battle of the Beer Cars might actually happen this year.   Miller Lite once again threw down the gauntlet challenging Budweiser to a weekly duel for charity.   If Budweiser accepts, which ever beer car finishes ahead of the other will win $2,500 each race for their charity of choice and whomever finishes higher in the Chase standings will win $25,000 for their charity.

Kurt Busch is racing for Operation Homefront - an organization that provides emergency and morale assistance for our troops, the families they leave behind and for wounded warriors when they return home.   I had the honor of meeting some of the staff for this amazing organization at the Texas race in 2007 as well as several members of the military who were attending their first ever NASCAR race - and who of course went home with some lugnuts!

Let's hope Bud finally antes up and gets in the game for the sake of charity...Go Kurt!

And Finally...
As you can imagine, I was heartbroken to hear the news that Pat Tryson is indeed leaving Penske for MWR and the No. 56 with Martin Truex, Jr. in 2010.    Many have attributed this move to a rift between Pat and Kurt and use the evidence of Kurt's, ahem, "passionate" expressions over the radio.    This could not be further from the truth - Pat was woo'ed with a hefty raise and job security and in this economy and current state of affairs for teams/crews, no one can blame him for looking out for number one.    Word is Penske is looking to go in a different direction and utilize their strength in engineering as they seek new crew chiefs for both the Cup and Nationwide series.

I would like to personally thank Pat for always saying hello (and heck, he even knows my name!) and for being so available for autograph requests and to answer your questions.  He will be missed!

Shocking, Isn't It?

In my never-ending quest to try to report about what actually goes on in the NASCAR garages, I bring you the shocking story of the procedure the rear-end shocks move through on race weekend. My partner in crime is none other than Luke Cunnington, our very own Miller Lite Dodge Shock Specialist. Luke was kind enough to let me follow him from the moment he removed the shocks from the car to when he turned them into NASCAR to finally getting them back on the Blue Deuce on Sunday.

To make this all the more shocking you get to watch it, not just read about it! But you'll still have to deal with me and my cheesy questions...

To start, here is Luke previewing the procedure with the rear-end shocks.



In this next video clip, we have moved into the Miller Lite hauler where Luke explains the difference between shocks on a road course vs. an oval and then shows us the shock dyno. (sorry for the rough edits!)



This video clip shows just a bit of the shock dyno working and then Luke explains the output on the computer. It is difficult to see the computer screen but essentially there is a graph with two curving lines that curve away from one another. So not only do these guys wrench on the cars, they do need a lot of computer knowledge as well to keep themselves on the cutting edge of the technology of speed.



Here Luke shows off the uber-organized shock cabinet in the Miller Lite hauler. I have found all the Penske haulers would put my closet to shame. Luke said it is imperative to have the shocks easy to find especially when they need to change them out quickly during practice.



And here you get a better flavor of how packed in the haulers are with crew members and equipment. Luke completes the process with the shocks in the hauler by removing all the air pressure from them and discusses how some teams abused shocks to get an advantage.



Finally, in this video clip we head over to the NASCAR Shock inspection station. Every team must have their shocks inspected, tagged and stored here before the garage closes.



On race day, the Brew Crew gets the car tuned as they want it and then pushes the car through inspection. The first inspection station they arrive at is always the shock station. Here they find the same inspectors from the night before with their tagged shocks. They cut the yellow tie off them and Luke usually has Stretch (aka Eric Bailey, the general mechanic on the No. 2 car) put them back in the car. Sadly, I don't have the picture of Stretch under the car so this will have to do.



Hope you enjoyed following the Miller Lite shocks around the garage -- Thanks to Luke and the officials for letting me document this on video and film!




And as always...thanks for reading!

Indy Week -- Tirelessly Talkin' Tires

As we know from last year at Indy, four infamous Goodyear Eagle racing tires can make you or break you on race day. We may think we know tires, but there is a lot “More-2-It” than we realize. How many of us have actually tried to change all four of our tires in under 15 seconds with six other friends? Not many I reckon! Let me tell you what I have learned from the Miller Lite racing team about their tires.

