Kurt Busch has a strange definition of “pacing myself.”
When it came to celebrating his Daytona 500 win in the hours after the race and with an exhaustive media tour ahead, “pacing” meant partying the night away.
And the festivities were attended by notorious party boy, New England Patriots player Rob Gronkowski.
The party invite came as he and his in-laws were having a few beers on their boat.
“My phone was blowing up with Monster people,” Busch said Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. “They were down at Razzles and I was like, ‘Razzles, I remember that place, let’s go.’”
When Busch arrived at the Daytona night club, Gronkowski was holding court in the VIP area.
“I was there partying with Gronk and that is a cool stamp to put down to say that you did that,” Busch said. “All the top (Stewart-Haas Racing) people were there, even college grads like Mike Verlander wearing his khakis were inside Razzles having a good time. Those are the celebrations you don’t forget about. That was the pacing myself. I left there at about 3:15 or 3:30 a.m. and that is what it takes to pace yourself to make it to the breakfast event with Daytona pushing our car into the Hall of Fame museum the proper way on Monday morning.”
Now it’s back to business for Busch, who was 14th fastest in the first practice session for the Fold of Honor Quik Trip 500.