DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Kurt Busch has a new team, new cars and a new pit crew.
He also has a new look.
Busch saw a cosmetic surgeon in the offseason, and came out with his once-prominent ears pinned back closer to his head.
"Yeah, a little slicker," Busch said Friday, grinning. "I've got it working in the draft now."
Busch said he wasn't quite clear on the details of the procedure -- he was under sedation -- but he definitely is pleased with the result.
"I've wanted to do it for a few years now, but never had the time," he said.
The new look has turned a few heads in the garage.
"There were a lot of photographs that depicted Kurt in a different light than we had ever seen him before," said Geoff Smith, president of Roush Racing, Busch's former team. "Within Roush Racing, the questions were rampant -- did he or didn't he? Was it photographer's editing?"
Busch certainly isn't the first person in NASCAR to have "work done" that didn't require a wrench or screwdriver.
Across the garage area, hair sprouts like roof flaps in places it didn't before. Teeth gleam shinier than the Daytona grandstands and straighter than the backstretch. Excess pounds are tossed aside like old tires.
And that's just the guys.
Driver Kyle Petty says it's only natural that a group of highly competitive, image-conscious people with an above-average amount of disposable income would turn to plastic surgery.
"It's a combination of a fair amount of marketing and a fair amount of vanity, all rolled into one," Petty said. "When it was a low-profile sport, nobody cared whether you had a beer gut and no hair. Now, all of a sudden, if you don't have a full head of hair, straight teeth, a 32-inich waist, a huge chest and big broad shoulders, then you shouldn't be here."
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