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Embedded: We Snag a Seat on Kurt Busch’s War Wagon - FeatureSpending the race in the pits with the Shell-Pennzoil NASCAR team at the Coke Zero 400.BY STEVEN COLE SMITH, PHOTOGRAPHY BY SCOTT BOWLINJuly 2011Pages:12PhotosUntitled Documentbody1 { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; color: #000; background-color: #FFF; line-height: 14px;}#container { width: 580px; background: #FFF; margin: 0 auto; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; overflow: hidden;}#main_image { background-image: url(../images/main.jpg); background-repeat: no-repeat; position: relative; height: 376px; width: 578px;}#left_column, #center_column, #right_column { float:left;}#center_column, #right_column { padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 8px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 8px;}
At select NASCAR Sprint Cup races, the Shell-Pennzoil team's "Best Seat in the House" program allows a reporter to sit atop the pit box—a.k.a. the war wagon—for the entire duration and monitor the radio conversations with driver Kurt Busch, crew chief Steve Addington, and the team spotter.
We're sort of shocked that the program survives.
That's because it included the spring race at Richmond, which was a disaster for Roger Penske's team. A frustrated Busch took to the radio and vented about the car, the crew, and a particular Penske executive. The communications are public, with plenty of fans and media members listening in, and all were stunned to hear Busch yell, "We look like a monkey [blanking] a football! The [blank] Penske [cars] are a [blanking] joke. [Blank], everybody." It should be noted that team owner Penske was in Brazil when this happened. Busch later apologized, noting that airing dirty laundry in public is seldom a good idea—although changes to the team were made the following week.
Fast-forward to July's Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway, and we're the ones atop Busch's pit box, monitoring the radio for outbursts and watching the multiple video screens mounted above the seats. We're close enough to offer advice to Addington, should he ask our opinion, on whether to take two tires or four on the next pit stop. Surprisingly, he does not.
About Kurt Busch: To say that the 32-year-old elder brother of fellow racing driver Kyle Busch is high-strung and competitive would be an understatement. He won the NASCAR championship in 2004, and he is capable of downright brilliant drives. His win at Atlanta last year was a stunning performance, with Busch sliding the car around as though he were dirt-tracking, an inch from the wall. Kurt Busch is a racing driver. It's that talent that has Busch solidly in the top five in points, and he's pretty much a cinch to make the season-ending Chase for the Sprint Cup, where points are essentially erased, and 12 select drivers start over again, playoff-style, over the last 10 races for the title. Busch's Penske teammate is relative newcomer Brad Keselowski, who is further back in the points but does have a win and a pole. Busch also has a win, and three poles. All told, it has been a pretty good year for the Penske Dodges, especially the Shell-Pennzoil team.
Kurt would love another championship, and crew chief Addington may have something to prove, too. He used to be the crew chief for Kyle Busch and his Joe Gibbs–owned Toyota, leading Kurt's brother to eight wins in 2008 and four in 2009 before being relieved of his duties for the 2010 season. Kurt called Addington, now 47, and he replaced Kurt's departing crew chief. Despite the meltdown in Richmond, the two have found a comfortable chemistry, something they would need at Daytona. Although Busch has won 23 Cup races—and more than $50 million—in his career, he has never won at this track.
HE CHOSE…WISELYThe pit stall immediately to the left of Kurt Busch's appeared busy right before the race, but a closer look revealed that only two people actually work for the No. 60 Big Red Soda Toyota of Germain Racing, driven by Mike Skinner. One employee was perched atop the modest toolbox, the other sat guard over the one set of Goodyear tires the team will soon return. No. 60 is a "start and park" car, meaning the team qualifies, starts the race, and then pulls out at its first opportunity. (Click here for our feature on the practice.) NASCAR's payouts are large enough that this strategy can sustain a team, and it doesn't have to risk crashing or blowing up or paying for a big crew or six sets of tires. NASCAR requires such teams to have some modest tools and one employee on the radio at the start, to at least give the appearance that they're there to race. Why did Busch and crew chief Steve Addington choose the stall next to Skinner's? Because when Skinner pulled out of the race—he did so due to a "wheel bearing" problem after five laps, good for a 40th-place finish and an $84,000 check—the stall would be empty for the rest of the 170-lap race, meaning Busch wouldn't have to steer around another car when he tore out of his own pit. It's good for at least half a second. Check out the video of a Busch pit stop below to see what we mean.
body1 { font-family: font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; color: #000; background-color: #FFF; line-height: 14px;}#container { width: 580px; background: #FFF; margin: 0 auto; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; overflow: hidden;}#left_column, #center_column, #right_column { float:left;}#center_column1 { padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 0px;}Off-season aerodynamic rule changes have led to weird, "two-by-two" racing at Daytona and Talladega, the only tracks on the circuit fast enough to require NASCAR-issued, horsepower-robbing restrictor plates that teams bolt beneath the carburetor to slow the cars. Where races at Daytona and Talladega were once characterized by enormous packs of cars drafting in a straight line—the idea being that six or seven cars in a row, bumper to bumper, went faster than one car by itself—now it's just two cars hanging together at a time. The big packs don't work.
