Kyle Busch pushes for race tracks to eliminate infield grass

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Kyle Busch has become a safety advocate in the wake of his February crash at Daytona International Speedway.

After his injuries sparked a movement toward more SAFER barriers around NASCAR, International Speedway Corp. announced Saturday it will install 54,000 feet of the barrier at its tracks through the end of next season.

But now Busch has set his sights on another target: The infield grass.

"In reality, there's no sense in grass," Busch said Saturday. "There's absolutely no reason to have grass at any of these facilities. I think that needs to be one of the next biggest pushes we all have."

At Daytona, the frontstretch is mostly grass. There is also grass in the turns and some on the backstretch.

Grass looks nice, but it is bad for race cars because they dig into the dirt and start to flip or barrel roll. Asphalt would be better to scrub off the speed and give drivers options to escape crashes.

Busch cited Ryan Briscoe's scary flip in the IndyCar race at Auto Club Speedway last week as an example.

"The Ryan Briscoe wreck — if it would have been paved there, he might not have gone over and if he did go over, he would have just slid on his lid for awhile and he wouldn't have gone through the tumble," Busch said. "The hits that keep coming (in a flip), they're pretty violent. I've been on my lid like that a few times. The beating and banging that goes on inside that race car, it doesn't feel good."

Briscoe agreed in comments made to USA TODAY Sports earlier this week, saying pavement in the grassy area at Fontana would have given him "a lot softer" crash.

"Nobody really sees the reason why we need to have grass on the infield at any of these high-speed tracks," Briscoe said. "Nothing good ever comes from it. Stock cars get into it and they stick in and they start to tumble. So really, I don't see (with) any type of race car what there is to be gained by having grass apart from it making the facilities look beautiful.

"But you can paint asphalt and make it look nice, too."

Busch said Daytona International Speedway president Joie Chitwood III told him Friday there was a certain amount of water runoff area required per square foot, which prevented the speedway from paving over all the grass.

But Busch said that problem could be overcome.

"I've never seen a car flip over because it's gone through a puddle," he said.

Chitwood and NASCAR officials took Busch out to the reconfigured Turn 1 crash area where Busch hit in February for a Friday afternoon tour. Busch got out of the van and walked around the area, but said there was still room for improvement on the angle of the opening (he wasn't consulted prior to the changes).

When it comes to overall safety, Busch said all racetracks are aware of what improvements should be made at their facilities.

"As far as being proactive, these racetracks know what needs to happen," Busch said. "It's not a secret. … It's not rocket science. It just needs to happen."

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PHOTOS: Behind the wheel with Kyle Busch