NASCAR Nationwide Series
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NNS: Kyle Busch - Real Men Drive Pink
Kyle Busch will pilot a pink car in Friday night’s Nationwide race...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted September 09, 2010   Charlotte, NC
Kyle Busch is third in the NASCAR Nationwide Series point standings. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
A note to Kyle Busch's NASCAR Nationwide Series adversaries: Make fun of his pink car at your risk this weekend at Richmond International Raceway.

Busch, the mercurial reigning NNS champion, will race Friday night at RIR in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota as usual, but it will carry the pink paint scheme Busch immortalized in the Toyota “Sponsafier” advertising campaign that was launched earlier this season.

In the Sponsafier ad campaign, a little girl named Kimmy designs a pink Camry for Busch to drive, complete with matching pink driving suit. That commercial, and several others in the series, became huge cult hits. Now, Busch is driving the “Kimmy” car for real.

“It was a neat commercial and the way that it turned out was really fun,” said Busch. “There’s been a huge reaction. Everybody has been pumped about the commercials and more pumped about seeing me in the pink suit and driving that car, and that’s what we’re going to do. Who doesn’t like kittens and bunnies and little baby seals? We’ll give them a ride to remember at Richmond.”

And that’s not just talk.

Busch has three NNS victories and eight top-five finishes in 13 starts at the 0.75-mile RIR track, as well as two Cup triumphs and nine top fives in 11 tries. He is flat out good here. And if he can win Friday night’s Virginia 529 College Savings 250 NNS race, it will be his 11th series victory in a single-season, shattering the mark of 10 he shares with Sam Ard.

Once the green flag drops, Busch will doubtless be up on the wheel as he always is, but there is an element of fun to this exercise that goes well beyond a normal special paint scheme.
"Who doesn’t like kittens and bunnies and little baby seals?" - Kyle Busch. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

“I told somebody last week that if we’re going to race a pink car, we better run good because you can’t show up with a pink car and run bad,” said Busch’s crew chief Jason Ratcliff. “If you do, it’s like a double whammy.”

In addition to the usual pressures of the crew chief gig, Ratcliff has one more challenge to deal with Friday: Wearing a pink firesuit atop Busch’s pit box.

“I was making fun of Kyle and he said he was going to fix me up and make sure I was going to get one,” said Ratcliff. “I told him I was not getting a pink fire suit, but unfortunately I’m getting a pink fire suit. I have to find out what kind of shoes you wear with a pink fire suit. I don’t want to look out of place and wear my black shoes with a pink fire suit. I’m going to try to stay up on top of the pit box and hide.”

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.

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