Drivers essentially pick a dance partner—often before the race, but swap partners when on-track incidents interrupt—and circle one behind the other, the second car usually touching the bumper of the car in front. They frequently swap places, because the second car tends to overheat quickly, as little air reaches the radiator. And as you would suspect when two cars are touching bumpers at more than 190 mph, accidents happen. At these restrictor-plate races, fans, drivers, crews, and the media await the "Big One," where one car gets out of shape and collects a dozen others. It seems inevitable. On this particular night, it was.
This is a good place to mention too that before the race Busch picked an unlikely dance partner: Regan Smith, driving the No.78 Furniture Row Racing car. Smith was unlikely for several reasons. The team, based in Colorado instead of the almost-mandatory North Carolina, isn't nearly as well funded as Penske or Roush outfits, so it isn't as well known. Also, Smith drives a Chevrolet, not a Dodge; you might think Busch and Keselowski would team up, but they never did, nor was it discussed during the race. Read into that what you will. Bottom line, though: Smith, who won his first race in May, the Showtime Southern 500 at Darlington, worked very well with Busch. In a long and frustrating race, they never argued in their radio communications, and it all should have turned out better than it did.
But it didn't, because of, you know, the Big One.
As with any race that starts in daylight and ends in the dark, the Coke Zero 400 was going to be a challenge for drivers and crew chiefs. You might be surprised how much a track can change after the sun goes down, and when a half-pound difference in air pressure in the right-front tire can decide whether a car runs up front or fades to the back of the pack, it's yet another difficult variable for teams to ponder.
Despite this being the rainy season in Florida, it was clear and warm for the race. For Busch and Addington, it started out as a love fest. "I've got a smile on my face because I think we're gonna have a great race," Busch said on the radio. "We've got smiles on our faces because we have you in the car," Addington responded.
Starting midpack, the philosophy was not to force anything early, stay in the lead group, keep out of trouble, and make a run for it late in the show. It was important to lead at least one lap, because that gives you an extra point in the standings. But other than that, the only lap that pays big when you're in front—in this case, more than $300,000—is the last one.
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HE CHOSE…WISELY
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1906: Fisher and partners begin searching for speedway-suitable property. They?focus first on the resort town of ?French Lick, in southern Indiana. The French Lick 500: It’s got a nice ring to it. 
December 1908: The partners acquire 328 acres of farmland five miles northwest of downtown Indianapolis for $72,000. The basic 2.5-mile track design—developed with New ?York construction engineer Park T. Andrews—endures to this day.
June 5, 1909: Indy stages its first race. As construction crews toil below, the racers soar high above the surface—in gas balloons. Fisher’s balloon race draws nine starters, including himself. The winner spends more than a day in the air, alighting 382 miles away, in Alabama.
August 13–15, 1909: Fisher lays on an ambitious slate of motorcycle racing. Bad weather limits the crowd, and most of the riders balk at track conditions. Newspapers call the track’s first show a “fiasco.”
August 19–21, 1909: Indy’s first automobile races are catastrophic. The original surface disintegrates, contributing to multiple crashes and five fatalities.
December 17–18, 1909: Fisher invites carmakers to run for speed records on a track repaved with bricks. Severe cold (9 degrees F) limits participation, but straightaway speeds top 100 mph, and there are no crashes.
Indianapolis Motor Speedway draws 60,000 fans for its first series of 1910 races (May 27–29), and there are no fatal crashes through the entire year. But attendance drops off. The partners decide to put their chips on one big event in 1911, with $25,000 in prize money. The 500 is born.
1911: Forty-six cars enter the first “500-mile Sweepstakes,” 44 show up, and 40 qualify. Qualifying consists of sustaining 75 mph for a quarter-mile down Indy’s front straight.
Paying $1 each for grandstand seats, 80,200 spectators turn out for the first 500.
Henry Ford is among the honorary judges for the 500-mile inaugural.
Of the 23 car makes represented in the inaugural 500, only ?three survive today: Buick, Fiat, and Mercedes.
Marmon engineer Ray Harroun comes out of retirement to enter the Indy 500. His car is a single-seat, six-cylinder Marmon Wasp.
Harroun’s competitors grumble that his car’s absence of a riding mechanic poses a safety hazard. Faced with possible disqualification, Harroun fabricates a rearview mirror, a first in racing. Indyphiles like to think it was an absolute automotive first, but a 1908 Popular Mechanics tip, illustrating the use of mirrors to help avoid police speed traps, suggests otherwise.
Harroun wins the first 500, with midrace relief at the wheel (about 100 miles) by ?Marmon team driver Cyrus Patschke. The Marmon covers the 500 miles in 6:42.1, averaging 74.6 mph. Harroun’s prize and contingency payoffs total $14,250.
Riding mechanics become mandatory for the 1912 race.
Indy raises 1912 prize money to $50,000.
The second 500 sees the first of ?four appearances by Eddie Rickenbacker. His Indy record is poor—one finish (10th, in 1914)—but he achieves glory elsewhere [see No. 37].
