March 21, 2009
By Brenda Benedict
Kurt Busch has several reasons to be happy this week. He had scored two top ten finishes in the first three races of the NASCAR season and then he raced to first place in the Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta.
Busch even stated that winning, having a week off and then going to Bristol, one of his favorite tracks has him on cloud nine.
Busch ‘s backwards victory lap at Atlanta has caught the attention of the fans and Busch has had over 10,000 emails, letters and calls to his contest with ideas for a name for his victory lap. The winner was announced Friday, March 20 at Bristol.
Busch’s comments to the press following his victory have also pleased Dodge. When Busch exited his car, he told the national television audience, “If that doesn’t inspire you to go out and buy a Dodge Charger, I don’t know what will.”
Dodge company spokesmen stated, “Businesses just can’t buy the kind of marketing power that Busch gave with his off-the-cuff remarks.”
Kurt Busch further explained that his strong showing is a result of improvements in all areas of his race team. He stated, “They are all pulling the rope in the same direction.” This includes crew chief, team engine builder, pit crew and the race shop builders.
Busch explained, “We’ve worked on all areas. Last year everybody would ask: What areas do you think you need to improve on to make your car a championship-caliber car? We couldn't put our finger on just one thing. I think we had to look at all areas and make every area better. And we've had a lot of people pulling the rope in the same direction helping us do that.”
He explained how last year’s difficulties caused the team to reevaluate their difficulties and use that knowledge to make improvements for this season.
“But it's just think sitting in the seat, knowing that, man, the front ends just aren't turning. When that got back to the engineering department, the guys setting up the cars, when we could really sit down and think about it, we threw some ideas off the wall. When we didn't make the Chase, we were able to use those ideas, put them into race circumstances, and find out from there what we needed to do heading into 2009.”
In an interview earlier this week Kurt Busch attributed much of the success to the new Dodge engine –the R6. “The biggest thing has been durability that we focused on. Also to gain more power low end and top end. You can definitely see the low-end torque on restarts. When you go to do the restarts through the gear, tracks where you're full throttle, not flipping the tires, you really get to put your power down.”
After having been the ‘other Busch brother’ last year because of his brother Kyle’s early dominance, Kurt Busch seems to be enjoying the spotlight and is using this time to bring attention to Dodge.
In these really tough economic times NASCAR and the drivers need to use creative methods to reengage their fans.
Officials at Dodge commented, “However, in times that we’re faced with right now, it’s extremely important, and I’ll explain why. What Kurt Bush did [during his post-race interview] on Sunday wasn’t just win that race, for those of you who watched the television broadcast, when Kurt got out of that car, he demonstrated the level of professionalism that he deals with and that he exudes.”
Michael Waltrip is also using unique ways to call attention to his sponsor NAPA Auto Parts. This week Waltrip posed a video of a recent lobbying visit to Washington D.C. on NAPA’s behalf for his Facebook fans. Click here to see the video.
The clip chronicles Waltrip’s day working for NAPA while at the same time showing us the frenzied off-track life of a NASCAR driver.
Busch’s enthusiasm and victory lap naming contest and Michael Waltrip’s use of social networking sites serve to make great water cooler conversation and are examples of things that make NASCAR more fun an give us a greater connection with the sport.
I read Rebecca Gladen’s article NASCAR Networking is better with Twitter last week on Insiderracingnews.com. I have since been following Max Papis on Twitter. He uses Twitter to make the fans feel like friends with his frequent updates on his daily life.
As a NASCAR fan, I want more that entertainment along with good racing. Several drivers are finding creative ways to make connections with the fans and I for one am enjoying it.
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.
