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SPORTS/He CbarUItt #o«
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Champion
Stewart
enjoys special
time in his life
ByALANTAyS
Cox News Service
Daytona Beach, Fla.
Tbny Stewart, 2005 Nextel
Cup champion, is eager to start
the 2006 season.
Butnot for the obvious reason.
“I’ve never been so excited to
have the season start in my life,”
Stewart said last week diuing a
videoconference from
Indianapolis Motor Speedway,
“because after the Vegas race, I
think we actually get a week and
a half vacation. So I’m excited to
get started just to get my vaca
tion finally.”
Stewart, who wrapped up his
second Cup championship in
November at Homestead-Miami
Speedway, spent his short off
season fulfilling the many media
and promotional obligations that
come with a series title.
And when he wasn’t talking,
he was racing.
On Dec. 30, Stewart won the
U.S. Auto Club indoor midget
race at Fort Wayne, Ind. Last
weekend he was in Tulsa, Okla.,
for the Chili Bowl Midget
Nationals. On Jan. 28-29, he’ll
drive in the Flolex 24 sports-car
endurance race at Daytona
International Speedway,
Tb allow Stewart to race in the
Chili Bowl, team owner Joe
Gibbs excused him from last
week’s Nextel Cup testing ses
sion in Da3dx)na. As he did last
year, Mike McLaughlin drove
the No. 20 The Home Depot
Chevrolet in Stewart’s place.
“It’s always been important to
me to be able to go back and not
forget where I came from,” said
Stewart, whose roots are in
short-track racing. Tb go over
and race Midgets and Sprint
Cars when I have time is some
thing that’s all been very impor
tant to me.
“When I go to the Chih Bowl,
I’m no different than anybody
else there, and I really enjoy that
event.”
With a (Winston) Cup title and
an IRL championship already on
his resume, Stewart last year
won the Brickyard 400 and the
Nextel Cup championship. Now
he’s looking at the next logical
goal, a Daytona 500 victory.
But he doesn’t subscribe to the
theory that not winning a
Daytona 500 takes something
away fiom his career.
“TTiere’s a lot of guys that
haven’t won the Daytona 500,
but I think they’ve had great ca
reers,” Stew^ said, citing
Rusty Wallace and Mark
Marto. 'The opposite case, he
said, is Michael Waltrip.
“Michael Waltrip has won the
Daytona 500 twice and never
won a championship, and he’s
won, I tlunk, only three races in
his career. I don’t think an)dxxly
is going to say he’s had a great
career just because he’s won the
Daytona 500.”
Stewart continues to savor his
2005 Brickyard victory.
“I haven’t been married yet
and haven’t had children, and
those are the only things that I
cmr think would be a possible
greater experience than what I
had here,” he said.
Photos by JOHNNY CRAWFORD / Cox News Service
Kurt Busch, who was suspended by Roush Racing for the final two 2005 races, has a new team this year, He’ll drive
the No. 2 Dodge for Penske Racing previously driven by Rusty Wallace.
NEW CHAPTER
in book of Busch
Tired of going
counter, driver
tries a right turn
By MARK BRADLEY
Cox News Service
Atlanta
S uch inquiries weren’t on the
schedule. From the press release:
“Kurt Busch will address ques
tions regarding the Goodyear test,
Penske Racing and the 2006 NASCAR
Nextel Cup season only.” But asking
Kurt Busch just about tires is lika in
terviewing Jennifer Aniston and not
mentioning Brad Pitt.
So there he was, standing in the
garage area last week at Atlanta
Motor Speedway, responding to the
questions he wasn’t supposed to hear.
Maybe part of him want^ to turn and
stomp off, but a bigger part of Kurt
Busch has to know he’s being watched
in a whole new way, and how he han
dles himself in the coming season will
go a long way toward solidifying the
paying public’s impression of him. And
to NASCAR and its many sponsors,
the paying public matters.
“There are things in your life that
you’d like to press the ‘resef button
on,” Busch said, and what happened to
him in November qualifies. He was
stopped by police for running a stop
sign near Phoenix International
Raceway and charged with reckless
driving. (Officers, who contended
Busch was abusive toward them,
smelled alcohol on his breath, but tests
proved he wasn’t drunk.)
Fioush Placing, then his employer,
might have let him off with a repri
mand, but it suspended him for the
season’s last two races with this bla
tant kiss-off fiom team president Geoff
Busch said of his new ride
with the Penske team, “In a
career, things get ironed out
and evened out. This is a
unique opportunity to jump in.”
Smith: Tfs the last straw. We’re offi
cially retiring as Kurt Busch’s apolo
gists.”
Busch, see, had gotten crossways
with lots of folks — fellow driver
Jimmy Spencer bloodied his nose after
a 2003 race — and was bound for a
new team anyway. The catchall de
scription of NASCAR drivers — good
ol’ boys — doesn’t really apply to
Busch, who comes across as something
of an Eddie Haskell. He’s smart and
he’s gifted and he has a bit of a smirk
about him. Roush Racing essentially
sedd, “Smirk on this,” and deprived the
2004 Nextel Cup champ of a chance to
finish the 2005 season ffie way a cham
pion should.
But now it’s 2006 and Kiut Busch
woiks for Roger Penske and is working
on repairing a damaged persona. “In a
career, things get ironed out and
evened out,” he said. “This is a imique
opportunity to jimip in.” He’s driving
the Dodge vacated Rusty Wallace, a
car sponsored by Miller Lite. Without
irony, Busch likens his orientation to
“having a first beer together.” He has
nothing but nice things to say about
Penske — he says nothing at all about
Jack Roush — and he called the
chance to work with his new boss “the
best medicine you could get.”