1913: Frenchman Jules Goux adds a unique chapter to pit routine, chugging champagne at each of six pit stops. Thus refreshed, he dominates the race in his Peugeot, averaging 75.9 mph. He’s the first European winner and the first to go 500 miles without a relief driver.
New rule for 1914: No alcohol consumption while racing.
World War I keeps European entries away in 1916. The grid is the smallest ever: 21 cars. The race distance is shortened to 300 miles. Attendance is slim.
The 1916 race is the first in which drivers—Pete Henderson and Eddie Rickenbacker—wear steel hard hats rather than cloth or leather aviator-style helmets. 
April 6, 1917: ?America enters WWI, and racing is suspended for the duration. The Speedway becomes an aviation-repair facility and airport.
1919: Howdy Wilcox wins the race in a Peugeot, with 1913 winner Jules Goux third in another Peugeot. Both cars are owned by ?the track.
Indy adopts a four-lap qualifying system, beginning with the 1920 race.
1920: A Chevrolet appears in the Indy 500 winner’s circle for the first time—Gaston Chevrolet, driving a Monroe-Frontenac built by brother Louis.
1922: Jimmy Murphy leads a Duesenberg blitz (eight of the top 10). But his Duesey chassis, left over from his victory in the 1921 French Grand Prix, is propelled by a new 183-cubic-inch, DOHC 32-valve straight-eight engine designed by Harry Miller. Miller engines and cars will win nine of ?the next 12 races.
A bill outlawing “commercial sports” on Memorial Day passes in the Indiana General Assembly in 1923. It’s vetoed by Governor Warren McCray, but the four original Speedway partners begin to consider selling.
Indy cancels the riding-mechanic requirement for 1923.
In 1924, A.W. Kaney, of Chicago’s WGN radio, puts the Indy 500 on the airwaves with live reports from the Speedway.
1924: Spurred by Miller’s success, the Duesenberg brothers field Indy’s first supercharged cars, a trio of straight-eights. Murphy puts a Miller on the pole, but L.L. Corum and relief driver Joe Boyer come from deep in the field to win for Duesenberg.
1925: Pete DePaolo becomes the first driver to average more than 100 mph for 500 miles, winning at 101.1 mph in a supercharged Duesenberg.
EDDIE RICKENBACKER
1926: The suburb of Speedway incorporates. Its boundaries encompass the track. Indy officials refrain from a name change, perhaps feeling that “Speedway Motor Speedway” might lack the cachet of the original. 
Duesenberg’s success with boosted engines has not gone unnoticed. By 1926, with a new, 91.5-cubic-inch formula, every car in the field of 28 is supercharged. Harry Miller’s cars sweep the top four spots.
August 15, 1927: Backed by a group of Detroit investors, Eddie Rickenbacker buys the Speedway for $700,000.
1930: With Indy essentially a Miller-versus-Duesenberg affair, production carmakers abandoned the 500. To lure them back, Rickenbacker lobbies the AAA Contest Board for new rules: naturally aspirated stock-block engines up to 366 cubic inches—the so-called Junk Formula.
As part of the return-to-stock effort, Eddie Rickenbacker reinstates the riding-mechanic requirement.
1930: Although Harry Miller scores another win, the first for a front-drive car at Indy, the Junk Formula gets regular carmakers back in the game. The field includes Auburn, Buick, Chrysler, Ford, Maserati, Mercedes, Oakland, Studebaker, Stutz, and Whippet.
1931: Clessie Cummins obtains a diesel waiver from the organizers and fields a Duesenberg chassis with a 361-cubic-inch, 12-valve four-cylinder diesel. Its 86.1-mph race pace is so-so, but it runs 500 miles without refueling—an Indy first—using 31 gallons, for a 16-mpg average.
Harry Miller enters two four-wheel-drive cars for the 1932 race. He enters another in 1933, with a 302-cubic-inch Miller V-8. Miller four-wheel-drive cars appear again in ’35, ’36, ’37, ’39, and ’41. Their best finish is a fourth, in 1936, with Mauri Rose at the wheel.
Seeking to emphasize endurance rather than speed, Indy adopts a 10-lap qualifying system for 1933.
1933: Though he continues to be active in racing, Harry Miller is forced into bankruptcy. Plant manager Fred Offenhauser and Leo Goosen acquire patterns and machinery at auction and establish their own engine operation under Offenhauser’s name.
1934: Indy imposes a 45-gallon fuel limit for the 500, then tightens it to 42.5 in 1935 and 37.5 for 1936.
Preston Tucker sells Edsel Ford on an epic 10-car Indy assault in 1935, harnessing the design talents of Harry Miller and Ford’s flathead V-8. The project is well funded but gets under way ?just weeks before Memorial Day. Four cars make the grid, and none finishes, each succumbing to the same design problem: The steering box, positioned too close to the exhaust, fails due to overheating. Miller’s genius image is tarnished.
1937: Indy rescinds fuel-consumption limits, although pump gas is still required.