Q 6

PLAYBOY: Well-financed racing teams support young drivers with the finest equipment and experienced pit crews and crew chiefs. But it all comes down to the driver. Is car 97 a real pressure cooker?

Kurt Busch: Definitely. I got the job at Roush Racing through what they call the Gong Show. They selected a group of drivers out of hundreds of résumés and narrowed us down to five, then told us one of the five was going to get the job. I put pressure on myself because they want you to win right away, but I put on so much pressure that I didn't do that hot. They brought me back after I won a lower-division championship. When you get into the excitement of qualifying at the race or the last few laps, your adrenaline is pumping so hard you don't even know you're breathing. You don't even know you're driving. You can't hear anything inside the car. You're in the zone. You get lost in it. And you have to get there by being comfortable, taking deep breaths and staying loose.

Q 7

PLAYBOY: In 2003 you bumped Jimmy Spencer, he punched you, and you were booed by fans. Do you have a strategy to become a more popular champ?

Kurt Busch: I still get booed. Dale Earnhardt once said whoever gets the most noise wins. It's what makes our sport so great. You have 43 guys out on the track who anyone can root for, so fans are going to pick their driver and go against a few others. It's going to take time to change my image. Winning a championship definitely helps. I do sponsor affairs, and that can help fans gain a picture of who I really am. When I came in at 22 I didn't know if I was going to have a job the next day, and that made me race too hard. I ran over some people on the track, and then I got a bit sarcastic trying to cover up for that. Now I see the bigger picture, and it's made me a better person. I'm 26 and having more fun. You grow and mature with age.

Q 8

PLAYBOY: You arrive at the track with what you believe is a perfect setup -- a tune-up, suspension and aerodynamics geared to the day's race. But isn't a car's setup a moving target?

Kurt Busch: One thing you'll never hear from a race car driver is "The car was perfect." You're always adjusting it. The race progresses. More rubber from the tires gets laid down. More oil gets spilled on the track. Temperatures change. Every track is different. Some tracks need a soft setup, others a stiffer one because they're more banked to hold the stock cars at speed. Tire pressure is a big factor. We'll change half a pound of air during pit stops and make the car drive differently. That's the competitive state we're in. I'm involved in setup out on the racetrack. If the car is tight -- if the front end won't turn well -- I relay that information. I like a car on the looser side. You're not restricted by what the front tires are grabbing. I give advice because I feel all four tires underneath me. We call it the ass-o-meter.

Q 9

PLAYBOY: Did your stint as a grunt for your dad give you an appreciation of what a pit crew does?

Kurt Busch: Those guys are athletes. Those seven guys throw themselves into danger. Cars are pulling in behind, around and in front of mine. And they have to dodge those cars and complete a pit stop in 12 seconds. Fifteen seconds is way too long. You're going to lose 10 spots in the pits. In real life, if I have a flat tire, whether on my own vehicle or a rental car, I can't help but make it a NASCAR-style pit stop. I thrash through it and see if I can get it done as quickly with a regular tire iron. I don't have the pressurized gun. I've done one in about three and a half minutes.

Q 10

PLAYBOY: NASCAR track lengths and layouts vary. You have to compete on all of them. Can road courses, with their twists, turns and differing elevations, be tough for a driver used to an oval circuit's high-speed lefts?

Kurt Busch: Right turns are cool with me. I enjoy the road courses. If we had more on the circuit, that would be okay. When I first came in I ran real good on the big ones -- 1.5 miles. I hated short tracks. The cars would never turn, the rear tires would never hook up, and I'd be sliding all around, overdriving the car. Only a couple of tracks are really long: Daytona is 2.5 miles, Talladega is 2.66. Watkins Glen -- that's a road course -- is 2.5 miles. Over time you learn what your favorable tracks are versus tracks that you struggle on. You have to go to those tracks and work on them to get better. NASCAR gives us seven practices. You can choose the tracks you want to go on.

Q 11

PLAYBOY: At one time NASCAR drivers had a reputation for carousing the night before a race. Does today's driver spend more time in the gym than the bar?

Kurt Busch: Yes, it's changed. The sport originated from moonshining -- quick runs through the Southeast trying to outrun the law. Now there's such a demand on a driver's time, whether for sponsors or autograph sessions, that you want time to spend with your family or loved ones. So you're with them the night before a race. You try to get a good night's sleep. I do cardiovascular work to build up my lungs, and I have a treadmill at the house. I do a lot of strength training for my upper body because I'm working a wheel.

Q 12

PLAYBOY: The reigning champ gets the best parking place at every NASCAR track. How does it feel to be right up there with the employee of the month?

Kurt Busch: That helps in many ways. The team gets to park our tractor trailer first. Our car is the first through technical inspection every week. If we have a small infraction, we have plenty of time to go back and fix it. Another perk is that I get to hit the track first in practice. If you're the defending champion, you get to go out first every week. They spoil you the whole year.