KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Crispy Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
What was it like to recreate the “Days of Thunder” Clips and could you have a second career in Hollywood?
“I could, sure. I think anybody could, probably. Some people said the acting was funny, other people said it was really bad. I don’t know. I think some actors you could say some of their movies are really bad. All in all, it was a lot of fun. We had a great time being able to reenact a few scenes from the movie, along with my wife (Samantha), she was in it too. I appreciate M&M’s doing that and allowing us to have a little fun. That was actually during the off-season and was supposed to release earlier this year. Obviously with my injury and everything, we kind of postponed it a little bit. Great summer classic from 25 years ago, ‘Days of Thunder’ was and to have ‘Days of Thunder’ and M&M’s Crispy riding out there on the crispy edge, it is pretty cool every weekend to have that opportunity. We appreciate M&M’s doing that. Folks who haven’t gotten a chance to see it, they can go to youtube.com/mmschocolate and see it on M&M’s chocolate YouTube page.”
What does the rules package change mean for this weekend?
“This place is – it’s a little treacherous and kind of tricky. It’s certainly has some aspects to it that you don’t typically see at some of these race tracks we get to go to. Being very bumpy is probably number one on the list, then being wet while still racing out there is another one. It seems like this place has really bad weepers that are really hard to get rid of. Last night during the Truck race, I seen that the frontstretch got really wet as the race progressed and kind of went on. That’s never any fun to have to dodge other spots on the race track, let alone having to get the competitors. It’s kind of what we’re going to have here. There’s no way around it if we want to get this race in this weekend. The only way for this place to dry out is to not have rain for a week, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. You’re going to see it here in about another hour. It’s a tough race track and it’s a challenge for many drivers, but to me I look forward to the challenge. It makes that aspect a little tougher on everybody, but maybe a little easier for those better drivers to run up front.”
How difficult is it for NASCAR to keep safety as top priority each and every weekend?
“It’s hugely difficult. You can have it perfectly right and put on a good race and a great finish one time at a particular race track and go back there with the exact same rules package and somebody hits on it and they check out and it’s boring. There’s absolutely no rhyme or reason as to being able to make it perfect every single time. I think a lot of fans out there respect the sport for what it was and what it has become, and the finishes that we do have and there’s some fans out there that want to see us eight-wide across the start-finish line every single week for the win. That’s just not practicality and that’s not going to happen. Even if that situation did arise, you’re going to get it like you did last week at Daytona. We’re couldn’t be eight-wide because the track isn’t wide enough – you have to stay above the yellow line. It was three-wide and it was eight rows deep and it was a mess. That’s just not safe, obviously for the fans or the competitors. There’s a way to put on good racing and for those that respect racing for what it is, they’ll see good racing in their own mind.”
How important is this morning’s practice session and will it be intense?
“It’s going to be particularly short run stuff. We’re just going to make three, four, five laps here or there to get kind of a feel for whatever things we’re trying at that particular moment and then we’ll continue to work on it as we go. As far as it being one of the most difficult practice sessions, no I don’t think so. We’re all wanting a step in this direction and I wish we would have had some practice time already this weekend so we can give you a basis of what we know. But what we expect is it’s going to be a little slicker and it’s not going to be as much grip as what we’re used to this year, which is good because we feel like we have too much grip this year. It’s a step in a direction with less downforce that the drivers have been asking for, but it’s only as step to 2011, so it’s going to be similar, real similar to what we ran here when I won the first race here. I don’t particularly think it’s going to be that big of a deal. It would be way bigger of a deal if we were looking at the downforce package back in the early 2000’s.”
What was your initial reaction to the change of the rules package?
“My initial reaction to the rules package was, I was shocked that NASCAR decided to do something in the middle part of the season, which is fine. Then to give us the opportunity to come here and try to test, or have a test day with a few extra hours of practice, that was really good, too and that was going to be beneficial to these teams, but we didn’t get it. I’m optimistic for it. I hope it does produce the race that us drivers are hoping that it does. We certainly have been trying to push lower speeds through the corners, that’s what we’ve been doing. At some of these places that you go to like Vegas, I wasn’t there – but the guys were running around and not even getting all the way out of the throttle and they were flying. The thing that you worry about is any sort of failure – right front failure or suspension part or something like that and you are going to careen that wall harder than you ever want to. That’s the thing that us drivers are concerned for, is trying to make sure that we’re as safe as possible. I don’t think you’ll see any difference in a race, you might even see a better race. From us averaging 195 mph versus us averaging 185 mph. I think you’ll see a better race.”