First off, one tire costs about $450 and most teams buy between 10-15 sets of tires for each race weekend. That’s a lot of dough! The teams give Goodyear their wheels and Goodyear mounts the racing tire chosen for that particular race for the teams at the track. The Miller Lite tires are always easy to find because they are the only ones with blue wheels. The tires each weigh about 60 pounds when they have the inner safety liner (used at high speed tracks like Daytona) and about 45 pounds without the safety liner (used at road courses and lower speed tracks). Each set of tires has an average life of about 150 miles.

One last thing, these tires are “smooth”, they have no tread on them. When teams use new tires out on the track they are called “stickers” because they still have the sticker on them from Goodyear indicating the batch and once the tires have one “hot lap” on them they are called “scuffs.” Sometimes teams “scuff” tires in practice just in case their car setup works better on older tires.

The Miller Lite Dodge arrives at the track with a set of “Set Up Tires” that are clearly marked on the outside in blue writing. These tires come from the shop and are not counted towards the team’s tire limit for the weekend. They cannot be used outside of the garage area. Each team’s tires are labeled with the team numbers and are bar coded so Goodyear can track them if the teams have any problems with them. Dave “Mule” Nichols is the Miller Lite team’s “tire guy” and he is responsible for getting the tires from Goodyear for practice, qualifying and for the race and making sure they are all at the desired air pressure amounts as decided by the crew chief, Pat Tryson.
Here is a video of Mule telling me about his tire routine and his reactions to the Indy race last year.

Mule starts his weekend by trotting over to the Goodyear garage and picking up tires for practice and qualifying. On race day, he gets help from the pit crew as they lug their tires to the pit box. One of Mule’s main jobs is removing the air from the tires and replacing it with nitrogen. By using nitrogen instead of air, they have more control over how much the pressure will increase when the tires heat up. He also measures the circumference of each tire and takes other measurements to try to match them into sets.

Each tire has five to six “wear holes” about the size of the tip of a sharpie marker in a diagonal across the tire. Mule uses a gauge that measures the depth of these holes and notes them before they put them on the Miller Lite Dodge. After the team makes a practice run and Mule again checks the depth of the wear holes to see how the different set ups are wearing the tires.
Often when the car comes into the pits, there is a bunch of rubber and debris built up on the tire from the track. You’ll see Mule using a small torch to heat up that rubber and then he scrapes it off to clean off the tire so he can get back to those wear holes. Right after a pit stop, you’ll see Mule radioing the information he learns about the tire wear, tire temperature, and air pressure build-up to Pat Tryson (crew chief) and Dave Winston, the team engineer who has to make sense of that data.

But I am getting ahead of myself. There is a whole lot of work that goes into the tires on race day before they are used in the race. Usually the pit crew is responsible for getting and preparing the sets of tires to be used during the race. Teams have anywhere between 5 and 10 sets of tires in their pits depending on the type of race. The tires are labeled by Mule with chalk “LF, LR, RF, RR” to indicate where on the car they go and he numbers them to indicate which set they belong to.

The pit crew then uses a strip of hot pink tape to indicate the left side tires and a strip of bright blue tape to indicate right side tires. They place this tape in the same place on each tire because it also indicates where the tire carriers should hold the tires as they carry them during the pit stops. This ensures they get the tire consistently and easily lined up with the studs for quick stops.

Each rim has to be “cleaned” and the team uses three different types of steel brushes on each tire to clean the holes for the studs and the center hole that slides over the wheel cap. After the grime and paint is removed by the brushes, the wheels are ready for the lugs. About four hours before the start of the race, the pit crew starts gluing on the bright yellow lug nuts onto the wheels with a weather stripping adhesive. Finally, they use a heavy, flat piece of metal that presses the lugs into the adhesive and makes for a good seal.

When the Miller Lite Dodge rolls out onto pit road on race day, the pit crew also lubes the studs on the car so the tires slide on and off easier. The studs are long and have no threads for the first three-quarters of an inch so the lug nuts glued to the rim don’t get cross-threaded when the tire changers are putting the tires on the car. When the wheel is placed on the car during the pit stop, the air gun torque breaks the adhesive and the lug nut is tightened normally. Sometimes the adhesive is too gooey and sometimes to brittle and it will interfere with the “feel” and rhythm of the tire changers. There is always a danger that the lug nuts might fall off while changing the tire, so the over-the-wall guys wear special gloves that have a couple lug nuts attached to them on top by their wrists so they can grab them quickly if needed.

