NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
QUICKEN LOANS RACE FOR HEROES 500
PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
NOVEMBER 13, 2015
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Phoenix International Raceway and discussed his season thus far, the pressures of the Chase, what he has to do this weekend in order to win and move on to the championship round and many other topics. Full Transcript:
TALK ABOUT THE MOMENTUM YOU HAVE HERE WITH THE STRONG RUNS YOU HAVE HAD IN THE PAST AND WHAT YOU CAN DO TO CARRY THAT INTO A VICTORY AND PUNCH YOUR TICKET TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP FOUR:
“For me I have always enjoyed coming to Phoenix since my childhood. We would come and sit in the grandstands and watch races here in the 80s and 90s. Just the overall feel of the desert Southwest, growing up in Las Vegas you have that feel in the air, the temperature and the way that the asphalt gets really hot and wants to be abrasive to the tires. It’s tough to get a hold of the track and you are sliding all around and it really reminds me of the racing I did as a kid. Maybe that is why Phoenix has been good to me over the years. Just one win, but a lot of good, consistent runs. This is one of those tracks that I look forward to because it’s one of those tracks that you know you can get a top-10 very easily. Now it’s time to parlay that feeling of a good, consistent run into a win. I mean we are in a position where we have to win, it’s what we have to do, and we want a win to move our season into the next race.”
ANYTHING YOU AND HARVICK CAN DO AS A TEAM TO MOVE ON?
“For Kevin, he has his agenda and for us, we have our agenda. The perfect day for Stewart Haas Racing would be for the 41 car to win and for Kevin Harvick to finish second. That would allow both of us to advance to the Championship Round at Homestead. We hope we are in that position. This race here in the spring, Kevin won, and I was running second with about 40 to go. We chose to come in for tires and we didn’t get back up through there and ended up finishing fifth. We were running 1-2 with 50 laps to go in the spring, so I would like to see that happen again.”
ABOUT IF THE CURRENT CHASE FORMAT MAKES YOU FEEL UNSETTLED AND EDGY:
“Everybody feels it, everybody is dealing with it. And it is a matter of who deals with it which way. In years past before this format, consistency was still key. Consistency is key now, but the problem is that you have to get top-fives. You have to win. I mean Brad Keselowski did everything right last week except win. That is what we have to do this week, we have to win. A top-five isn’t going to be good enough. Where a lot of people think we did good last week by finishing seventh, and I was like ‘thank you, but what did it do for us? Absolutely nothing. And so you have to go and win. That is what this format demands you do this time of year. But for us on the No. 41 Haas Automation team, to be a top-eight team and be in this final round, and to have this nice Chase hat on all the way deep into November, feels like a solid accomplishment. Feels like a great season. But there is so much that is right in front of us to go and make this an incredible season. That is to win here on Sunday and to go to Homestead to win next week.”
IS IT NERVE-WRACKING AT ALL?
“It’s nerve-wracking and the way that everybody looks at this is that it’s a challenge. Everybody is feeling the emotions that go through making a championship run.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR CHANCES ARE OF WINNING AND AT WHAT POINT DO YOU GUYS THINK YOU WOULD NEED TO TRY DIFFERENT PIT STRATEGIES IN ORDER TO TRY AND GET A WIN?
“I think our chances are good and we are going to play to the strength of our team. Our set-up is similar to Kevin Harvick’s and he has won five of the last six races. We will mirror the 4 car as much as we need to until we feel like they have left us a gap, or they haven’t quite capitalized on a perfect pit call, and we will make that decision when its crunch time. We are going to go into this as business as usual, but these races are all coming down to how you play your cards around the three-quarter mark to go.”
REGARDING A TOP-FIVE NOT BEING GOOD ENOUGH, DOES THAT CHANGE THE WAY YOU APPROACH THE WEEKENDS?
“It’s an emotional game. Or it’s a challenge to make sure we have had a successful year. To finish seventh on a bad day is nothing to sneeze at. My fiancé’s father plays polo. Its competition and he is a very positive man and he is always patting me on my back when we have a solid run. I am trying to educate him on this Chase program, and this Chase format that a seventh place finish is good but to win it all, we have to win and we have to be in that top tier. Even though our goal at the beginning of the year was to be a top-eight team and to make it to this point of the Chase, Tony Gibson has allowed this whole team to be themselves and to enjoy the success, to enjoy the run but to continue to work hard to get that last little bit that is right there in front of us.”
