- Toyota driver Kyle Busch took the checkered flag in Saturday afternoon’s NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS) race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
- Today’s win marked the sixth NXS victory for Toyota in 2015 and second for Busch, who also took the checkered flag at Michigan International Speedway in June.
- Busch’s victory was the 104th for Toyota in the NXS since joining the series in 2007 and second for both Toyota and Busch at the historic 2.5-mile speedway.
- The Las Vegas native started from the pole and led a race-high 53 laps (of 100) en route to the victory.
- Camry driver Daniel Suarez (third) also earned a top-five in his career-first start at Indianapolis.
- Five Camry drivers are currently in the top-20 in the unofficial NSCS point standings –Suarez (seventh), JJ Yeley (13th), David Starr (14th), Blake Koch (18th) and Cale Conley (19th).
KYLE BUSCH, No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
How were you able to make the last lap pass on Ryan Blaney?
“I just got close enough to make him (Ryan Blaney) mess up and made him get tight off (turn) two and then I was able to capitalize underneath him with him losing his momentum off of two and being able to get under him. Can’t say enough about Chris Gayle (crew chief) and all these guys on this Monster Energy Camry. It was the class of the field, we should have won this thing going away, but I guess we had to make it exciting. Kyle Busch cautions will always save the XFINITY race. Can’t say enough about Toyota, TRD (Toyota Racing Development), XFINITY and hopefully that was exciting down to the last lap for the fans.”
Have you been this hot during a race recently?
“No and it’s going to be a long recoup tonight. Certainly this is just hot. This drag package all we’re doing is trying to get all the drag built out of the cars now and we have no driver cooling or anything like that. It’s hot.”
How good does it feel to be a two-time winner at the Brickyard in XFINITY competition?
“I appreciate it – it doesn’t feel good for me right now, but it feels good to be in victory lane. Just a great race car. This Monster Energy Camry was awesome today. The guys gave me a great piece – Chris Gayle (crew chief) and everybody did a really good job for me. Can’t say enough about Toyota, Monster Energy, TRD and the fans, Joe Gibbs Racing engines and XFINITY. It was certainly not the kind of end to the race that I was expecting to have, but them Kyle Busch cautions will make that. It certainly I guess put on a better show, I don’t know. It seemed like the best car all day. Really, really had a hard time passing the guy that was leading the race and that’s just not right. I just got tight there that last run and fortunately I was able to get close enough to (Ryan) Blaney to push him a little bit harder to make him into a mistake and he did that off of two and I was able to get by him. Hopefully that was a good race. It was frustrating from my seat, that’s for sure.”
Were you trying to save your equipment towards the end of the race by backing up from Blaney?
“I was trying to back up so I could get some clean air and keep my tires as fresh as possible, but I got too far back and got out of the draft and then I couldn’t make up any ground anymore so I was kind of stuck back there about eight or 10 car lengths and not really going anywhere. Fortunately, a couple lapped cars messed up his (Ryan Blaney) momentum and didn’t mess up mine as much and I was able to get through there. Once I got back close enough to him, I pushed him into a mistake and that was all that it took.”
What does it mean to have your son here to kiss the bricks in Indianapolis?
“He’s (Brexton Busch) either a good luck charm or he just really likes going to victory lane because he’s certainly been to a lot of them in the last few weeks so really pumped about that. Just a great effort by our team and our whole organization, but to have the family there with my wife, Samantha and my son was really cool. I’m not so sure he knows exactly what kissing the bricks is all about, but he was certainly out there and taking it all in for what it’s worth today.”
How exciting is it to win a race with a last lap pass?
“It’s cool and it’s great and all, it made for an exciting last lap. We never should have been in that position to begin with, that’s what’s frustrating for me. You just have to race these things out and let these things play out like they do sometimes whether it goes green or you have those cautions. We just did our best today at being able to maximize what we had at every given point. If it wasn’t for a mistake by the car in front of us we would have lost today. That would have just been defeating for Chris (Gayle, crew chief) and these guys. We knew how good our car was.”
