Kyle Busch — Notes & Quotes
Richmond International Raceway – September 6, 2013KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Heritage Chocolate Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
What is your outlook for the race?
“Our outlook is certainly different than what it was a year ago. It’s just the opportunity to come in here and try to run well and continue to develop our program. This place here is similar to a Loudon (New Hampshire Motor Speedway) or similar to a Phoenix so you tend to try to run some of the same stuff so whatever we can try to learn here this weekend we can sort of translate over to those places. Also, it’s a weekend for us to have nothing to race for but a win. It’s sort of like an All-Star race I guess — steering wheel or go home. We’ll see how it plays out for us and hopefully we can have a good car right now coming off the truck and we can be up front all weekend.”
Would it be important to win tomorrow night to get the top seed for the Chase?
“I think it’s important anytime you’re able to get a win. I think its boosts team moral and it gives you the confidence from these last two weeks — being able to win two in a row and head into the Chase with some good momentum, but as far as bonus points are concerned, sure, that’s an obvious point. I think being able to get those extra bonus points certainly help your opportunity to give yourself a better seeding or just give yourself more points to start with.”
Is there more momentum with your team going into this Chase?
“I wouldn’t say so — I think our team is pretty even keel. These guys here, they have a job to do, they know what their job is to do and you don’t want to get too wrapped around any of the hoopla or any of the pressure or anything like that so you just try to stay as motivated and as determined as you can be to know that you’ve got something to shoot for and something to work towards, but in all reality it’s certainly one of the most challenging things to achieve in this sport and we’ve just got to be determined enough to go get it.”
Would you like to see different tracks in the Chase year to year?
“I don’t think that’s a problem. I think if there’s enough room in the schedule to move some places around, sure, I don’t see why not. That’s for the bigger powers that be than just us little race car drivers to determine.”
Can you learn from tonight’s race for tomorrow night?
“I try to do what I can to correlate as much information as possible between the two, but it all reality it’s hard to. About the best thing you can do is determine what your car was like in practice today and see how it races tonight, what your Cup car is like in practice today and see what kind of changes you have to make to it to handle going into nighttime. We’re pretty used to that — we’ve got a notebook already built up. We’ve been here multiple years — this is just the second time we’ve been here with the Gen-6, but with Dave (Rogers, crew chief) and this M&M’s team, we’ve been together for a few years where we’ve got enough notes that going into nighttime is just sort of routine for us.”
What type of pressure is Kurt Busch feeling heading into this race?
“To speak for myself from last year, we literally didn’t have much pressure on us. I guess you could say we should have. If we would have done everything right, we would have been fine. There was no reason why we shouldn’t have made the Chase. When we stayed out on one of those runs with 40 laps on our tires we went straight backwards and that was the end of our race. As far as Kurt’s (Busch) concerned though, he’s had some opportunities where he’s run well here and so has Jeff (Gordon). I think that barring catastrophic failure, I think he should have a good shot at being able to make it, but it certainly is a tense situation and you never want to see the loser have to hang their head down and go home. Essentially, that’s what we did last year.”
Is there a big difference from the spring race to the fall race at Richmond?
“I think there’s a little bit of difference. The race track coming off the winter time into the spring is different than coming from the spring race through the summer to now. For whatever reason that is, I haven’t quite been able to put my finger on it and figure it out. I know my teammate Denny Hamlin has. We expect him to be really, really good and we always lean on him for notes in the fall time here. It’s just a matter of being able to correlate what he can do here to helping myself to what I can do.”
Can you do things in this race that can’t be done in other races?
“Maybe I’m not following the question 100 percent, but you tend to continue to do what you’ve done all year long. If you’re saying, ‘Is it okay to go out and wreck somebody for a spot?’ No, because it will come back and bite you later. There’s too many variables that happen and you don’t need to make a mistake in just this one race to hinder your chances later on down in the final 10.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Heritage Chocolate Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing (continued)
Can you get away with more in this race than other races due to the circumstances?
“Wasn’t it two years ago here that Kurt (Busch) and Jimmie (Johnson) were wrecking each other because they were already locked in the Chase just having fun or whatever? Maybe they weren’t necessarily having fun. It tends to happen, I guess, in those situations. Let’s see — who is locked in? Yeah, me and (Kevin) Harvick can go after it and have some fun.”
Do think the 48 team is a favorite for the championship or is this year more wide open?