Tired of reading about tires yet? I have a feeling this isn't the last time you'll be hearing about tires this week but all indications seems to point to the fact that Goodyear has finally figured something out.

Sonoma Garage Report - Race Day

Sunday was another early start with all bloggers finally in attendance at the track. We made plans to meet up on pit road at the Brew Crew pit box but first I went in to the garages to say hi to the guys and get some scoop.

The crew was busy getting the car ready for inspection so I sought out some of my contacts in the garages and asked their opinion of the NASCAR drug policy. First, anyone who works on the cars can be selected for the random drug testing each week. People are randomly selected based on a number on their hard card and it can be officials, crew or team members or drivers.

When asked about the fairness of not knowing the specific substances on the banned list -- most felt it was completely fair and they know if they are concerned about some drug they are taking they can talk to NASCAR's MD to get that medication noted and "cleared." No one seemed reluctant to go to the MD to discuss their medications and many felt it was the best drug program in sports.

A random tidbit -- some were not in the least surprised by Mayfield getting caught. Hmmmmmmm.....

It was time to meet up with the bloggers at the Miller Lite pit box. RA6AN was writing good luck messages to her beloved Roush teams and IowaGirl, YeeMum and Jon464 were getting the royal tour of the pit box courtesy of Larry, the rear tire carrier. Larry is "almost famous" for his pit box tours as you will see in a video I hope to have up soon. He also admits to reading the blogs and recognized some of the bloggers in attendance! So if you write on Wednesdays and Thursdays don't be surprised if the Brew Crew knows what you said about them! Here is RA6AN trying to counteract the #2 team mojo by holding up a #6 for her favorite driver.


The bloggers headed off to collect signatures and lugnuts from the other crews and I headed back into the garage. The Brew Crew was pushing the Miller Lite Dodge past me towards the first inspection station -- putting the rear shocks back in the car -- so I caught up with them and resumed my duties as the unofficial tool car girl. While we were in line for inspection our teammate, Sam Hornish, Jr. pulled in in his rental car -- a Dodge of course!


Infineon is one of the few tracks where the driver's do not bring their motor coaches and instead stay in local resorts in wine country. As a result they are often stuck in the same traffic we are and its a hoot to see fans recognize drivers in the cars next to them.

We were making it through inspection without a hitch -- well until the final inspection stop. The Blue Deuce was rolled up onto a ramp where the templates sit to check for the yaw and length of the cars. We passed inspection and "Stretch", the general mechanic on the crew, was sitting in the window ready to steer off the ramp and down the hill to pit road. Well, it was a very tight squeeze and he couldn't react fast enough and ended up ripping the lower skirt off the car on the right hand side. OOPS!


Above is Stretch holding the piece that broke off. Not to worry, the Stretch, the car chief Jeffrey, and Steve the rear-end mechanic took the skirt off, cut a new piece of plastic to go in its place and had the car all ready to go about 15 min later. Of course the NASCAR officials were watching "closely" as Jeffrey joked about what a great diversion tactic so they could fiddle with the left side of the car. Given how well the Miller Lite Dodge handled in the race compared to practice, I would say Stretch might be onto something!

Once the car was safely out on pit road it was time to head back to the hauler for some of Cindy's tasty grub. Beef tips, rice and corn were on the menu today. While the guys dug in I admired their most recent trophy -- The Kings Cup.


The Brew Crew had won the annual go-kart race for charity beating out Denny Hamlin's team for the Cup which they proudly displayed all weekend outside the hauler. WOOT!
The guys are also in another competition...weight loss! Inspired by crew chief Pat Tryson's dramatic weight loss over the course of the 2008 season, several of the crew are battling to be the biggest loser this year. Based on their progress chart, I would say they are practicing "Yo-Yo" diets -- baby steps right?! LOL

The drivers started heading out of their haulers to driver introductions and of course one of the most popular dad's on this Father's Day race was "Big Daddy" Jeff Gordon. Here he is with Ella as everyone yelled Happy Father's Day to him.


In a rare event, the Miller Lite Dodge was lined up exactly with our pit box so Kurt had a nice shady place to hang out before having to get in the car.


Kurt filled us in on the hunting trip he was heading to in Montana on his way home from California this week...including the 3 hour donkey ride he had to take to get to the hunting spot -- Man, I wish I could get some pictures of that!!! He's plan is to hunt bear with his compound bow and arrow...let's hope he shows up for Louden!

