KYLE BUSCH,No. 18 Interstate Batteries Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing What is your strategy heading into the third race of the Chase? “Our strategy is just to continue doing what we’ve been trying to do and collect some good finishes here. Just be able to let the points fall as they may by being able to run as strong as we can. It’s about all we can control, but I look forward to Dover. Dover has been a good place for us over the years. I’m excited about getting back and returning to the Interstate Batteries colors where last time we had them we won at Michigan. That’s a cool part. I’m glad to be here at the monster.”
How do you think your car will be after unloading and beginning with first practice? “The biggest thing for Dover here is to try to get out here and feel out what’s going to happen and what’s going to change throughout practice because right now there’s a lot of K&N rubber down. What happens with Nationwide practice and Cup practice, that’s all going to make it a bit challenging. You have to learn what the track is going to do and how it’s going to change and all that stuff. We’ll get ready for all of that. You try to get your car setup as best as you can for your field that you’re looking for to get around this place and how well it needs to turn and how well you need to keep the back in the track. Certainly with the concrete surface and the speeds we run around here, we sometimes get going pretty quick.”
What do you attribute the success you’ve had at Dover to? “You know, I don’t think you attribute to anything but having good race cars and being in good position throughout the race — keeping your track position and all that stuff. For us, the biggest thing that we’ve got to worry about is staying on the lead lap. We know that typically there’s 18 to 22 cars that do finish on the lead lap here. You can have a bad day if you are on a lead lap 20th — that’s not a good day at all. You know that there’s a lot of good cars out there. You always look to see Jimmie (Johnson) run well here, the Roush cars typically run well here. It’s a place that you certainly have to get ready for and it’s no different than any other weekend — just try your hardest.”
Do you think cooler temperatures will affect the racing at Dover? “I don’t know that the cooler temperatures will change a whole lot. We’ve run here sometimes when it’s cool, but most the time it’s been pretty warm. I think it’s just relative to how the rubber goes down on the race track. We’ve seen cooler temperatures not allow the track to rubber up as much, but there’s plenty out there right now with the K&N cars, so I don’t foresee that being any different. Certainly cooler temperatures does mean you go a little faster and that’s about all you’ve got to look at.”
Would you like to see Johnson’s championship streak end? “Well, I’d like to think we’re the guys that can end it. Certainly we’ve got what we’ve got to worry about and try to fix and do our own things that help us accumulate the points that we need to accumulate to have us being on top after Homestead. What everybody else does is what they do and where the points fall is where they fall. That’s about it.”
How do you access the first two Chase races? “Certainly not what we have wanted. Obviously running top-five, top-10 at Chicago before running out of fuel there. Not really running all that great at Loudon. We probably had an eighth-place car if fuel strategy and everything didn’t change throughout the race, but we ended up 11th and if anybody would have guaranteed me a 10th-place finish at Loudon before the Chase started, I would have just taken it and gone away. We lost one-point to that 10th-place finish. It is what it is and certainly we know there is a little bit or work to be done, but a couple of cool tracks coming up for us that we feel like we can run well at and we just want to try to capitalize on those and work to our potential to get the most points we can.”
How important is it to be consistent, but strong in the next races? “It’s just a matter of running as best you can, you know. When you run fifth to 10th all day at Chicago, you know run well. You were competitive. You felt like you had a shot. You could have won the race had everything gone your way. And running 22nd, that hurts. That stings a little bit. That’s just a product of racing and what happens and these races are 400, 500 miles in length for a reason. There’s a lot that can go down during that time. Certainly we’ve not been as high as we want to be yet, but that’s not indicative to how we’ve run I don’t think.” KYLE BUSCH,No. 18 Interstate Batteries Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing (continued) Does Dover not lend itself to being a fuel mileage race? “To be honest with you, it can lend itself to being a fuel mileage race. Anything can happen in these things and the way they play out. You go about 80 to 90 laps here on fuel, so if the race plays out the way the plays out and you pit at lap 300 because there is a caution out and it goes green the rest of the way, there’s going to be some guys that may stretch it and other guys that may just do a fuel stop or two tires or something like that. Anything can happen. That’s certainly the reason why we run these races and some guys feel like they’ve got the fuel mileage game figured out and others may not. Which one are we? I don’t know. I don’t think — we won one race off of it this year, but the other ones we’ve had to come down and pit, so we’ll see how it all ends up.”
What do you think about Ryan Truex’s opportunity with Joe Gibbs Racing in the Nationwide Series? “I think the opportunity there is obviously a big one for him. I wish him all the best this weekend. I’m hopeful he can get a lot of notes from his brother (Martin Truex Jr.). His brother is always really, really good here, so Martin has a handle on Dover pretty well. Ryan’s run here in the past with the K&N cars. He’s won the championship there and — two championships there — and now gets the opportunity to move up into the Nationwide Series and we’ve seen him run really well at Atlanta and Richmond. Had some bad luck kind of go his way at Chicago, but still rebounded well and got like a 11th or 12th out of it. Dover is definitely a challenging race track. 200 miles here will — that will get his hands wet at least.”
