NASCAR Sprint Cup stars Kurt Busch, Michael Waltrip and Scott Speed spent a rare off weekend not relaxing on Lake Norman, but experiencing the NHRA Tire Kingdom Gatornationals in Gainesville, FL.

Busch spent six days in Gainesville as a competitor in the Super Gas class (9.90 index) of the NHRA Lucas Oil Sportsman Series where the former Cup champion received little, if any, special treatment while at the racetrack.

Busch and his 1970 Dodge Challenger enclosed in a Featherlite tag along trailer arrived at the track last Tuesday after a nearly 500-mile drive from Mooresville, NC. With rain on Thursday and Friday, Busch and his fellow Sportsman competitors had their time trials and early rounds postponed. Mud in the Sportsman pits then precluded Saturday's scheduled Sportsman competition.

Busch, Waltrip and Speed see Drag Racing from Inside

NASCAR Sprint Cup stars Kurt Busch, Michael Waltrip and Scott Speed spent a rare off weekend not relaxing on Lake Norman, but experiencing the NHRA Tire Kingdom Gatornationals in Gainesville, FL.

Busch spent six days in Gainesville as a competitor in the Super Gas class (9.90 index) of the NHRA Lucas Oil Sportsman Series where the former Cup champion received little, if any, special treatment while at the racetrack.

Busch and his 1970 Dodge Challenger enclosed in a Featherlite tag along trailer arrived at the track last Tuesday after a nearly 500-mile drive from Mooresville, NC. With rain on Thursday and Friday, Busch and his fellow Sportsman competitors had their time trials and early rounds postponed. Mud in the Sportsman pits then precluded Saturday's scheduled Sportsman competition.

"We're loving it and are with the Sportsman guys way in the back," said Busch, Friday on WFO Radio with Joe Castello. "It's just the perfect way to spend an off weekend in my mind, just relaxing and enjoying time. I have six or seven volunteer guys here helping me out and we're just enjoying our time.

"It's been great just with the camaraderie of the guys pitted next to us and all around. People have come up and shook our hands and said hello and offered anything as far as help, advice - you name it. It's been a great way to enjoy an off weekend meeting people and seeing a sport that I've always respected and now doing it from the inside - it's really just a privilege to be able to participate at a national event like this.

"I have to thank Graham Light (NHRA's Senior Vice President, Racing Operations) for allowing me to come out here and race. I would love to do regional events but it's tough to make it out because of off-weekends, because I don't have any. When I went through tech yesterday and they gave me that participant decal and I was certified to run, I was like a eight-year old schoolboy. It was the coolest moment that I have had as a car owner so to speak."

Busch finally made his first career NHRA pass, a 9.94, in his lone time trial on Sunday morning, six days after his arrival to Gainesville Raceway. Following professional eliminations, Busch matched up against Wes Neely of Florence, MS in a 1967 Chevrolet Camaro. Despite a .041 reaction time, Busch's turbo-charged Challenger let him down with a 10.10 elapsed time, losing to Neely at the line. As the sun went down on Sunday night, Busch and his team departed Gainesville Raceway with a grand total of 20 seconds of racing over the six days in Florida.

Waltrip made a shotgun decision to visit the Gators on Saturday as a guest of Funny Car driver Ron Capps and longtime sponsor NAPA - his first trip to an NHRA national event since 1984. Waltrip checked out the Top Fuel and Funny Car rounds from the starting line, interviewed with the NHRA's Alan Reinhart, then visited the media center where he appeared on WFO Radio with Joe Castello.

"This power just flies out of that car and hits you right in the chest - it's amazing," said Waltrip regarding his experience on the starting line.

"I love when a plan comes together and I understand all the effort that went into Ron (Capps) staging and making that four-second run and all that work funnels into those four seconds. That's something that I really appreciate about it because these guys have figured out how to funnel all this information down to that car to do what you would think is impossible to run that distance in just four seconds."

Speed, driver of the #82 Red Bull Racing Toyota in the Cup Series, is the brother-in-law of NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Matt Smith now of Al Anabi Racing and the son-in-law of seven-time Pro Stock champion Rickie Smith. Speed's wife, Amanda Speed, is Matt Smith's sister and Rickie Smith's daughter. Coincidentally, Matt Smith recently married Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Angie (McBride) Smith, creating an additional rooting interest in drag racing for Speed who came to NASCAR last season following a stint in Formula One.

The next NHRA Full Throttle Series event during a NASCAR off-weekend is July 16-18 when the NHRA visits Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, CA. While the round trip of nearly 6,000 miles from North Carolina to Sonoma is daunting, fans of both series should be anxious to see if this trend of NASCAR racers experiencing NHRA drag racing continues.

To listen to the full interviews of Busch and Waltrip on WFO Radio with Joe Castello, go to http://www.wforadio.com. WFORadio.com is also the home for NHRA Tuesday, every Tuesday night at 7 p.m. ET.