NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
DAYTONA SPEEDWEEKS MEDIA DAY
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
FEBRUARY 16, 2012
KURT BUSCH, NO. 51 HENDRICKCARS.COM CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Daytona International Speedway and discussed his new team Phoenix Racing, having fun and working for his brother Kyle in 2012.
IN REGARDS TO HIS NEW TEAM AT PHOENIX RACING: “Everyone is working three times as hard and it’s great to see the youthful exuberance and excitement. It is their race team. This is different. It’s a small group and we are hoping that we are the little team that can.”
DO THEY PUT YOU TO WORK WHEN YOU ARE AT THE SHOP?: “Yeah I jump right in there with the guys. We have been mounting seats which has been the primary focus. Even to stringing the car or bump steering it. I was there when they put it on the pull down rig, just to see how they do their sequence of set-up. It is so refreshing to see that the steps they are taking are the same steps all the big teams are doing. You can say our pull down rig doesn’t cost as much as the ones the big time teams are using, but it is there; it’s efficient and it’s easy to use.”
HOW MUCH TESTING HAVE YOU DONE?: “ We were here in Daytona of course, then we went over to Nashville Superspeedway for a two-day test; burned-up a good ten sets of tires. Finch is like, come on tires really. I learned with Finch that he does not like the Goodyear tire bills. It is going to be fun all year long asking Finch for an extra set of tires.”
HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO GET SOME CHEMISTRY THROUGH TESTING WITH THE GROUP?: “Yes, I was getting off on too much of a sarcastic tone there. Nick Harrison is the crew chief he is a guy from Tennessee from the days of Sterling Marlin. Stedman Marlin was at the Nashville test hanging out with us, this grassroots racing. It’s not really grassroots it’s just old school and everybody knows everybody, they work really hard and at the end of the day they crack a beer and talk about what has to happen the next day.”
DO YOU PLAN TO STAY WITH THE TEAM NEXT YEAR AS WELL?: “There is that opportunity. I mean the future doesn’t have a definition for me other than 2012 is going to be a lot about fun. I’ve got Finch’s Phoenix Racing. I’ve also got Kyle’s KBM (Kyle Busch Motorsports) program to work with and Monster Energy group of guys and run probably half the Nationwide schedule over there. I said to the guys. I want to get kicked out of the garage. They said what the heck does that mean? I sad we’re going to win a race this year and I want to be sitting at the back of the hauler on top of our coolers, drinking beer and have NASCAR go, ‘Listen guys all the haulers have left, you guys have to go too now’. I hope we get kicked out of the garage that way.”
IN TERMS OF GOING BACK TO OLD SCHOOL RACING, I WOULD IMAGINE THAT CARS ARE MUCH MORE SCARCE NOW. DO YOU THINK ABOUT THAT MORE NOT WRECKING CARS? DOES IT GIVE YOU AN APPRECIATION THAT A LOT OF DRIVERS LOSE? “For sure that is what old school racing is about. It is about thrashing just to get your car built on time just to get to the race track. We have one really good down force car we are going to take it to Vegas. I have to protect it because we need it two weeks later at California. Then we will need it two weeks after that to go to Texas. So we have to protect our good cars. I was very impressed with this group of guys. I really thought we were going to bring two superspeedway cars down here to Daytona. We have four ready to go. We have our Shootout car and a back-up. We have our Daytona 500 car, which is our best car, and its back-up. So even in the Shootout we need to win or bust. We need to showcase ourselves for a new sponsor, which is Tag Heuer. We want them to come on board for more races later in the year. We have Hendrickcars.com on our car for the Daytona 500, this is that old school of race hard, race up front, be seen, get noticed and hopefully that sponsor will sign on for more races.”
HOW MANY CARS TOTAL DO YOU HAVE VERSUS HOW MANY YOU HAVE HAD IN THE PAST?: “There is the quantity of cars that are on the floor. The quality of cars, the Hendrick chassis’ that we have that we want to work with, those are limited. Over time we will get some more. I hope we win the Daytona 500 that means we will have more of a budget to buy more cars. It is that old school of you have to do well and protect the cars so you have it the next week.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’RE STARTING OVER?: “Not at all. I feel like this is a fun project for me to work on, for Finch to understand where his program is. To have Hendrick engines, chassis’ and bodies, it is not a start over, this is working with the New York Yankees of baseball and that is what Hendrick is of racing.”
WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO YOU PERSONALLY TO WIN THE DAYTONA 500?: “It’s really the race that can define a driver’s career. It is a big priority, the prestigious value of winning at Daytona what it does for a driver’s career long term, what it can do for the immediate impact. This race is our spectacle. It is the most important stock car race of the year.”
DOES IT BOTHER YOU EVER THAT YOU HAVE BEEN SO CLOSE BUT HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO COLLECT A WIN?: “A little bit. I have finished second three times. I’ve pushed a teammate to win, Ryan Newman back in 2008. I remember back in 2005, when I had a move to make on Jeff Gordon on the outside going into turn three and I looked in the mirror and saw everybody cutting to the inside to go by me in the draft. I’m like man I just got to block to the inside and take this second-place finish. It kind of eats at me a little bit that I should have taken that risk to go to the high side and see what could have happened off turn-four.”
YOU SAID THREE SECONDS, THEN A KID LIKE BAYNE COMES OUT AND WINS IN HIS FIRST RACE EVER. IS THAT JUST THE WAY RACING IS?: “That’s the Daytona 500 you have to be there at the end and every year you have to build the best car that you can. As an experienced driver you have to block out the past as far as finishes, but you have to use your experience to get to that last part of the race to be in position to win.”
EASIER SAID THAN DONE?: “Easier said than done, but last year I thought I was in the perfect spot. I was running as the lead of the two car draft of the cars that I was tied together win. I had the draft in front of me, like I did to win the Shootout and the 150 and I was in the same position in the Daytona 500. I almost got choked up that I positioned myself to get there and then it didn’t happen. My draft was broken apart by Carl Edwards, he came steaming through there and hooked up with Bayne off turn four but you’ve got to position yourself and you do that by protecting your car for 450 miles.”
WHAT DID YOU FEEL LIKE YOU SAW IN BAYNE LAST YEAR? WHAT DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU SAW IN HIM THROUGHOUT THE SEASON?: “That was a Cinderella story and I think that this team, Phoenix Racing, has that same opportunity to be the underdog going in and to have big things happen afterwards.”
DID YOU KNOW YOU WERE ON THE FORBES LIST OF DISLIKED ATHELES? DID YOU SEE IT? DO YOU CARE ABOUT IT?: “ Yeah I actually went from third to tenth so I actually think I improved. I made the top ten list of something. Two years in a row finishing 11th in points, then standing there trying to do an interview with Dr. Punch, having learned that my part went through Tony Stewarts grill and took away his championship hopes, that is what I was so upset about and of course it gets caught on You Tube, then they submit it to Forbes.com and then you are on a top ten list. It is what it is. Do you guys believe it?”
OBVIOUSLY ITS VERY HARD AT THIS LEVEL, WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT DANICA’S CHANCES AT BEING RESPECTABLE?: “She brings a lot to our sport. Just the sex appeal, the talent in the open wheel side, the ability to drive a car at this level competitively as a female it’s awesome. We will see how she does with everything. There is a lot of pressure she has to adapt to when you get into stock cars.”
HOW MUCH OF THE DAYTONA 500 IS LUCK VERSUS SKILL?: “It’s a spectacle. When you win the Super Bowl you have to have talent to win the Super Bowl, but that’s a spectacle. The Kentucky Derby is a spectacle but you have to have the right training, the right people in place and you have to keep your emotions in check, just as it is at the Indy 500. It is a spectacle that you have to be in position to win off talent, but then random things happen at these events that create the winners that we have. It has been a different winner for the last 11 years.”
DO YOU HAVE ANYONE THAT YOU HAVE PICKED TO WORK WITH IF YOU CAN?: “Anybody and everybody, but my primary guy is Regan Smith. I worked with Mark Martin during testing. A buddy of mine from 2008, Ryan Newman, he knows that we want to work together and there is the Hendrick crowd. They have four cars, I would be the fifth, but then there are the two Stewart-Haas cars and then they have Danica. There are plenty of opportunities to get out there with a Chevrolet.”
AS A TEAM DO YOU GUYS TALK ABOUT THE HALF-WAY MONEY?: “The GM sent me an email about it, so in my mind what he said is to go get that money. As a team if we got $200,000 that would mean we could rent two more engines.”
SUCH A SMALL TEAM ARE YOU MORE INVOLVED IN THE DAY TO DAY BUSINESS?: “Absolutely, there are many hats to wear. I go through emails from what we get from our technology support and being more in tune with the crew chief, Nick Harrison on how things have to go. I’m on the set-up plate with the guys taking out rounds and measuring things, just helping out as a hand, being a jack of all trades.”
