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[/media-credit]NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
KOBALT TOOLS 400
LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 9, 2012
KURT BUSCH, NO. 51 TAG HEUER EYEWEAR CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and discussed racing at his hometown track Las Vegas Motor Speedway, competing for Phoenix Racing, competing at Bristol Motor Speedway and other topics. Full Transcript:
WHAT IS IT LIKE COMING AND RACING IN YOUR HOMETOWN? “It is just still fun coming back home and seeing the old race teams that I used to work with. They are going to be at the track on the weekend. It is just fun with the stories reminiscing and then just the feel back in the day on how hard it was to really get to the track and put together that effort. That is what I feel a lot of with Phoenix Racing this year on how hard we have to work to get to the track to show up to race.”
CAN YOU DESCRIBE HOW THE TRACK IS NOW SINCE THE RECONFIGURATION? “When they reconfigured the track it put in that banking and it made the track more like an on edge, razor blade feel. You had to be fast, but if you went a little too fast you would slip and you would wreck. The pace here is very quick. The banking and the tires still do not quite matching up exactly right so it makes it slick out there sometimes.”
DO YOU LIKE IT BETTER THIS WAY OR THE WAY IT WAS BEFORE? “You have to adapt and be the best that you can for the current conditions. I did like the old track here better. This is Bruton’s (Smith) track now and he wanted to put the banking in to make it more like Charlotte or Atlanta, tracks that he is used to.”
YOU GUYS HAD A SOMEWHAT COSTLY DAYTONA FROM A PARTS STANDPOINT. LAST WEEK YOU HAD A 15TH-PLACE FINISH AT PHOENIX. CAN YOU ASSESS WHERE YOU GUYS ARE AFTER TWO RACES? “It is early. It is one week at-a-time for us. Phoenix is a perfect race for us to bring the car home without a scratch on it. It’s a 15th; they are polishing up on that car right now back at the shop getting it ready for Bristol.”
WAS IT A 15TH-PLACE CAR OR WAS IT SITUATION THAT LED YOU TO A 15TH-PLACE FINISH? “I thought it was a 10th-place car and I could only drive it to 15th that day. It was just track position. I was holding a guy up in the beginning of the run towards the end of the race he moved us out of the way and I slid back those few spots. We got right back to the back bumper of those guys but we couldn’t pass them. 10th to 15th that was perfect.”
DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHERE THIS TEAM’S 1.5-MILE PROGRAM IS OR IS THAT GOING TO BE SOMETHING YOU FIND OUT HERE THIS WEEKEND? “It’s week to week. We will find out a lot about it this week. This is the best car we have in our whole stable. We hope it’s a good weekend.”
THIS IS THE FIRST OF 11, 1.5-MILE TRACKS THAT YOU GUYS ARE GOING TO COMPETE AT. SOME OF THEM ARE 400 MILES SOME OF THEM ARE 500 MILES DOES THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE? “No, distance doesn’t make a difference anymore these days. Cars are so durable that they can make it. It used to be a challenge if you could make it 600 miles. Darlington was one of the first 500 mile races that challenged cars. The cars were challenged at tracks like Martinsville to make 500 laps. These days’ cars can make it through anything.”
DO YOU HAVE A PREFERENCE FOR LONGER OR SHORTER RACES? “I think we could stand to shorten some races but we still need to keep the heritage of some of our 500 mile races, especially the Coca-Cola 600 as well.”
About Chevrolet
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