Butner aims for strong finishing kick in Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals
Third-year Pro Stock racer from Indiana carries class points lead into the ‘Big Go’
DETROIT (Aug. 28, 2017) – With windows lowered and radio blaring, James E. “Bo” Butner III inched the ’72 Chevrolet Nova into position for his maiden bracket race at Ohio Valley Dragway.
More than two decades later, Butner still chuckles at the memory.
“I had no clue what I was doing, obviously,” he said. “It was the first time I had gone to the track. I didn’t even know how to do a burnout. I lucked out and won the race.”
Butner, CEO of the automobile dealership started by his late father in 1955 on the Lewis and Clark Parkway in the southern Indiana town of Clarksville, hasn’t lifted his foot off the accelerator since that humid summer evening at the dragstrip near Louisville, Kentucky.
“Growing up, I was around cars all the time but never around any kind of racing,” said Butner, 43, a resident of Floyds Knobs, Indiana. “I was interested in street racing, which is why I bought from a local guy the Chevy Nova that I knew as being a really bad street car. I took that car, played around with it a little while and took it over to Ohio Valley one night.
“I took the bait; I guess you just get hooked. Then you put a roll cage in the car and buy a better transmission, and then it never ends. It makes you work really hard to be able to afford it.”
While working full time at the dealership, he blazed a trail through National Hot Rod Association Sportsman racing, earning the 2006 Lucas Oil Comp world championship and four division three titles along the way, and eventually decided to up the ante in 2015 in Pro Stock competition.
There were moderate Pro Stock successes to satiate the appetite between his May 15, 2015, debut at Atlanta Dragway to the conclusion of the 2016 season. This season, has been serendipitous. With 17 events in the trunk of the Jim Butner Auto Chevrolet Camaro SS, he’s visited the winner’s circle three times (with his inaugural Pro Stock win coming at Atlanta Dragway) and has claimed five runner-up finishes.
Butner enters the 63rd Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals this weekend at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis as the Pro Stock points leader, and will carry the No. 1 seed into the six-race NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Countdown to the Championship that commences Sept. 15-17 at zMAX Dragway in Concord, North Carolina.
The vista is heady stuff for an individual who considers himself a “Sportsman racer at heart.”
“It’s unbelievable for what many call a ‘renter,’ ‘’ said Butner, who drives a 2017 Camaro prepared and serviced at the racetrack by KB Racing. “A while back, when we started talking about running Pro Stock, there is a word that (KB Racing driver/engine builder) Jason Line used that stuck with me. Trust. There is trust in everything in life, but first you have to trust yourself.
“I have 100 percent trust now, so I have zero worries really. I have great family members who take care of the business. The support you receive at work; they are your biggest fans and the ones who allow you to go race. We’re blessed. The racing is a bonus, but our family life and family business is where it’s at.
“The same goes at the track. I have an awesome crew. I hop in the car and have no worries. I show up at the track every race able to win. They give me the best.”
Butner credits experience and confidence for the turnaround in fortune over the past two-plus seasons encompassing 58 events. Four-time Pro Stock champion and KB Racing teammate Greg Anderson sees it as a mixture of mental and physical ingredients.
“It’s really been kind of cool,” said Anderson, a six-time winner of the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals. “You go back 12 months and Bo ran really well but struggled with reaction times. He’s cutting good lights now and he’s learned how to win. It’s neat to see the progression. He’s a tough, tough out right now and we’ve got our work cut out for us. But it’s going to make Jason and I better drivers. We know we have to be better and that pushes us.”
Anderson, driver of the Summit Racing Equipment Chevrolet Camaro SS, is third in the standings entering the regular-season finale. Rookie Tanner Gray, 18, who has racked up a class-leading four victories in the Gray Motorsports Valvoline Chevrolet Camaro SS, is second. Three of Gray’s victories have come at Butner’s expense. Nine different Chevrolet drivers have won all 17 events.
“There are a whole lot of small battles throughout the season, but there is one war,” said Butner, who has a Pro Stock-leading 41-14 elimination round record. “My crew chief, Darrel Herron, and I have always said that – if you win rounds, the points will come. I think KB Racing has a good shot to be 1-2-3 when it’s all said and done. We have our work cut out for us if we’re going to do that, but the points are all going to be reset for the Countdown. We just have to keep doing what we’re doing. We have good momentum, and we’ve had it pretty much all year. I think we’ll do well in the Countdown, and I’m excited to get there.”