Does the new package put the control back in the driver’s hands and how are you feeling?
“This package is certainly going to bring the drivers and the better cars to the forefront. That’s also what we’ve been looking for. I think you devalue the sport as well as the drivers when you get all the cars so equal and on top of each other that anybody can do it. That’s not at all what this sport was built off of. It’s been built off the heroes of the sport. Let’s keep it that way and allow those better drivers to excel. You’re always going to have separation. You’ve got to maintain that and it would certainly be nice to have week after week you have different winners, but I don’t know that it’s practical to get those lower tier teams to win as often as we’ll see the bigger tier teams do. As far as health, this rules package would have nothing to do with my health. Week to week, driving XFINITY or driving in the Sprint Cup Series for me, I feel pretty good. I’m out there behind the wheel in the car and feel really good and don’t feel any issues. Just getting up and walking around, walking still kind of hurts a little bit. It’s not terrible, it’s definitely tolerable. Each day it continues to get a little bit better here and there. There are some bad days and there’s some good days. Still have to continue some therapy stuff and keep trying to get it better, yet. I saw the doctor last week and asked what can I do, I have to fix this left foot stuff, and he goes, ‘Get the plates out.’ I said, ‘Alright, let’s go.’ He said, ‘You want to sit out for four more weeks, we’ll do it.’ I have to wait until the season is over in order to get my stuff finished to get all the plates taken out.”
How much will the start of the race be on Saturday if practice is limited due to weather?
“A couple guys that I was talking to in the garage area yesterday, we were like are we going to drive off into the corner and just slide out or is it going to stick – what’s going to be the feeling? I was like, ‘I have no idea.’ We definitely would like to get some practice time, but if it all comes down to it where they line us up and we race, that might be the best race of the year just because of the unknown. I tell you what, I thought the Truck race last night was phenomenal. I thought it was a really good race to watch. I thought those guys were out of control, sideways, hanging on, trying to work on it and make their stuff better. You never want to look like that, or be like that as the driver, but as the fan watching it was pretty cool to see. Fun race to watch last night, but we’ll see if that happens for us.”
How far back to 100 percent are you in health?
“When I’m inside the race car, I feel like I’m 100 percent. I feel like I’m fine for the things I have to do and all the abilities that I have to have to drive a car – I feel like I’m at 100 percent. Walking around here, I can’t. They haven’t approved me to go running yet. If you say me being able to go for a run is 100 percent, I’m probably 85.”
What was the most enjoyable aspect of creating the “Days of Thunder” videos?
“There were a lot of them that were really fun. A few of them didn’t make it. We did the scene where I come in and I am checking out the car and the crew chief says, have you ever driven a stock car before and we talk about seeing it on TV or something like that. We did that scene and we also did the end of the movie scene where Cole (Trickle) wins and then he sits with the crew chief on the wall and then they run on pit road to victory lane, we did that scene, too. A couple of my favorite scenes didn’t even make the video. The one that is my favorite that is in the video was doing the go out and hit the pace car one – that was really funny. In the outtakes they only showed me doing it once, it took us 12 times to get through it. It was pretty funny.”
What was your reaction to seeing Ben Kennedy in the catch fence at the end of the NCWTS race Thursday night?
“It seems like – that’s a tough angle for the spotters. The 23 (Spencer Gallagher) wreck, he probably could have given a little more room to those guys on the outside, but he’s also trying to get a good arc in the corner, so that’s just racing there. The incident you’re talking about with (Ben) Kennedy, I think he said the spotter told him clear and he was counting on getting up to get a good arc in the corner, but he wasn’t clear. That’s tough – that certainly sucks for him and his team and tearing up stuff. As far as the catch fence and everything, I’m glad they’re there and I’m glad they’re doing their job keeping the race cars or trucks on the race track. It’s a dangerous sport – we live it every day. Sometime we take it for granted because of all the safety advancements we’ve gotten over the years that we feel invincible, but certainly it’s a rare inopportune times that you can put yourself in a situation to get hurt. We saw it in Daytona with myself and saw it in Daytona again with Austin Dillon and we probably saw it again last night, among other times. Those times just seem to be the most severe or scary crashes we see.”