“You’ve got to give the credit when credit is due — certainly the 48 (Jimmie Johnson) team has shown that they’re the ones to respect when you go into the final 10 races because they’ve done it before and they’ve been so close so many times. I mean, I don’t think there’s been a year that Jimmie hasn’t been in contention going into the final two or one race. You know that those are going to be the guys that you’re going to be dealing with. How many more is it besides just the 48? That’s to be determined I think every year.”
Will the lack of momentum that the 48 team has had recently make driver’s feel like that team is vulnerable?
“No. No. There is a switch somewhere over at Hendrick Motorsports they’ll flip next week and they’ll be just fine in Chicago. I guarantee it.”
Can you learn anything this weekend that you can transfer to other Chase races?
“A little bit. Like I mentioned earlier, just this place, Loudon (New Hampshire Motor Speedway) and Phoenix are sort of the three similar race tracks. They’re not even close in the way they look or the way they feel, but for some reason the way you setup a race car to go around those three tracks is similar. It’s not exact by any means, but you can certainly play around if you are determined enough to make that many changes in practice. But, it’s hard to learn here in practice because of the heat of the day and also because of you only get about five cycles on tires and then your tires are done. So, you’ve got to change them out. So, if you run five laps at a time for five times out you’ve got 25 laps on your tires and they’re done already. It’s kind of crazy how it works out, but that’s just the way that it works here.”
Does the level of cooperation that you have with the 20 team change for the Chase?
“No, I think you continue to share as much if not more. I think our three crew chiefs have worked awfully close together and I think the three drivers have been good at being able to communicate with one another through the year that we’ve had. Matt’s (Kenseth) been a great teammate thus far. He really works hard, and him and Jason (Ratcliff, 20 crew chief) have kind of gone on a little bit different path than what we have and that’s fine. Sometimes it shows that they’re really, really fast and like last weekend something happened to their car where they slowed down. More times than not, they seem to show us up from practice to the race so they’re definitely a force to be reckoned with for sure.”
Do you have a greater appreciation for being in the Chase this year after missing it last year?
“Oh, no doubt. Definitely. Every year your first focus is to win races and to make the Chase. That’s what you’ve got to do and last year we sort of failed at that. We had one win and we could’ve made the Chase if we didn’t make a mistake here at Richmond, but that’s racing sometimes. That’s just the way it plays out. If we could’ve won Watkins Glen (last year) we would’ve had another win under our belt. We would’ve been in the Chase — we would’ve had the ‘Wild Card’ with two wins. It’s what ifs. There’s too many of those. This year there’s certainly a greater satisfaction of being included in the Chase and knowing that you’re locked in and knowing that you have a chance to race for the rest of the year to contend for a championship hopefully.”
Are you conscious of how line sensitive certain race tracks are when planning pit strategy?
“Yes and no. It’s kind of hard to determine exactly because there’s so much going on at one point in time that — how many cars stay out? So, you count those cars. Then when you’re leaving your pit box do you count cars and try to figure out how to come out either in the inside or outside — whichever lane you want. It’s real hard to do because you could be riding in the right spot and at the final second somebody will pull out and beat you and then knock you out and you not be able to get the lane you want. Certainly I would think that there’s some of that going on, but sometimes it does get a little challenging to exactly pinpoint because it’s just so much so fast.”
Does recent performance or race wins give you an advantage going into the Chase?
“Neither. It don’t mean crap. It doesn’t — I mean — you want to be able to run well all year long. You want to be able to keep the consistency all year long. You want to be able to win all year long. At any opportunity, at any given point you want to be able to go out there and knock a win out or have the opportunity to do so. But, things are a lot tougher when it comes to the final 10 races. You do have to be able to focus a little bit more and be able to get your team focused a little bit more to be able to achieve what you want to. It’s a situation where right now, do those previous 10 mean anything to us? It’s good to know, but not all of those race tracks are in the Chase at all, so we’ve got to be able to focus on our 10 Chase race tracks and being able to get the most out of those.”
Do you think performance leading up to the Chase is a predictor of who might win the championship?
“No, I wouldn’t say it’s a very good predictor. Look at Jimmie (Johnson). He’s won at all but maybe one or two Chase tracks I think it is. They had a stretch of three bad races, that’s not indicative at all on how they’re going to run. There’s (Clint) Bowyer — they were super fast at Atlanta and had an engine problem. So, I think that they’re going to be just as fast throughout the Chase. There’s a lot of different variables from drivers to race tracks to situations on pit road and how all of that is going to work out through the Chase that’s going to determine a champion. We see it every year.”