ARE YOU HAVE A GREAT TIME WORKING WITH YOUR BROTHER?: “It’s been fun. With Kyle, I want to help that program grow. With KBM starting out, we want to buy everything in the world to help the team grow as quick as we can. I’m actually racing in his seat. We aren’t ordering any new seats or anything. We just want to make it work with a limited budget.”
WHAT’S IT LIKE WORKING FOR YOUR LITTLE BROTHER?: “We are great brothers; this has just made our relationship stronger. For us to do this deal, it’s more like a handshake deal, like a buddy system. I’ll probably run half the races; he will run half we will share the duties. Our objective is to go out there and win the owners title.”
EVERYTHING CONSIDERED WHAT WILL A SINGLE WIN THIS YEAR MEAN TO YOU AND PHOENIX RACING? “It would mean a ton, especially if it wasn’t a restrictor plate race. If we were able to establish ourselves on a mile and a half or even on a short track, where I think we are going to be equally prepared as other teams. Short track racing gets back to old school racing that is what Phoenix Racing is all about. For me to extend that streak to 11 seasons being a race winner at this top level that is important. If it doesn’t happen it doesn’t happen, but we are out there to do it.”
DO YOU THINK PEOPLE HAVE WRITTEN YOU OFF?: “It doesn’t matter if they have or if they are rooting for us. I feel like we are the genuine underdog and when you come to a restrictor plate race, underdogs have taken away the trophy here a few times.”
DO YOU SEE YOURSELF AT ALL AS PERHAPS A CAUTIONARY TALE FOR YOUNG DRIVERS?: “I feel like I have done my own PR or my own sponsor handling over the years. I would tell a guy like Trevor Bayne or a guy like Stenhouse or Logano, who had good support but could have had stronger support around being more prepared with media, being more prepared with sponsors. I would suggest they be a more well-rounded driver that handles all aspects of it, where I just worried about jumping in the car and taking care of the steering wheel.”
IN REGARDS TO HIS EXPECATIONS FOR 2012: “We have different expectations this year. For me that is what it’s about having the fun. Not having that big pressure. It’s working with Kyle, its working with Finch and when you don’t have the big sponsors breathing down your neck and the expectations to win at all costs, but knowing the car wasn’t capable of winning. We have all kinds of new expectations this year.”
IF SOME BIG SPONSOR STARTED BREATHING DOWN YOUR NECK YOU’D BE JUST FINE WITH IT WOULDN’T YOU?: “Oh sure we need our support, we need our help, we want to go out there and showcase the best that we can for guys like Tag Heuer who are on our Shootout car. One of the main guys from France is coming in for the Shootout. If we are upside down on our lid crossing the finish line or if we are winning, we need to be creating excitement and energy around this No. 51 Phoenix Racing team. We are just going to show up and have the extra attention and that’s good. That should help us land a couple of big opportunities.”
CHANGES THAT HAVE GONE ON THIS SEASON, IS IT GOING TO TAKE A ROSTER JUST TO FIGURE OUT WHO YOU ARE OUT THERE WITH?: “Every year after the first practice session, I just go get the print out and I find out the number and the sponsor and if I don’t recognize the sponsor and that number, I try to get a picture of the car to visually learn who is in that ride. You’ve got all kinds of changes, Clint Bowyer is in the No. 15 Five Hour Energy car and you just want to visually get your eyes and arms around that red and black and yellow trimmed car, just so you know. When you are out on track if you spend a second thinking about it that is nine tenths of a second that you spent too long.”
WILL IT BE WEIRD FOR YOU NOT TO BE IN THE NO. 22?: “It won’t be. I’m happy with the No. 51. In this suit I should be able to blend in a little better than I could in that yellow Ronald McDonald suit.”
YOU SAY 2012 YOUR ASPIRATIONS ARE TO HAVE FUN WHAT THEN WAS 2011?: “2011 was a great season. I felt proud to have the Speedweeks we did. To almost win the Daytona 500, I won at a road course for the first time in a Cup car. I won a Chase race, the third race into the Chase; we were nine points out of the lead. We were on the outside looking perfect, but on the inside crew chief is leaving, crew guys were disoriented, we didn’t really know the direction sometimes from the sponsor. I would win then there would be a phone call on Monday on what I did wrong in victory lane. Those were those kinds of moments”.
WHAT ELSE OTHER THAN SEX APPEAL DOES DANICA PATRICK BRING TO NASCAR?: “She’s got America’s heart. She’s captivated everybody with her freshness, newness. We have guys like Tim Tebow, we have guys like Jeremy Lin now on the Knicks that is everybody’s feel good story. She is going to have that no matter where she goes. She is going to have that criticism of do you have the talent behind the wheel time will give her that. I think running full Nationwide this year and then having 10 Sprint Cup starts will give her a taste of what she needs to do behind the wheel.”