What was much of your frustration from on the radio?
“I was frustrated just from the yellow or from the onset of that yellow, I never saw anything on the race track. As we kept going this package that was supposed to promote drafting and everything, it just wasn’t working right. It was kind of frustrating in that regard and then when you got to the corner the wake was bigger than what we all had anticipated. I felt like last year it was a little easier to maintain to the car in front of you. What happened down the straightaways was probably okay, but it just wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough to make a difference. We powered through what this package was and the guys at the shop and the guys here did a really good job preparing for it. Besides that, it was hot out there and these cars are so hot because with the high drag, now we’re doing everything we can to cut drag. We put solid windows in on the right side, we had no openings. The only opening we had was we suck a little air behind the headrest out through the driver’s net and that’s the only air that was coming inside the car for the cool box and for the seat and everything. I just got melted. Just really, really hot and that’s about it.”
How are you feeling and are you recovering at all yet?
“It’s certainly going to take some time to get better yet. I’m still warm, I’m not even cool in here (media center) yet and I’m soaking wet. I just have to get dry and get some fluids in me tonight and take it easy and get ready for tomorrow.”
How will you adjust the cooling in the car for tomorrow’s race?
“I don’t know, I know tomorrow I think we have a couple nacas (duct) open already. Unfortunately, we’re just going to have to worry about driver cooling and take a penalty probably on speed if some of those other cars aren’t going to take that penalty and have openings in their windows. We’ll see what happens, but there’s going to be some things that we’re going to want to do for traffic also that we can help and try to not make the car so sensitive in traffic. We’ll be utilizing those tools also.”
CHRIS GAYLE, crew chief, No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
What did you need to adjust on the car to get it this strong?
“Actually we’ve had a good car all weekend. We really changed nothing from yesterday, but we did do a lot of work the previous two weeks. Indy is a big race for us so there was a lot of work knowing that this new package was coming about and we spent time devoted to trying to make it better. Just reduce drag, pickup downforce – all the things that NASCAR kind of was trying to not do with this package so we just tried to optimize that and unloaded a little too tight. Worked on it for probably three or four runs and then we were pretty close. We kind of just tweaked on it from there and we actually stopped practice early, which doesn’t happen often because Kyle (Busch) was just happy with the balance of the car.”
Is there anything that can be done to help the air flow into the car with this package?
“NASCAR needs to mandate some way that they can take air from the outside for the AC units and things like that so it’s even for everybody – that would help a little.”
DANIEL SUAREZ, No. 18 ARRIS Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 3rd
How strong was the race car today?
“It was an amazing weekend for everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing. First of all I want to congratulate my teammate and good friend Kyle (Busch). He’s been doing amazing and I’ve been learning a lot from him. I think thanks to that, we are where we are right now. We have to keep working, keep learning and I’m pretty sure we’re going to get our checkered flag soon.”
How was your first race at Indianapolis?
“It was good. Excited and even more excited to be running in the front. Everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing did an amazing job. Our Toyota Camry No. 18 ARRIS Juniper Telcel was a strong one. We’ve been strong every single weekend. I’m very proud of the team.”
How was your race?
“First, I want to thank everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing. They do an amazing job. Man, our race car has been fast every single weekend. That’s very good. We keep doing that, our racing is going to come for sure. I’d like to thank everyone in the Toyota Camry Arris Telcel 18. I feel like we did a pretty good job at this race track for some reason – I like it. Yesterday was my first time ever here. For some reason I feel very good since this is my first time. Overall it was pretty solid.”
How have you been able to adapt and run so well in your first season?
