TOYOTA NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS)
Post-Race Notes & Quotes
Charlotte Motor Speedway – May 17, 2013
Tundra driver Kyle Busch claimed the checkered flag in Friday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Busch led 80 laps (of 134) en route to his first NCWTS victory of the 2013 season.
It was Busch’s 25th NCWTS victory behind the wheel of a Tundra and his 31st career win in the series.
Busch now has five wins at Charlotte — giving him more wins at Charlotte than at any other track in the series.
Tundra drivers Matt Crafton (fourth) and John Wes Townley (eighth) also recorded top-10 results at the 1.5-mile North Carolina speedway.
Toyota drivers Todd Bodine (17th), David Starr (23rd), Timothy Peters (26th), Darrell Wallace Jr. (27th), Johnny Sauter (28th), Joey Coulter (32nd) and German Quiroga (35th) were also in the field.
Crafton holds a 22-point lead over second-place Jeb Burton in the unofficial NCWTS point standings following the fifth race of the season. Fellow Tundra drivers Sauter (sixth) and Wallace (10th) are also in the top-10.
KYLE BUSCH, No. 51 Toyota Care Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 1st
Could you have won the race without the fresh tires?
“Yeah, I think so. Our truck was really, really fast. Rudy (Fugle, crew chief) and these guys did a great job and they worked awfully hard. I have to say thanks to JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) engines and Mark Cronquist (engine builder) and those guys. They gave these guys a heart attack — they have been working too hard these last couple weeks. Toyota Care — can’t say enough about them. We appreciate their support and you get complimentary service on any new Toyota you
buy. Flexco, Monster Energy, TRD (Toyota Racing Development) of course — we couldn’t do it without all those guys. The fans — we appreciate them coming on out and supporting us here tonight and watching on TV. Of course Camping World for the series, it’s fun to race here and we don’t ever make anything too easy.”
Do you race in the NCWTS to win or to help build KBM?
“You’re trying to help — the first couple years I was helping build the program because we didn’t have one and now it’s to come out here and have a third truck on the race track and to have those guys be able to lean on somebody. They come to me, they ask me questions and what Rudy (Fugle, crew chief) and I do on this truck, it is an open notebook and they can have anything they want off this thing. I wish the 18 (Joey Coulter) had a better night and of course 54 (Darrell Wallace Jr.) was fast there. It’s unfortunate that he got the air taken off or whatever there, I haven’t seen it. I just saw him spin out off of turn two and hate it for Darrell and those guys.”
Did you have a dominant truck?
“I wish we could have led a few more laps tonight. We don’t ever make anything too easy. It certainly was an eventful night for us. It’s cool — we had a great truck tonight. Rudy (Fugle, crew chief) and these guys gave me a great Toyota Care Tundra and it was really awesome. Just wish we were able to run up front there a little bit through the middle stages. When we came in for our gas and go, I thought we were back off pit road, we were the leader or actually there were a couple guys that stayed out so I was wondering how long it would take me to get by them. I tell you what, Miguel Paludo and a couple other guys were fast tonight. We had our work cut out for us trying to get back to the front.”
How aero-dependant are the trucks at Charlotte?
“You have to fight the air wherever you can see it — it’s like the old (Dale) Earnhardt theory. You just go where they ain’t and you keep trying to keep that momentum rolling and suck right up through there. These things punch a big hole in the air. You can keep your momentum going and not get bogged down by somebody coming back through traffic and you look like a hero. It’s what you have to do.”
Were you taking the air away from Brendan Gaughan in the closing laps?
“We were really, really fast. I don’t know how Brendan (Gaughan) makes the top work like that, it’s crazy. Anytime I go up there I slow down. I got up there and it freed my truck up enough where it would actually help me rotate. I couldn’t hold it wide open through (turns) three and four. I would roll up the race track and it would really help my truck turn. That was the benefit there. I was taking away Brendan’s air, but it was helping my truck turn.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 51 Toyota Care Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports (continued)
Does this race win help you get over last Saturday night in Darlington?
“No, it doesn’t. Certainly, winning is awesome, but you never can get the ones that you lose back. This one here kind of halfway sort of makes up for our wrecked truck that we had in Kansas. The Cup Series stuff is what the Cup Series stuff is — you lead 265 laps or whatever it was and come up short at the end of the race, that’s entirely frustrating and nothing is going to overcome that for you and make you feel any better. Cup races certainly take a lot longer to get over than for instance our Kansas Truck race. Boom, you have to go race the next day and you have to put that out of your mind. That was an unfortunate circumstance that we got crashed there, but we bounced back the next day for just about four laps and that was it. I had a tough day at Kansas, but this one feels pretty good. Hopefully, I felt like I learned a couple things tonight that I can use tomorrow that will help me out with restarts and everything else for the All-Star race.”
