News

LOUDON, N.H. (June 24, 2008) - In order for Miller Lite Dodge driver Kurt Busch to compete in the 1,837.358 miles of racing scheduled this month along the NASCAR Sprint Cup tour, Bill and Cindy Lewis will drive a total of 10,604.440 miles.

The Lewises, currently the lone husband-and-wife transport-driving team along the top stock car racing circuit, are among the most popular personalities in the Sprint Cup garage during race weekends. But it's what they do in between the races that puts the bread on the table.

"We have to drive all the miles - complete all possible laps - or Kurt and our Miller Lite Dodge team would be in a world of trouble," Cindy chuckled on Tuesday morning (June 24) as she and husband Bill ("Stump") rolled down Interstate 40 through Memphis, Tenn., charged with the responsibility of getting the No. 2 Penske Racing Dodge team transporter back to the race shop in Mooresville, N.C. "This has been a pretty smooth trip coming home from Sonoma with no problems along the way.

"When we get back to the shop, if everything goes as planned, we will have been on the road for 52 hours since we got everything loaded up and headed out of the track out there on Sunday night," Cindy said. "We've been doing this for 11 years and we always try to observe the speed limits and we do everything strictly by the books according to the DOT (Department of Transportation) guidelines. We always try to be as professional as possible and we're proud of the job we do."

Busch, the 2004 series champion and a 272-race veteran of the sport heading into this weekend's Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, certainly is pleased with the manner in which the Lewis couple handle their duties.

"Cindy and ‘Stump' are the best in the business, no doubt about that," said Busch. "They do a tremendous job of getting our part of the ‘rolling circus' from one stop to the next, but they always go the extra mile with all the additional responsibilities they take on.

"Not only do they handle all the parts inventory at the track, they do all the cooking and cleaning," said Busch. "They have become like sister and brother figures to me and all the guys on the team. No matter what you may need, they either have it or know where to get it.

"If that's not enough, Cindy scores our car during the race and ‘Stump' is always busy helping them with running fuel and handling the tires," said Busch. "It's really amazing to see what all they do during a race weekend. When the checkered flag falls, we're all hurrying off to hop in planes to head back home. To know that they're left behind to help get everything loaded and transported back to our shop makes you realize what an incredible asset they are for our team. We just couldn't pull it off without them. We love Cindy and Stump and truly appreciate the great job they do."

This weekend's action at the track located in Loudon, N.H., gets under way on Friday morning. The chances are that the hard work Cindy and Bill Lewis put in this week in getting Busch's team transporter there will go mostly unnoticed.

"We were able to leave Sonoma around 10:15 p.m. on Sunday night," Cindy said late Tuesday morning. "We'll have the rig back at the shop tonight and should be home in bed by nine o'clock East Coast time. There's just something nice sounding right now about a bed that doesn't move.

"We'll be back up around 9 o'clock in the morning doing the normal family stuff like washing clothes and paying the bills," Cindy said. "We'll get a chance to see some of the family and get to spend
a little time with our granddaughter, Kendall, before we head back over to the shop late tomorrow afternoon.

"We hope to be able to head out from the shop around 9 o'clock tomorrow night and, without any problems, we should be at the track in Loudon just after 3 o'clock on Thursday afternoon," Cindy said. "It'll be a situation of here we go again. We're just a big, happy travelling circus and we're still thrilled to be a part of it."

This weekend's action at New Hampshire kicks off on Friday with Practice from 12 noon till 1:30 p.m. Friday's 3:10 p.m. qualifying session will set the entire 43-car field for Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup battle. Saturday's schedule calls for practice sessions from 9:00 a.m. till 9:50 a.m. and from 11:45 a.m. till 12:45 p.m. Sunday's Lenox Industrial Tools 301 (301 laps, 318.458 miles) has a 2:00 p.m. starting time and features live coverage by TNT-TV and MRN Radio.

 

--Kurt, Pat and team are debuting their new PSC-574 Miller Lite Dodge Charger this weekend at

New Hampshire Motor Speedway. When practice gets started on Friday at 12:00 noon on the 1.058-mile

oval, it will mark the first time this car has been on a race track.

--Kurt, Pat and crew are testing today (Tuesday, June 24) at the Milwaukee Mile in preparation for this weekend's action at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. "We're testing with our brand new (PSC-) 576 car," Pat explained. "It's a carbon copy of the (PSC-) 574 that we'll be racing at Loudon (NHMS) this weekend. Hopefully we'll be able to learn some things at Milwaukee that will help us this weekend. Through the years, that's certainly been the case. There have been many race winners at New Hampshire who have given a lot of credit for the success to the fact that they went to Milwaukee to test."

--Yes, that was Kurt seen last Tuesday enjoying himself at "Worlds of Fun" amusement park near Kansas City. It was all part of the unique manner in which he spent his day carrying out his Winners' Circle duties advancing the Kansas race, which is scheduled for Sept. 28. Kurt compared his experience on the Patriot and Mamba roller coasters to Kansas Speedway's 1.5-mile track. "There's the sense of acceleration and there's the top speed. There's the g-force that you'll carry through a corner. When you get loaded into your seat, whether you're in a roller coaster or a race car, you feel that g-force and you're tossed to the side, the opposite way that you're going into the corner," Kurt said. "There were two big long loops pushing you down into the seat, into g-force corners and that's what we experience for three, four hours when we're out on the race track," Kurt said of the Mamba, a "hypercoaster" with a G-force rating of 3.5 at the base of the first drop that comes when the ride ascends to 200 feet high and makes an immediate drop at some 75 mph. "So that's two minutes of speed and exhilaration," Kurt said. "Multiply it by many times to come up with four hours, and that's what we feel at Kansas Speedway."

--Kurt enters Sunday's race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway 22nd in the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings with 1,604 points. He trails 12th-place Matt Kenseth by 288 points. Last season at this time (after 16 races), Kurt was 16th in the standings with 1,644 points, trailing 12th-place Dale Earnhardt Jr. by 171 points. To indicate just how strong the competition is this season, if Kurt had the exact same amount of points this season as he did last, he would be only 19th in the current standings and would be 248 points out of 12th.

--Kurt's career record at New Hampshire sports two wins (both races during his 2004 championship season), four top-five finishes and five top-10s in 14 races. His outside-pole start for last year's Lenox Tools 300 rates as his best start to date on the 1.058-mile track. Kurt started second and finished 21st in last year's Lenox Tools 300. He started third and finished 25th in last September's New Hampshire race. Overall, Kurt has a 14.215 average start and a 17.215 average finish on the track.

--You do the math...the escalating price of fuel impacts all of us. "Our truck holds a maximum of 240 gallons of diesel fuel," reports Cindy Lewis, half of the husband/wife couple