Well, it certainly was a disappointing weekend at Martinsville last Sunday. I thought we had our best chance so far to turn this season around when we were riding in the top 10. It just seems like Kyle Busch has it out for me this year, between the Las Vegas Nationwide race and now last week! I’m kidding actually, in reality we’re buddies.
I don’t know what exactly happened, but honestly I think it was one of those deals where I think he was trying to be even too careful around me because we’re friends. In any case, he feels bad and I’m not worried about it. At the end of the day, I root for Kyle more than anyone and I’m sure he feels the same way about me. The fact that the wreck happened sucks, but you can’t change it.
The whole incident with Kyle actually brings up an interesting point in racing and that is how do you race someone when you are friends with him? To tell you the truth, friendships in racing are more off the track than on it. It’s not like Kyle and I are sharing competitive information. Off the track however, we like to hang out and play poker or a board game. Rummy is also a favorite game of ours that we like to play along with our ladies. Lately Kyle has been getting the best of me so I have to change that soon!
The other off-track thing that Kyle and I are working on is that we are forming our own RC race team together called “B.S.” It stands for “Busch-Speed” and our theme is “all B.S., all the time.” We’re going to have a hell of a lot of fun with it.
Last week I got a chance to go to the Winter Music Fest in Miami, which was a phenomenal time. I got to spend time with Carl Cox, who is one of the best DJs in the world. Carl is actually a big car guy and we had a great time talking about racecars. I think it’s a nice break for people in his position, to talk about an interest of theirs that is different than what they do every day.
I also got to learn a little more about being a DJ as well. I’ve actually had an interest in it for a long time that started back in my Formula 1 days in Europe. There would always be big parties on the Thursday before race weekend. Before things would really get going, my then-teammate Tonio Liuzzi and I would mess around with the DJ equipment and I got hooked. So to be able to go from horsing around with someone else’s stuff to hanging with the likes of Carl Cox is just unbelievable.
Hopefully things on the track will start to pick up steam as well. We actually had a pretty decent outing two weeks ago when I made my Sprint Cup debut in Bristol. We started the race a little off with our set up. When I’m going back and forth between the Cup and Nationwide cars, it still messes me up a little bit as far as figuring out what I need in what car. That will take some getting used to. By the end of the race on Sunday though, we had it figured out, but unfortunately, we were four laps down at that point. That seems to be the trend so far this season, getting the car right at the end of an event.
I’m getting better and better and with my experience, I’ll figure out how to get the car where I need it to be earlier in the race. It’s not like I have a bad crew chief or bad team, it’s just getting the communications and knowing what the car is supposed to feel like. We’re constantly getting better and that trend should continue.
Due to some unfortunate circumstances, we still do find ourselves outside of the Top 35 in owner points, but I’m really not too concerned. There is no reason to change what we are doing on Fridays because we’ve had a lot of success in qualifying pretty much everywhere we go. This Red Bull team usually is in the top half of the starting grid.
Oh yeah, there’s one other thing I wanted to mention. Even though I might talk fondly about my F1 days, I’m not going back. So don’t believe anything that anyone is saying about me joining the new U.S. F1 team next year. Those rumors were generated by journalists who were just being journalists, that’s all. So get used to me, I’m not going anywhere!
Thanks again for all of your support! I am looking forward to having some better on-track news when I write in next time.
About the author
Tony Lumbis has headed the Marketing Department for Frontstretch since 2008. Responsible for managing our advertising portfolio, he deals with our clients directly, closing deals while helping promote the site’s continued growth both inside and outside the racing community through social media and traditional outlets. Tony is based outside Philadelphia.
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