NHRA: Sprint Cup Champ To Run Gatornationals

The Tire Kingdom Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fl. will have a NASCAR Sprint Cup champion amongst the field of those in the Super Gas Division of the Lucas Oil Racing series.

On March 11th, Kurt Busch, the 2004 Sprint Cup Champion will make three trial passes with his 1970 Dodge Challenger.  The following morning he will begin eliminations against many experienced racers in the Sportsman category.

Busch bought the Challenger in 2008 off of eBay for $15,000 and spent more than a year rebuilding it.  The car has a 426 hemi engine that is fuel-injected and turbocharged producing 1167 horsepower.  The car is street legal in N.C.

Kurt will be foot braking the car with a powerglide tranny and no electronics.

The interest in drag racing has been with him for some time and he was encouraged by NHRA Pro Stock champion Greg Anderson, Top Fuel champ Larry Dixon and legend Don Prudhomme.

He attended 30 hours of instruction at the Roy Hill Drag Racing School at ZMax Raceway in Concord, N.C.  Early this year he received his competition license at the school.

Kurt made his best pass at Rockingham Dragway running 9.16 @ 166 mph.  At Gainesville he will be dialed in at 9.90 for the Sportsman category.

Since time to pursue the straight line racing is limited he obviously won't be a regular, but does plan to run NMCA and IHRA events whenever possible in addition to NHRA.

Busch has somewhat low expectations because he doesn't have the seat time of his competition.  He did say perhaps the fact he is a NASCAR Sprint Cup champion will allow him to "get in their heads."  He will need any advantage he can get.

 There are other NASCAR drivers that enjoy racing a quarter mile at a time, Greg Biffle for one.  It is good to see the oval guys going straight.