Here is nearly the entire team lined up for the prayer and anthem...


And another moving moment -- especially for me as a "retired" National Park Police Mounted Patrol groom -- was when the Oakland Police Department motorcycles lead the field on the pace laps in honor of the four officers killed on duty earlier this year.


To our right in the pits was Elliot Sadler's team where The King had chosen to watch the race. It sure was fun watching them cheer on their teammate to the victory.


To our left in the pits was pole-sitter Brian Vickers. One very interested party in the Red Bull teams this weekend was Front Row Joe who sold his ride to Scott Speed and instead was hanging around the pits.


Some of you may remember we have a father-son team on the Miller Lite crew. Steve, the rear-end mechanic and catch can man (seen previously in my blogs eating chicken wings with me) is the father of Chris, our gas man. Chris was a good son and didn't forget to wish his dad a Happy Father's Day -- in the form of a neon sticker on his helmet that his dad could read as they were gassing the car!


Of course, you all know that Kurt was kicking booty and taking names as he drove the Blue Deuce through the field from 27th up to the lead and was in contention for certainly a top 5 finish. Finally this generated some media attention and we had the lovely Lindsey in our pits interviewing crew chief Pat Tryson.


We were all pretty excited to hear the No. 2 car was getting awesome gas mileage and we were good to go on two stops, well until Jimmie Johnson decided to try passing Kurt through the "esses" and blatantly took Kurt out as he slammed hard into the tire barrier. Apparently JJ apologized but his crew chief did not pass that message along to Kurt who headed to the pits with a badly wounded ride.


The only good news was this fired Kurt up and he drove like mad in the final 30 laps to end up with a 15th-place finish. That and I managed to snag a small part of sheet metal as a souvenir! Several of you saw me on TV as Kurt was being interviewed after the race. He was clearly disappointed in Jimmie's judgment and thought he could trust Jimmie as the two former champs usually raced clean. As soon as Kurt finished his TV interview, Johnson headed over to apologize. I didn't get too close but it was clear Jimmie was saying he lost control of his car going over the rumble strips. Not sure if Kurt *really* forgave him but he was gracious nonetheless. We might see this one come back around...


The Miller Lite racing team had the car loaded and they were all heading out to the plane for the long flight home soon after. I said my goodbyes and good lucks and hope to see them again during the Chase.

Stay tuned for some more blogs from The Bloggers Weekend at Sonoma!

Sonoma Garage Report -- Qualifying

Greetings from Infineon Raceway in beautiful Sonoma, CA where it is "Bloggers weekend" - with six bloggers from FOXSports.com along with Valli, author of The Fast and The Fabulous all meeting up for a raucous good time!

Friday -- Qualifying Day
I made it into the garages around 10am after picking up my credentials and saying hello to the bloggers in attendance. One of the first images I came upon was Patrick Carpentier having some fun with the NASCAR officials "weighing" himself at the second to last inspection site. I have a feeling he was not heavy enough to even register!

I popped over to say hi to the Miller Lite Brew Crew in garage stall #5 and stopped by the hauler before heading out and taking in the sights. Marcos Ambrose was a very popular interview this weekend, here he is taping with TNT. Per the request of a fellow Aussie fan, I did chant "Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi! Oi! Oi!" as he walked back to his hauler. Marcos laughed and said, "good show!"

Of course, another popular driver this weekend is the defending champion of this race, Kyle "Thorn" Busch who was driving a super slick 18 car with an M&M's Transformers paint scheme.

I watched most of practice from the main grandstand with fellow blogger, RA6AN and then headed down to listen in to some of the drivers in the top 12 did their media interviews. Much of the questions centered around the economic situation and the recent cutback by Chevy as well as the new double-file restart rule. It was funny to hear the varied opinions on how the restarts would go here at the road course, from "we are all professionals, it will be fine" to "it is going to be a disaster."

I then got back to the Brew Crew who were just heading out to inspection. Above you see our engine tuner, Darin, posing for a laugh after working like dogs making numerous repairs to the Blue Deuce after practice searching for the right setup and fixing the splitter after breaking some of the brackets on the rumble strips. They were the last car out of the garage and had to cut in line in order to get through inspection in time to get the car out on pit road for their third-place qualifying spot. Interestingly, I learned in order to cut ahead of other teams you had to ask each team for permission. I thought the NASCAR officials waved you up. So our car chief, Jeffery, was running all over the place getting permission to jump in line.

