Scott Speed ready to team with Kyle Busch for Rolex Sports Car Series race
Red Bull Racing’s Scott Speed will drive in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series race and NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Daytona International Speedway Saturday. // David Griffin, NASCAR Scene
Red Bull Racing’s Scott Speed will attempt an unusual double this weekend at Daytona International Speedway, driving in a Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series race and a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race on the same day.
On Saturday afternoon, Speed will team with Kyle Busch in a Chip Ganassi Racing Lexus-Riley for the Brumos Porsche 250. And if he qualifies for the Cup event, Speed will drive his No. 82 Toyota in the Coke Zero 400 on Saturday night.
Is Speed worried that two races in two different cars will affect his performance in either race? Not at all.
“Well, considering you can pretty much put a monkey in the [Cup] car and qualify at Daytona, I would say [Red Bull is] not really worrying about me qualifying,” Speed said Tuesday during a national conference call with reporters.
Speed isn’t worried about the Central Florida heat and humidity affecting him either, even though the Daytona prototypes are known for having cooling issues.
“That was the question when we decided if we were going to do it or not ... : Is it good physically or not?” Speed said. “But we do it every week, and in that aspect [Busch and I] are both physically fit. It might be hot, but they also prepare for it. They have a bunch of fans in there and a good drinking system, good ventilation, as much as they can, and the stuff we are running in is the top-of-the-line stuff for the series. We'll be all right."
What worries Speed is how much of a qualifying setup his Red Bull Toyota will need to make the race, since his No. 82 team is outside the top 35 in owner points and doesn’t have a guaranteed starting spot.
“We are going to try to play it as close to the edge as we can to have as much of a race setup in the car,” Speed said, “but it does play into the fact that you have to qualify or not because you have to give up a bit of a race setup to make sure you get into the race."
Speed doesn’t have that worry in the Grand-Am race. Quite the contrary, he and Busch are going to that race to win it.
“We go there to win, for sure,” Speed said. “I think that it's going to be tough for us. I think we've got a lack of experience doing this stuff, but, hopefully, we'll be competitive to where we can challenge for the win. I mean, at the end of the day, that's what we are going there to do.”
Speed said Busch will drive the first stint in the Grand-Am car before handing off to Speed for the final run. The two tested recently at the Putnam Park Road Course in Mount Meridian, Ind., and Speed came away impressed with Busch’s road-course skill.
“I think a guy like Kyle is one of those who is really a special case, who really has a ton of talent in everything that he touches,” Speed said. “If there is a guy that can come from stock cars into this type of racing the easiest, I would say it's probably Kyle.
“It's not going to be easy, and he's going through the same struggles that I go through when I'm coming into this side, but out of everyone you can pick to do it, he would be who I would want to team up with.”
Speed and Busch have been friends for some time, and the two drivers are about the same size, meaning they will use the same seat in the Grand-Am car. Plus, the two have a similar style.
“He’s an idiot, and I’m an idiot,” Busch said. “It seems to flow. We’ve got our own styles, and we respect each other in our backgrounds and where we came from. It comes down to the respect factor that we have for each other.”
Busch doesn’t have the open-wheel background that Speed has, and Speed noticed that Busch is getting used to all the telemetry of a Daytona prototype. Still, Speed said both drivers loved driving the Lexus prototype.
“I think it was very cool for me to drive it,” Speed said. “It was much more similar to what I've grown up doing. You know, it has been a long time since I've driven a car that has got downforce to where you go into a fast corner and you've got just a lot of grip and you can push the car really hard.
“So it was really kind of a flashback for me. It has been almost two years since I've driven a car like that. And it was a lot of fun, as well looking at data, being able to come in and hang out with a guy like Kyle that I've been friends with and look at, ‘That's how you like to turn the steering wheel,’ and, ' That's how you like to use the brakes.’ It was cool to compare that kind of stuff.”
