Fresh from his win Saturday night in the Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, Kyle Busch ran into trouble on the track and questions
off of it Sunday at Fairgrounds Speedway. Busch was in Nashville for the Budweiser 150, part of the Champion Racing Association Series, and was repeatedly questioned in a pre-race news conference about his smashing of a guitar trophy last June after he won a Nationwide Series race at Nashville Superspeedway. After being asked if he regretted breaking the instrument Busch responded, “No, no. It was cool man. It was out of respect for some rock-n-roll and Pete Townsend and we had a great time. It was a great opportunity to win the race and what happened after the race I take no repercussions of it. “ Busch had informed the track’s media relations personnel he would not take any questions about the guitar smashing incident. He was later asked if he would smash the guitar traditionally given to the winner of the Budweiser 150 if he won. “I don’t foresee myself winning today so nobody’s got to worry about that,’’ he said. Early in the race Busch received damage to his hood in a six-car pile-up. He made his way to fourth place on lap 60 and remained in the top five through 90. He fell back out of contention before dropping out on lap 130 because of handling problems. He finished 21st. Hantz offered the guitar back to Busch and asked, “Do you want to smash it” Busch, shaking his head, said “no” and walked away. Replacing tires in a CRA race is not allowed unless a tire goes flat and Busch said the loss of traction forced him to drop out.
“I just ran out of tires, there was no more rubber on the tire to keep going,’’ he said. Hantz said the key to winning was taking it easy on his tires early so that he could make his biggest push at the end.