I resumed my un-official job as the "tool cart girl" because the entire team was needed to steer and stop the car as it rolled off the final inspection site and down the hill to pit road.


I *love* being on pit road before qualifying - all the drivers are out socializing and not nearly as tense as before the race. Cousin Carl was getting a lot of attention next to us because his car failed the height sticks and weight inspection site a few times and he was without his Aflac ride right up until the start of qualifying. He joked that he might have to run around the track to qualify! Here are some driver shots.



And of course, our usual game of "Where's Junior" as he tries his best to be stealthy to get to his No. 88 ride.

Kurt went out third and had a great lap going until he went in too hard into a turn and went just into the grass resulting in ultimately a 27th place qualifying run. I found it interesting the lack of respect the No. 2 team gets from the media. They are in 4th place in the points, the only Dodge in the top 12 and yet Kurt didn't even get interviewed after his qualifying effort, instead the media flocked to Carl Edwards who eventually ended up qualifying way worse in 34th. Not sure what this team has to do to impress and get some respect!!

Up next...Sonoma Race Day!

Tirelessly Talkin' Tires

Four infamous Goodyear Eagle racing tires can make you or break you on race day. We may think we know tires, but there is a lot “More-2-It” than we realize. And how many of us have actually tried to change all four of our tires in under 15 seconds with six other friends? Not many I reckon! Let me tell you what I have learned from the Miller Lite racing team about their tires.

First off, one tire costs about $450 and most teams buy between 10-15 sets of tires for each race weekend. That’s a lot of dough! The teams give Goodyear their wheels and Goodyear mounts the racing tire chosen for that particular race for the teams at the track. The Miller Lite tires are always easy to find because they are the only ones with blue wheels. The tires each weigh about 60 pounds when they have the inner safety liner (used at high speed tracks like Daytona) and about 45 pounds without the safety liner (used at road courses and lower speed tracks). Each set of tires has an average life of about 150 miles.

One last thing, these tires are “smooth”, they have no tread on them. When teams use new tires out on the track they are called “stickers” because they still have the sticker on them from Goodyear indicating the batch and once the tires have one “hot lap” on them they are called “scuffs.” Sometimes teams “scuff” tires in practice just in case their car setup works better on older tires.

The Miller Lite Dodge arrives at the track with a set of “Set Up Tires” that are clearly marked on the outside in blue writing. These tires come from the shop and are not counted towards the team’s tire limit for the weekend. They cannot be used outside of the garage area. Each team’s tires are labeled with the team numbers and are bar coded so Goodyear can track them if the teams have any problems with them. Dave “Mule” Nichols is the Miller Lite team’s “tire guy” and he is responsible for getting the tires from Goodyear for practice, qualifying and for the race and making sure they are all at the desired air pressure amounts as decided by the crew chief, Pat Tryson. One of Mule’s main jobs is removing the air from the tires and replacing it with nitrogen. By using nitrogen instead of air, they have more control over how much the pressure will increase when the tires heat up.

Each tire has five to six “wear holes” about the size of the tip of a sharpie marker in a diagonal across the tire. Mule uses a gauge that measures the depth of these holes and notes them before they put them on the Miller Lite Dodge. After the team makes a practice run and Mule again checks the depth of the wear holes to see how the different set ups are wearing the tires. Often when the car comes into the pits, there is a bunch of rubber and debris built up on the tire from the track. You’ll see Mule using a small torch to heat up that rubber and then he scrapes it off to clean off the tire so he can get back to those wear holes. Right after a pit stop, you’ll see Mule radioing the information he learns about the tire wear, tire temperature, and air pressure build-up to Pat Tryson (crew chief) and Brian Wilson, the team engineer who has to make sense of that data.

But I am getting ahead of myself. There is a whole lot of work that goes into the tires on race day before they are used in the race. Usually the pit crew is responsible for getting and preparing the sets of tires to be used during the race. Teams have anywhere between 5 and 10 sets of tires in their pits depending on the type of race. The tires are labeled with chalk “LF, LR, RF, RR” to indicate where on the car they go and numbered to indicate which set they belong to.