“Well, I think the biggest part is it came from Joe Gibbs Racing because they keep me doing the right things. It’s a lot of work out of the race track as well and I feel like that has been helping us a lot. This first part of the season, it’s been race tracks where it’s been my first time ever and all we can do is prepare as much as we can away from the race track at the shop with information from my teammates. Kyle (Busch) has been super helpful, he’s been helping me a lot and I think that’s pretty much it. That’s how we’ve been getting better and better. I’m really looking forward to the second part of the season because I feel like we have been learning a lot and the second half we will have a lot of information to use for the second half.”
What was your race strategy?
“My Toyota was really good on short runs and up to 20, 25 laps it was really strong, maybe the strongest. In the very long run, it wasn’t that great for some reason. It was good, but it wasn’t super-fast. I felt like at the beginning I could do everything and in clean air it was running really good – I could stay there the whole race. It’s what it is. I feel like we learned information that will be helpful for next time.”
Was passing easy in the race?
“No, not really. It’s hard to pass, very hard to pass. These cars are very aero dependent, so when you have clean air, you are very fast and the handle of the car is great, but as soon as you get in traffic or behind somebody, you are behind. That actually happened with the 22 (Ryan Blaney) and myself. I felt like I was faster than him for some time and when I got close to him, I wasn’t able to do anything. When we got to traffic or something else happened and I was able to make a pass. It was hard to pass. On restarts everyone tried to find track positions and it was very crazy. At one point we were 10th or something and it was wild. Overall it was good and we ended up in a good position with our race car.”
What does it mean to be part of the Dash4Cash program and compete at Bristol?
“It’s great, it’s good. We’re very grateful to be a part of this experience with NASCAR. Very happy because the next race for the Dash4Cash is in Bristol and I really like that place a lot. My first time (at Bristol) in the series, we came just a little bit short of second-place. I’m really looking forward to that race to go back to Bristol. I’m very happy with XFINITY for providing this program for the drivers who race all season long in the series.”
Has your family been to any other races besides this weekend?
“Kentucky was (my family’s) first race. They went to New Hampshire and then they came here and they are going to go back to Mexico now. They shouldn’t go because we have been very strong since they arrived. They have been having a lot of fun all together. It was a very good experience for them. Their first race here in the states was Kentucky, they were with me at a lot of races in Mexico, but that was the first one in the states. They told me yesterday they really like this place. We’ll see if we can bring them again.”
How hot was it in the car today?
“It wasn’t hot (laughter), it was really hot. I got out of the car it was hot as well, but in the car it was pretty hot. I thought we had systems to cool down myself, but I don’t think they were helping at all. It was hot, but when you’re focused and you’re trying to win, you forget everything. Everything starts coming around when you’re running slow, but as for your question, yes it was hot.”
Are you looking forward to racing at Iowa next weekend?
“Actually we ran pretty good at Iowa last time, we led a bunch of laps and were strong. I just feel like we weren’t that good on the second-half of the race, but we led a lot of laps and gathered a lot of information for our race shop. I’m excited to come back, I feel like we can finally get our win.”
JJ YELEY, No. 28 Texas 28 Spirits Stage Toyota Camry, JGL Racing
Finishing Position: 18th
CALE CONLEY, No. 14 IAVA Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position: 21st
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TIMMY HILL, No. 26 JGL Racing Toyota Camry, JGL Racing
Finishing Position: 27th
ERIC MCCLURE, No. 24 Reynolds Wrap Toyota Camry, JBL Racing
Finishing Position: 29th
ERIK JONES, No. 20 Game Stop Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 34th
What happened on the race track?
“I just lost it. That happens sometimes. That’s just the manifestation of the package of the car we had today, just not enough speed and I was trying to get too much out of it. It’s going to happen. It’s unfortunate we couldn’t end our day well, just didn’t have the speed those guys had up front. We’ll keep building and bring something better back next time.”
DAVID STARR, No. 44 Zachry Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position: 36th
BLAKE KOCH, No. 8 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position: 37th
JEFF GREEN, No. 19 Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Finishing Position: 40th
