After qualifying on the outside of the front row for Sunday’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway (7 p.m. ET on NBC), Kurt Busch offered a balanced perspective on prospects for the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competition package.
The second of two races using a low-downforce configuration with a smaller spoiler, Darlington is part of NASCAR’s evaluation process in formalizing the rule book for next year’s cars.
“I believe it’s up to (NASCAR) to decide,” Busch said, when asked about his preference for the 2016 package. “Collectively, as a group, we need to do the best job to understand what each race track wants and what won’t be too costly for the teams.
“But putting on a good show is not necessarily looking at a survey for green-flag passes or lead changes. Looking at statistics, that’s one thing. But looking at a show and having a ticket in your hand that says the ‘Southern 500 Retro Weekend,’ this is a value to me.”
Clearly, Busch was also enjoying the throwback aspect of Darlington weekend, sporting a tribute paint scheme to Haas CNC founder and current Stewart-Haas Racing co-owner Gene Haas on his No. 41 Chevrolet.
“This is fun this weekend,” Busch said. “It’s a full 500 miles. You know you have to race the race track here. But all the other race tracks have their own unique characteristics, and they might need their own balance, but we also have to keep the costs under control and not be switching it back and forth too randomly.
“As a group, I think we can come up with a collective solution. And I do see this package, this weekend, coming into play next year.”
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