The pit crew then uses a strip of hot pink tape to indicate the left side tires and a strip of bright blue tape to indicate right side tires. They place this tape in the same place on each tire because it also indicates where the tire carriers should hold the tires as they carry them during the pit stops. This ensures they get the tire consistently and easily lined up with the studs for quick stops.

Each rim has to be “cleaned” and the team uses three different types of steel brushes on each tire to clean the holes for the studs and the center hole that slides over the wheel cap. After the grime and paint is removed by the brushes, the wheels are ready for the lugs. About four hours before the start of the race, the pit crew starts gluing on the bright yellow lug nuts onto the wheels with a weather stripping adhesive. Finally, they use a heavy, flat piece of metal that presses the lugs into the adhesive and makes for a good seal.

When the Miller Lite Dodge rolls out onto pit road on race day, the pit crew also lubes the studs on the car so the tires slide on and off easier. The studs are long and have no threads for the first three-quarters of an inch so the lug nuts glued to the rim don’t get cross-threaded when the tire changers are putting the tires on the car. When the wheel is placed on the car during the pit stop, the air gun torque breaks the adhesive and the lug nut is tightened normally. Sometimes the adhesive is too gooey and sometimes to brittle and it will interfere with the “feel” and rhythm of the tire changers. There is always a danger that the lug nuts might fall off while changing the tire, so the over-the-wall guys wear special gloves that have a couple lug nuts attached to them on top by their wrists so they can grab them quickly if needed.

Tired of reading about tires yet? Feel like your ready to be a Tire Specialist? Told ya there was “More-2-It”!

Phoenix 4/08 Report from the Garage

Greetings from the garage at Phoenix! As many of you know, Miller Lite has decided to send me to several races this year to do some more behind the scenes reporting on the Miller Lite Racing team. It sounds like I will be doing blogs as well as some video interviews focusing on the team using their new slogan "More 2 It". I am quite a lucky girl to get these hot passes and look forward to bringing you all as much insider information as I can get at the track.

Unfortunately, I missed qualifying day but was at the track as soon as the credentials truck opened today. It was so great to be remembered and welcomed by the crew, all of which are the same guys from last year except for the tire guy. I even got a hug from Kurt who chatted with me about his live SPEED interview just minutes before about his first trip to PIR and this great picture of him in Rusty Wallace's pit (see it here: www.trpr.com).



It was a tough day for the Miller Lite team as they struggled to set up the car. Most of the teams were making a lot of adjustments, all of the cars seemed to be in the garages more than on the track during both practices today. With the high temps expected tomorrow and the changing track from day to night it will be even more difficult for the teams to hit the setups. Should make for some interesting racing.



Just before Happy Hour, Kurt met with Sammy Hagar and took him for some hot laps around the track in the pace car. I was invited to tag along (not in the car...) to take some pictures and was shocked when they let Sammy drive Kurt around! My guess is they will show this on the pre-race or on SPEED at some point this weekend. Sammy seemed pretty impressed and said he was surprised at how hard it was to drive at speed.

One on One with Kurt Busch

Finally, as promised, here are some of my thoughts about the time I spent with Kurt Busch during the last three races of 2007. Just so we are clear, I didn’t start out a big fan of Kurt’s. Not that I didn’t like him, I just never paid much attention one way or another, but Kurt and his crew won me over quickly. Not only were they awesome hosts, but I finally really watched him race and he can wheel a racecar with the best of them.

Kurt made an effort to spend one on one time with me every race weekend and included me in as many other appearances as he could. As many of you know, I did get to "officially" interview Kurt for the video FOXSports shot at the Phoenix race as well as ask him “on the record” questions in the media center. I also had the opportunity to interview him after hours at the Penske Racing Museum event announcing Sam Hornish, Jr. I was able to be out on the track when he arrived at the Miller Lite Dodge after driver introductions each weekend and lined up with his crew during the National Anthem. I got a bird’s eye view from atop his pit box during the Texas race and watched the other races from his pit area. I toured his hauler, talked with his mother, and shadowed his crew. I truly had all-access!