WHAT ARE YOUR ASPIRATIONS? IS IT ULTIMATELY TO GET BACK TO ONE OF THE BIG TOP TIER TEAMS?: “Who knows? I think this is a week to week thing. Right now we are at Daytona, we are here to win or bust. Then we go to Phoenix, Vegas, Bristol, settle into the regular season. Finch and Phoenix Racing could be a place I stay forever. Now we just go to each race and settle in. Then my little brothers race team. With running almost half the schedule over there or what we have yet to determine the races, it is fun to have a big profile sponsor like Monster Energy taking me to new markets for them and who knows what that will branch out to turn into for sponsorship. Will that work for Finch’s program and just go from there. There is no real expectation for us expect to be a great story of working as an old school race team.”
ALMOST EVERY DRIVER HERE TODAY HAS SAID THE 2012 SEASON IS A SEASON ALL ABOUT FUN. “Well they are probably just taking a branch out of my book I guess. I have a legitimate reason to go have fun. For us it’s to work with a team that does not have the big budget like other teams do, but I think we can win just as easily as another big team.”
IF THERE COMES A POINT THAT YOU ARE STRUGGLING SIX OR SEVEN RACES INTO THE SEASON HOW ARE YOU GOING TO KEEP YOURSELF MOTIVATED TO HAVE FUN AT THAT POINT?: “There is not the fun that is going to go away, it’s going to be there. There is going to be small victories each and every week that we are going to work on. I mean we could go to Phoenix and be a lap down after lap 40 and finish 30th so is the car back on the trailer in one piece? That’s a victory. But we know we have to adjust things dramatically for Vegas. Vegas, we have one really good down force car. We have to protect it and get it to California two weeks later because it is the only car we have a few weeks after that Texas so those big mile and a half tracks we have one good bullet. We have a lot of short track cars we have some other back-up cars that are good, but this is that old school feel of protect the race car have fun with it. I told the media earlier, I want to get kicked out of the garage at the end of the day one day, because we won a race or we did really well and we are sitting on the beer cooler drinking beer and we are the last hauler to leave.”
WHY HAVEN’T YOU DONE A LOT OF NATIONWIDE RACES IN THE PAST?: “To go straight from Trucks to Cup, then to be overwhelmed by Cup early on, then to settle in to know that Cup is where the best of the best race, it just worked out that Cup is where I wanted to be and the opportunity for Nationwide didn’t come up. Now with Nationwide this is a great opportunity for me to win with Kyle’s race team and with Finch and to go out there and have more fun with it.”
WHAT LED YOU TO THE DECISION TO JOIN KBM JUST TO HELP OUT KYLE?: Yes, absolutely just to help out Kyle. I mean it’s great to have Monster Energy drink come in and except me as one of their extreme athletes, so the sponsorship side is very nice to have that as well.
IS THAT A PERFECT FIT FOR YOU EXTREME ATHELETE? “I would say edgy. I would say one that goes out there with his emotion on his sleeve, one that goes to try to get to victory lane every week no matter what the cost.”
HOW DO YOU HANDLE WINNING?: “ You have to enjoy wins when they come and you have to know that next week the transmission can break on lap two and you will be at the bottom of the barrel, there are the peaks and there are the valley’s. You hope to draw a line and stay close to it. You have to enjoy the good days when you have them.”
DO YOU FEEL THAT ADJUSTING TO EVERYTHING IS ONE OF YOUR STRONGEST SKILLS?: “That’s one of the skills I thought I have done well. Is to be a chameleon and to adapt to my surrounding around me. Whether it’s with Finch’s Nationwide deal this year and our full time Cup program and doing the drag racing that I’ve done, or the street stock race with Kimmel at the old rock a couple of years back. Just jumping in the race car and having fun that is what it is all about.”
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE MORE MEMORABLE PROJECTS YOU AND YOUR BROTHER HAVE DONE TOGETHER?: “We built a go-kart together. I would say that is the best bonding we ever did as brothers was when we raced RC cars together. Here I am, I’m 16 years old driving into the local RC track and he’s 7 and needs everything done for him. I’m his crew chief, I’m his coach telling him to do this or do that and he followed my lead on things and turned into a good RC racer himself. I remember doing that with him for probably a couple of years on Wednesday nights.”
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