Kyle
Busch to Race SpeedFest 2009 at Lanier Nat'l Speedway
Many Cup
Affiliated Teams to Be On-Hand to Battle the Best Short Trackers on
Jan 23rd-25th
CONCORD,
NC (January 16, 2009)
– Kyle Busch is
one of the busiest men in racing. In addition to winning a record 21
races between NASCAR's big three series in 2008, the Sprint Cup Series
star is known to climb behind the wheel of a Super Late Model whenever
he can. Today SpeedFest 2009 officials announced that Kyle Busch will
race the CRA
 Super
Series portion of the big weekend on January 23rd–25th
at Lanier
National Speedway
in Braselton, GA.
"It'll be my first
race of the year, and I'm looking forward to it," said Busch, who won
eight times on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series last year. "It's all
about having fun, enjoying racing and giving back to local short track
racing. I want to get people to come out and see how good of a show
it really is. It's a fun race to watch. The more I can do to give
back to the type of racing that helped me is great; hopefully we can
make events like this live for a long time."
Busch competed in
last year's version of SpeedFest, which was held at USA Int'l Speedway
in Lakeland, FL, and finished seventh. This year he is looking
forward to the challenge that is Lanier's 3/8's of a mile oval.
"Last year at
Lakeland was the first time I've been to SpeedFest, and it went fairly
well. But, I think Lanier will be really fun because it's a nice
short track and it's really tight. Hopefully we'll get a great crowd
in the stands to support local short track racing and the CRA Series
because I think it will be a good race."
This will be
Busch's first race for his own team with his new crew chief, Bond
Suss. Suss has spent the past year with BDI Racing's Late Model
program and has worked with many great racers, including Mike Garvey,
Kevin Cywinski, Jay Sauter and Joey Clanton.
"He's been in the
shop this week and we've been going over stuff," said Busch. "I think
it's going to be a good relationship; we'll just have to develop it
over time. To go out in our first race together, it'll be hard on him
and hard on me, but we will learn each other quickly and do the best
we can."
Suss' former team,
owned by NASCAR Sprint Cup Series commentator on SPEED TV, Bob
Dillner, will have a new crew chief and new driver at SpeedFest 2009.
Michael Pope, who is a Georgia native, and Jerry Babb will be working
together with one goal in mind, victory lane.
"Kyle and I always
tease each other about whose team is doing what on the track," said
Dillner, who will be at Lanier Nat'l Speedway for SpeedFest 2009. "We
are excited about Michael
driving our car, and he says Lanier is one of his favorite
racetracks. We know he'll do an awesome job for us. Add in Jerry and
car chief Dustin Archer's knowledge, plus good fortune, and we'll be
challenging for the win at the end of 200 laps. Most importantly, we
just want a great show for the fans and the people at Lanier and the
CRA series, and I think with the caliber of drivers that are entered
you will have that!"
In addition to
Busch's and Dillner's teams, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver David
Stremme will also have his team competing at SpeedFest with Matt
DiBenedetto. Former NASCAR Champion Bill Elliott's development team
will be competing in both the Pro and the Super Late Model portions of
SpeedFest weekend with driver Casey Roderick. Cup driver David Ragan
recently competed in the Ice Cold Shriner Bowl, so Lanier has been a
hotbed recently for NASCAR personalities.
SpeedFest 2009
weekend will kick off with an open practice day on Friday, January 23rd,
at Lanier National Speedway for all Pro and Super Late Model
competitors. More practice and qualifying events for both divisions
will take place on Saturday, January 24th, with the 200-lap
CRA sanctioned Super Late Model and the 100-lap GAS sanctioned Pro
Late Model events going green on Sunday, January 25th.
For more
information on SpeedFest 2008, be sure to check out
speed51.com,
craracing.net and
lanierspeedway.com. If you have any questions regarding the
event, please call the respective series or track representative. |
