KYLE BUSCH SHIFTS TO DRAG RACING

After dominating the NASCAR Sprint Cup series this season, Kyle Busch will move to drag racing Tuesday.

OK, so it only will be for a day.

Busch and five-time Top Fuel champ Tony Schumacher will compete in a match-race Tuesday at Lowe's Motor Speedway’s new dragstrip.

They will race in identically prepared Toyotas to drum up interest for the inaugural Sept. 11-14 NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series event at Lowe’s.

If Schumacher wins the first race we hope he’s prepared to drive defensively in the second one.

WISH I WAS THERE

I wish I was back home in Indiana.

It’s not my home, but it’s a lot closer to my home in Columbus, Ohio, than it is living here in Las Vegas.

I wish I was in Indy for the NHRA U.S. Nationals, which are being held through Monday outside Indianapolis in Clermont.

Instead, I’ll be following the event closely, thanks to the Internet and by talking to some drivers and owners by phone and then sharing news and views with you throughout the event. My remote coverage kicked off with my Friday print column, which you can read by clicking below on my colorful mug.

My only visit to the Big Go was in 1991 when I was working at Firebird International Raceway near Phoenix. It was the year Pat Austin won in Top Alcohol Funny Car and nearly doubled by winning Top Fuel, where he lost in the finals to Kenny Bernstein.

It was Austin’s first Top Fuel race. His family purchased the car and equipment owned by Gary Ormsby Sr., who had died of prostate cancer a month before the race and two years after winning the Top Fuel championship.

Austin’s fueler had mechanical problems, but when Ormsby’s former Castrol rail fired up it was one of the most emotional moments I’ve experienced in racing.

MORE EMOTIONS

The return of the DHL-sponsored Funny Car of Kalitta Motorsports with Jeff Arend driving also was emotional Friday evening. It is the first time the team has competed since the tragic death of former driver Scott Kalitta on June 22 during a crash in Englishtown, N.J.

Even without the yellow car at Indy, there would be reminders of his crash.

For the first time in the Nationals’ 54 years, racing in Top Fuel and Funny Car are being contested over 1,000 feet instead of a quarter-mile to extend the shutdown area where the NHRA-owned facility has made major changes.

The trap past the pavement is 240 feet long and uses pea gravel instead of sand. There's a 6-foot net 190 feet into the trap, and 25 feet after there is a 12-foot fence. Beyond that is a 19-foot catch fence.

The system includes four-foot concrete walls on each side of the trap.

Tom Gideon, GM racing safety manager, likes the revamped top-end system.

"It's the type of design that will have better performance than any other kind of situation that they have now," he said in a press release.

"And it's a design that could be replicated at any track — it would help any runoff area.”

See photos at nhra.com/content/news/31914.htm.

SAFETY OPTIMISM

Three weeks after Kalitta’s death, NHRA formed a safety task force comprised of NHRA officials, and Top Fuel and Funny Car crew chiefs and owners.

Next, NHRA hired Glen Gray to the new position of vice president of technical operations. His background was at Delphi Corp., where he worked in the electronics and safety division.

And it was announced Wednesday that professional drivers in both fuel classes have established an independent driver’s safety committee. The committee will work closely with the Professional Racers/Owners Organization (PRO) and NHRA.

Top Fuel driver/owner Bob Vandergriff is the chairman, driver Larry Dixon is the Top Fuel rep and Ron Capps is the Funny Car rep.

It’s appropriate the men and women whose lives are at risk on the track should be able to set priorities on how to improve safety.

Del Worsham, who drives a Funny Car owned by his family, and Capps organized the first meeting of drivers during July’s event in Sonoma, Calif.

There can’t be to many contributors to making the sport safer.

THE END