Did it feel like an eternity since your last NCWTS win?
“It was an eternity if the starts are spread over a year-and-a-half. It certainly was frustrating last year that Eric (Phillips) and I weren’t able to get to victory lane. We only ran three starts, but all those three starts we were the dominant, I wouldn’t say we were the dominant truck, but we were a really good truck and had a shot to win in all three of those. It stunk that we couldn’t win, but this year same kind of thing. I felt like we were in the perfect spot there at Daytona, ready to go and ready to pounce on that last lap and never really got there. At Kansas we had a really fast race truck, (James) Buescher was a half-second faster than anybody in practice and we passed him in the race and led some laps. Felt really good about that and then we get caught up in a mess later on. We’ve been fast and these guys do a good job. Rudy (Fugle, crew chief) here taking over for my stuff on the 51 with a smaller team. It’s only him and a couple other guys that are full- time for it versus the 18 (Joey Coulter) and the 54 (Darrell Wallace Jr.) who are full-time for the season and have more guys. These guys work awful hard and do a lot of work for being so small and just coming out here to try to knock out some wins.”
RUDY FUGLE, crew chief, No. 51 Toyota Care Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
How was the race?
“It was good, it was fun. This was my first win as crew chief so it was a good deal. That test session was great for us just to work through some things, work through some data and then get a good plan for today’s practice. Everything went pretty good tonight except for one fuel mishap, but Kyle (Busch) overcomes on that pretty good.”
MATT CRAFTON, No. 88 Fishers Nuts/Menards Toyota Tundra, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 4th
How did the truck handle during the race?
“We had a great truck all night. We drove to third and qualified 14th and then we were able to drive to third right off. We got a lap down and we got the wave around, got the right-rear (tire) flat on the wave around so we got another lap down having to pit under green. Finally I think got back on the lead lap with 20 to go and drove back to fourth. Not a bad night. That’s a championship team right there. All the changes — we didn’t make a ton of changes, but all the adversity we fought through right there, it was just awesome. This Menards Tundra was good — I just wish we had some track position right there so we could have actually worked on it rather than digging ourselves out of the hole with all our laps down.”
How wild were the restarts in the race?
“That’s just Charlotte — Charlotte is just so awesome. In turns one and two — you can run through there wide open, everybody would get loose under each other and it’s chaos. I just had to try to be smart. I knew they were going to keep busting their butts. The 19 (Ross Chastain) got me because with 40 (laps) to go I was just trying to be cautious and the 19 got by me for the ‘lucky dog’ so I was like, ‘Okay, I can’t do this anymore I just have to go.’ I can’t thank all these guys enough for how hard they work.”
JOHN WES TOWNLEY, No. 7 Zaxby’s Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing
Finishing Position: 8th
How does it feel to tie your career-best NCWTS finish?
“It feels like a dream come true to be able to back it up like this, it just shows that we can only go forward from here and that’s real exciting. There have been some ups and downs in my career and this year has been overall pretty positive. I can’t say enough about these guys — they have worked really hard on the trucks and give me good stuff and it’s showing. I just have to thank Zaxby’s and Toyota — just a great night. We can build on this and go forward and get more.”
JOHN WES TOWNLEY, No. 7 Zaxby’s Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing (continued)
How did the truck handle in the race?
“We were tight the entire weekend. In the end, I don’t think it was all that bad of a thing. It’s just a learning deal that we can work on. In the end, we pulled off a great finish and we can build on that. We learn the package to work with on these mile-and-a-halves and that is something we can build on.”
TODD BODINE, No. 13 Mattei Toyota Tundra, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 17th
DAVID STARR, No. 81 NCCER/BYF Toyota Tundra, SS-Green Light Racing
Finishing Position: 23rd
TIMOTHY PETERS, No. 17 Parts Plus Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing
Finishing Position: 26th
DARRELL WALLACE JR., No. 54 Liberty Tire Recycling/Ground SmartRubber Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 27th
JOHNNY SAUTER, No. 98 Carolina Nut Company/Curb Records, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 28th
JOEY COULTER, No. 18 Darrell Gwynn Foundation Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 32nd
GERMAN QUIROGA, No. 77 Net10 Wireless Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing
Finishing Position: 35th
What took you out of the race?
“We had some ups and downs and unfortunately during the race we couldn’t finish. We crashed very early. I was passing some of the cars that were in front of me and I don’t know — my spotter cleared me and I think I wasn’t clear enough. We tried to repair the truck and it was very, very good. We were even faster than I thought we would be — we would have a shot and unfortunately that happened and then they tried to fix it again. My team really worked to try to put me into the race again and unfortunately something broke and we crashed even harder so we are out of the race.”
