2004 NASCAR Cup Champion, Kurt Busch, took and passed his Indianapolis 500 Rookie Orientation Program today at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with Andretti Autosport.
Busch was originally scheduled to run from 8:30 to noon before a flight out to Darlington for this weekend's stock car event, but rescheduled travel plans late in the day to allow for two additional hours of on-track activity, culminating at 1:45.
With his Sprint Cup team, Furniture Row Motorsports, on hand, Busch turned 83 laps on the 2.5-mile circuit with the quickest being 218.210 mph. IZOD IndyCar Series regulars James Hinchcliffe, JR Hildebrand, and Josef Newgarden also all made appearances.
During his post-test press conference Kurt quickly shot down the idea of a run at Indy this May.
"I honestly think I wouldn't be able to do it this year just with stamina, just with not giving my all for my Furniture Row team in Charlotte. I need to get more comfortable in the IndyCar because on a day like today, I'm white knuckle, my hands were tense and firm, and that was only after 10 laps.
And so then it started to settle in. So there's the mental side of it, there's the physical side, there's the sponsorship side that has to come together, and right now with Kyle Moyer looking sideways at Michael, Michael wants to do it, but they've already got five cars committed to trying to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 this year.
To crawl, then walk, and then walk and then run, I think the proper thing is to go out and experience this car at another oval track and get into a race and experience what the buffeting is and the movement of the car when all the downforce changes." - Kurt Busch
0 comments:
Post a Comment