From One Champion to Another…

KURT BUSCH SALUTES
THE GUNTERSVILLE
WILDCATS!!!

(A personal note from 2004 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Champion Kurt Busch)

I first started following the Wildcats’ journey to the Alabama Class 4-A Football Championship at the first of the 2006 season,” said Busch, who drives the Miller Lite Dodge for Penske Racing on the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup tour.  “My PR guy, Tom Roberts, or ‘TR’ as he has been known forever along the NASCAR trail, and I have been talking about all kinds of sports ever since we started working together at the end of last season.

I knew what a big University of Alabama Crimson Tide supporter he was from the very beginning,” said Busch.  “We hadn’t even gone through a single race together before he had me on a radio show with Eli Gold down in Daytona.  One thing led to another and the next thing I knew, we were talking about football.  ‘TR’ sort of became a common denominator in the interview in that I knew Eli was the voice of the Tide and he and ‘TR’ had been big-time friends since back in the Bobby Allison days.  Eli and me never were that close during my career until that night.  That connection brought us closer, to the point that Eli has my cell phone number now and if he ever needs an interview or anything, he just gives me a call.

It was also during the Daytona Speed Weeks that my wife, Eva, ‘TR’ and me were having dinner together one night and we started talking about our respective high school days.  I went to high school in Las Vegas and Eva went to high school in Norfolk, Va.  We thought it was pretty cool that we all went to schools where their mascot was a wildcat.  Before I went racing on a fulltime basis, I went to the University of Arizona in Tucson for a little over a year.  They were Wildcats, too.

Our ritual on race day mornings was always talking about all the other sports while we were on the golf cart riding from all the autograph sessions and hospitality appearances we’re always doing,” Busch said.  “When the football season finally kicked in last fall, we always had to talk about how the Tide was doing and what all was going on in the S.E.C.  Since the Pac 10 was most always a lot of late, late games, most of the time I was already asleep before those games were over.  ‘TR’ would always make it a point to check all the scores and facts on the internet before coming to the track, so he could fill me in on how Arizona and all the teams out there had done.

To get to the point, ‘TR’ had been bragging about what a great football team that Guntersville had from about the second or third game of the season.  We’d qualify our Miller Lite Dodge on Friday afternoon and usually have an appearance to do on Friday night.  He’d go online and read one of the Alabama papers on Saturday morning and come in bragging about his Wildcats before we hit the track for Saturday morning practice.

We got to Talladega back in October and he told me about it being the Cats’ biggest game of the season, a match-up of two undefeated teams,” Busch said.  “It never registered with me until the next day as to even a bigger personal interest I had in that game.

We had to do an appearance at the Wal-Mart in Pell City that night and ‘TR’ didn’t get to go to the game.  He came back to the track on Saturday morning and told me that his Cats lost in double-overtime to a team from near Anniston.  He went on to tell me that the school was from Alexandria, which still did not ring a bell.  But when I found out that Kevin Woods, Mark Martin’s PR guy was a graduate from that school, it certainly did register.  I had been a driver for Roush Racing for the first five years of my career and Kevin and I had become good friends, since he had been on their staff for several years.

When ‘TR’ told me that and added that Kevin also had gone to Auburn, I said, ‘hey, now there’s a friendly rivalry if I’ve ever seen one,” said Busch.  “Don’t get me wrong, ‘TR’ and Kevin are really good buds, too.  That’s just the way it is in our sport, because we travel around the country just like a big happy circus week in and week out.

Anyhow, I asked him there at Talladega that Saturday morning if there was any way that the two teams could play each other again.  He said that it was unlikely – that his Cats were behind the eight ball now – that they’d have to win the rest of their games and face them again in the playoffs.  I don’t know why, for the life of me, but I told him right there that it would happen…that Guntersville and Alexandria would play each other again.

From that day on, ‘TR’ filled me in on what happened with the Guntersville team each and every week,” Busch said.  “When they got to the playoffs, I asked him what he thought of my prediction then.  I don’t want to sound cocky or anything, but I think I had more faith in his team than he did.  I think that might have had something to do with him having to discuss the heartbreak season that his Tide was having.  It seemed like when they lost to somebody – think is was some team like Mississippi State – that he never wanted to talk about the Tide again and shifted all of his focus to his high school team.  I mean, we never once talked at all about the Alabama-Auburn game.

When Guntersville had to go to Alexandria during the playoffs, he had his doubts, but I don’t know, something again made me think that fate was all a part of it – something that I look back on my 2004 championship and think about.

I was even surprised when ‘TR’ called to tell me that score – wow, did the Cats put a kill-deal on them,” Busch said.  “He gave me the scoop later on who they’d play in the finals in Birmingham.  I only said, ‘keep the faith, man, keep the faith.’”

As it turned out, ‘TR’ didn’t get a chance to go to the game there in Birmingham.  He had to be over here with me in the Charlotte area.  We had to do the Southern Sports Awards show that Thursday and had planning meetings for next season all day the following day.  We were so happy to read the story from the Friday Birmingham News, recapping the Wildcat’s big history-making win.  I had him read it to me, word-by-word, out loud.  I think we both celebrated that win together – from a distance – kinda’ weird -- there together in my office at KBI that morning.

All I could do was think about what I’d told him earlier – that sometimes it’s almost like fate that takes over,” said Busch.  “I mean, when you look at the stats, you have to ask how the heck could that happen.

That was the exact same situation when I won my championship.  We blew an engine at Atlanta and finished dead last.  People wrote us off.  We regrouped, never gave up, kept the faith and prevailed at the end.  That’s exactly what the Guntersville Wildcats did this season – they took their hit in the regular season game against Alexandria, but they kept their heads up and stayed focused.  They never gave up and pulled it out there that night in Birmingham, really against the odds. 

The bottom line is that I can identify with the Wildcats’ journey,” said Busch.  “I applaud the players, coaches, staff, cheerleaders, band, students, teachers, alumni and fans.  It just shows that it pays to keep the faith, baby.  Wouldn’t it be cool if they can repeat next season and our team is able to win a second championship? 

I promise, right here and now, that if that happens, I will come down to Guntersville and we will have a great, great celebration together,” Busch said.

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