Busch has won 14 Nextel Cup races
and is bright enough to fit the profile of
what the sport wants to become — if
he just co^d stop ticking people off.
Then again, Tbny Stewart, once the
bad boy of the gearbox set, mended
multiple fences en route to the 2005
Nextel Cup title, pointedly saying at
the moment of his victory that he’d
won this championship “the right
way." Of Stewart’s smoother dynamics,
Busch said: “It definitely gives you mo
tivation to be more well-run. You have
to be a good guy and take care of your
public image.”
And how’s that going? Said Roy
McCauley, his new crew chief: “Kurt is
definitely giving 110 percent. I believe
he feels like he’s in a great situation
now.”
Kurt Busch turned 28 this month
and is scheduled to be married in July.
He has a new ride and the chance to
make a fii^h start. He and Penske will
attend the Super Bowl together in
Detroit next month, and the only ad
vice Busch said he has received fix)m
the car owner is the basic stuff: “Stand
on the right pedal, turn left and go
fast.”
Did he make any New Year’s resolu
tions? “Usually those are more person
al things,” Busch said, but he shared
his anyway “Spend more time with my
fiancee and challenge myself to be a
better person.”
The look on his face wasn’t a smirk.
It was, by way of contrast, an actual
smile.
LABONTE
NOTEBOOK
Labonte saw
signs
By RICK MINTER
Cox News Service
Daytona Beach, Ha.
Bobby Labonte has been saying since la.si fall
that “signs" told him to join Petty Enterprises and
drive the famed No. 4.1 Dtxlge.
Who knew that he was speaking literally rather
than figuratively.
“I was in my office one day at my shop, and 1
went down the hallway to
the fax machine, and there
was a STP sticker laying
there," be said of the decal
from the Petty's longtime
sponsor.
"I don't know where it
came from but it was just
laying there. ... I know that
.sounds kind of corny, but
that happened.” he said.
“1 l(X)ked at my dad. and 1
said. ‘What d(x;s this mean?
Who pul this here?’"
He al.so said his decision to move fix)m Joe
Gibbs Racing, where he won the 2(X)2 champi
onship. to the Pettys, who haven’t won a race since
1997, was made in huge part because he perceived
that the Petty team is on the upswing.
Kahne; It’.s time to perform
After four poles, five runner-up finishes and
R(X)kie of the Year honors in 2(X)4, Kascy Kahne’s
results last year were a letdown. Even though he
got his first career Cup victory at Richmond in
May, he finished a disapfX)inling 23rd in points, far
from a berth in the Chase. He said that just can’t
happen this year.
"1 feel like there’s a lot
of pressure this year to
makiT the C’hase." he .said.
“I can’t miss the Chase
three years in a n>w when
[team owner Ray
Evemham] has got a car in
it each year. It’s lime Uf get
in [the Chase). It’s lime to
perfonn and finish races."
Musgrave back
behind the wheel
Ted Musgrave, the defending Craftsman Truck
* Scries champion, has landed a driving job with
Germain Motorsports. Musgrave found himself
without a ride when his Ultra Motorsports team
suddenly shut down after losing its financial back
ing. Mu-sgrave will be a teammate to Ttxld Btxline.
Elliott still seeks victories
After three days last week at or near the U)p of
the speed charts. Bill Elliott said a third Daytona
5(X) victory is a real possibility even though he is
.semi-rclired and his No. 36 Chevy team is a part-
time effort.
“I feel like I can [win it); 1 really do." said
Elliott, who won the race in 1983 and 1987. "I feel
like they have got the equipment to do it, given the
right circumstances.”
Kinser plans run at rookie title
Kraig Kin.ser, the 21-ycar-old .son of sprint-car
legend Steve Kinser, will run for Craftsman Truck
Series Rx)kic of the Year honors in the No. 47
Chevrolet.
The team is a joint effort between MB2
Motorsports, the Nextel Cup team that ran Kinser
in two ARCA races last year, and Morgan-Dollar
Motorsports,
Petty matriarch dead at age 88
Eli/iibeth T(X)mes Petty, the matriarch of the
racing Petty clan, died Jan. 8 at age 88 after an ex
tended illness.
Survivors include her sons. Richard and
Maurice; nine grandchildren, including Cup driver
Kyle; 24 great grandchildren; two sisters; and two
brothers.
KAHNE
Teams satisfied so far
with new Ford Fusion
By RICK MINTER
Cox News Service
Daytona Beach, Fla.
'Hie consensus after testing
last week at Daytona
International Speedway is that
the new Ford FHision is probably
better than the old Thurus, but a
true reading won’t come until
after the tests at Las Vegas
Motor Speedway in two weeks.
“We’re going to have to wait
imtil we get to Vegas, where
handling is more important,”
said Len Wood, co-owner of the
No. 21 Ford Fusion driven by
Ken Schrader
Matt Kenseth said his No.-17
Fusion won’t be much different
than last year’s 'Ihtirus because
NASCAR’s templates allow only
minor tweaks.
“If 8 probably going to be a lit
tle bit better, and we already had
a great race car, so I think it’s
going to be a great car,” he said.
CTievrolet got a new nose and
tail on the Monte Cario. Jeff
Burton said he’s not sure how his
new No. 31 Chevy compares to
NASCAR
Jeff Gordon (24)
and Bobby Labonte
(43) practice during
^ V ® Preseason Thunder
t h a^n week at Daytona
o 1 d International
ones Speedway,
with
new body panels.
He said that for a number or
reasons, including aerodynamic
and mechanical, his i^chard
CTiildress Racing entries are sig
nificantly faster than last year’s
cars.
"We realized that what we
had was not near good enough,
and we set out for the last six
months to do it better,” he said.
'Hie Dodge Charger, intro
duced last year, continues to
confttund its drivers, engineers
and mechanics.
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