NASCAR Charlotte results: Kurt Busch builds chemistry in first start with Furniture Row

After making his first start with Furniture Row Racing, Kurt Busch used an alphabetic scale to rate the progress with his new team.

“It was a good day in regards to note-taking and building depth as far as our chemistry and things,” Busch said. “I provided a lot of good information and I think we can use it to get faster, quicker. On a scale of A-Z, we got to about L tonight. We should be good at Kansas with one extra day to test and practice.”

Busch finished 21st in Saturday night’s NASCAR race at Charlotte Motor Speedway and said the team used former driver Regan Smith’s setup to get a baseline for the feel Busch prefers. The 2004 Cup champion ran inside the top 20 for most of the night and said he sees a lot of potential in his new equipment.

”Our day was uneventful,” he said. “It wasn’t good and it wasn’t bad. We spent the weekend sorting out different packages. Just uneventful. But let me tell you, they dropped the green flag and we went right to the front…

“We finished about where we started, but the front tires just generated too much heat. We were in the lucky dog position all day and now we start the process of comparing myself to where Regan (Smith) was earlier this year.”

Immediately following the race, Kurt Busch left his car and went directly to his hauler. He didn’t come out until roughly 30 minutes later following a lengthy debriefing with new crew chief Todd Berrier and key members of the No. 78 team.

There was much to talk about and discuss after the first race of a new relationship.