The first time I met Kurt was before Qualifying at Texas. I was led into the hauler all the way to the front room where Kurt was hanging out watching the Atlanta race. I was told I had about 5 minutes with him and wasn’t sure to what to expect given he had just drawn the first qualifying position and I knew he wasn’t thrilled with that.

I was pretty nervous meeting a NASCAR Champion and felt uncomfortable starting off a 3 week “relationship” by sticking my new digital recorder in between us and taking notes. I fell back on my skills as a psychologist and went into “interview” mode to calm myself down. I knew Kurt had attended the University of Arizona, my alma mater as well, so I started there. Kurt was there a few years after I was but we knew several of the same haunts. From there, we talked about playing Corn hole (http://www.playcornhole.org/ ), which I read about in his blog (being from Ohio, I come from a long line of Corn hole players). Kurt laughed when I challenged him to a game and we tried to figure out how to get a Corn hole set to the Miami track where there was plenty of room to play. We never did get in a game…but by then our conversation was rolling.

I never did turn on my digital recorder nor did I ever take notes when met with Kurt alone. One of the first things that struck me was how guarded all of the drivers were around the media, and Kurt was no different. Once he learned about the contest AND he saw he wasn’t “on record” with me, those 5 minutes turned quickly into 20 minutes. He spoke freely and was open about racing and his personal life. Every single time I figured I would only have a few minutes with him and every time I got a lot more time than I had ever hoped. As a result, I don’t have a perfect record of our time together, but I had a meaningful exchange with him.

Here are a few things that I observed and found interesting as well as a “hot tip” right off the presses…

• Kurt is just as disappointed with the race (TV) coverage just as we are. Primarily because they don’t show any of the racing further back in the field and he knew what he was doing at the time (passing a lot of cars on the way to the front). He said he didn’t notice much about the pre-race or actual coverage because they always watch with the sound off. Hmmm, sound familiar?


• Kurt was very careful with his choice of words when asked about the COT, the rules or NASCAR’s decisions, suggesting to me that NASCAR keeps their drivers on a tight rein. It will be interesting to see if NASCAR’s newfound idea to let them show “personality” will also apply to their opinions about NASCAR itself. For the record, I don’t think Kurt was a big fan of the COT at the time…but that’s just my gut talking.


• Image really does count for a lot. It seems Kurt has to work twice as hard and be twice as careful as some of the other drivers because of things that have happened in the past. He has definitely had some negative press in the past, but when you think about it, who hasn’t. Consider this...after Texas there was a big “to-do” about how he spoke to his spotter during the race, which resulted in him and his spotter doing interviews on camera the following week explaining how they are great friends from childhood, which allows them to speak that way to each other and forget it. Now, doesn’t Dale Jr “get into it” with his crew chief all the time? Yet, when he does it, it is seen as funny, “family”, and part of his charm. Kurt was frowned upon for doing the same thing I know there are a few other drivers who get the negative spin in a neutral situation. I can’t imagine how frustrating that is.


• Kurt is funny! Check him out on MadTV…he has some great one-liners. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MC_EobBJik He is really making an effort to meet and be available to his fans. He is looking to do more fan friendly media, even maybe “Cribs” to show off his new home in North Carolina and give us a peek into his personal side. Many of you know he is one of the only Cup drivers to sign autographs nearly every Sunday before the race at his merchandise hauler. It really is very impressive given his crazy media/PR schedule each weekend. Give him a chance and you might be surprised at who he really is.


• Kurt’s team is on the rise. With Pat Tryson’s solid leadership, Kurt’s considerable driving talents, a young, capable crew, and Mr. Penske’s unwavering confidence in Kurt and his ample resources, they will be the class of the Dodges and fighting for the Championship. Being able to watch them so closely AND compare them to others in the garages, it was obvious this team has chemistry. You heard it here first…


• And hot off the presses! If you’d like to make a little money off Kurt…The Palms in Las Vegas just announced today it will have a special “Battle of the Beers” betting line between Miller Lite and Budweiser. You can bet the results of the entire season, (the current line is that Kurt will finish 8.5 positions ahead of Kasey), or you can bet whether Miller or Bud will finish best each race. For all the details, go here: http://www.millerliteracing.com/

I am happy to expand on any of my experiences with Kurt or answer any questions you have about him or his team. For folks who haven’t been around in the off season, continue reading my blog for more on my experiences in the garages. Thanks for reading!