REGARDING PIT STALL ISSUES AT TEXAS LAST WEEK AND PIT STALL STRATEGY IN PHOENIX THIS WEEKEND:
“We knew our pit stall was doomed last week. We picked it with an opening behind us and then the No. 88 (Dale Earnhardt, Jr.) car had a penalty which meant he had to forfeit his pit road pit selection. So now we hope that NASCAR realizes that when you are penalizing a team for their pit road selection that it affects another team that is an innocent bystander. It makes no sense to penalize people on their pit selection. But we knew it was going to be an issue and we knew the 88 was going to run well and then our pit crew had a couple loose lugs there. I mean normal situations. We didn’t have anything out of the serious normal and it was just business as usual. We knew we were going to get blocked in a few times and we all tried to work around it. What compounded the issue was that the 88 would pit around us, and then the 16 would come around the 88. So anytime that you have three cars that are pulling in, in that order, it’s going to slow up all three teams. Gibson was animated, I was excited, we all wanted to get a better result out of it, but that is part of racing. That is part of working your way out of a full count sometimes.”
WHAT ABOUT THE PHOENIX PIT ROAD?
“For some reason this pit road has more space. I don’t know what, but I think maybe the pit boxes are a little longer. The pit road speed seems to match pit road better. But the way to eliminate pit road issues is to go for pole today and get that first pit box at the end.”
WHAT IS MORE AGONIZING OR MORE PRESSURE. 2004 WHERE THE WHEEL FALLS OFF OR WORRYING ABOUT HAVING TO MAKE THE CHASE AND ADVANCING THROUGH THREE ELIMINATION ROUNDS AND THEN THE CHAMPIONSHIP RACE?
“It’s all part of a championship run. You hope that you are in championship position every year but the way that some years go versus some of the set-ups, you are not going to be at your optimum. There are things that are not going to be quite perfect for your equation to win the championship. This year feels like 2004 for me because of the way that our team has performed. The way the set-ups have worked and the way that we have worked our way through this Chase. It’s all nerve-wracking but it’s all part of a championship run. Anytime you are in the playoffs it changes. And the way that you have to approach these final ten, this year is a little different because it is three races at a time, instead of a ten week run.”
DO YOU HAVE TO ADAPT TO KEVIN HARVICK’S SET-UP WHICH YOU ARE RUNNING THIS WEEKEND? ARE YOU BOTH SIMILAR SET-UP WISE WITH YOUR CAR? IS THE CAR DIFFERENT TO DRIVE WITH KEVIN’S SET-UP?
“They are similar, but the way that the numbers look on paper might be different than the way that one of the car chief’s twists a hind joint or is able to pre-load a shock a little different. There are always little numbers that get lost in translation, but for us we have been very good at sharing information and having things equal across the board. I’m looking forward to the race this weekend on trying to go against a teammate that is the fastest car at this track for a shot at the championship. There couldn’t be a better feeling.”
YOU TALKED ABOUT THE CONSISTENCY ASPECT OF THE CHASE. WOULD IT BE UNREASONABLE FOR NASCAR, THE NEXT TIME THEY MAKE A CHANGE TO THE CHASE, TO ADD A FIFTH DRIVER INTO THE CHAMPIONSHIP BATTLE AT HOMESTEAD THAT HAS SCORED THE MOST POINTS IN THE NINE CHASE RACES?
“I think there are 100 different versions that we can come up with that would create championship eligibility at Homestead. It could be if you win any of the Chase races you have a shot at the championship. That would create a different number each year, but for us, like we were leading Chicago with nine laps to go. If we would have cashed in on a win, if we win the first race do we deserve to be in the 10thrace and have those eight weeks off? No, not really. You still want consistency; you still want to see the strength of the team. Whichever format it is, we are all going to race it to the best of our knowledge and to work around that system to get to the top race, to get to that final race.”
WHAT MAKES KEVIN HARVICK SO GOOD AT THIS TRACK?
“He has a keen sense to find more speed than anybody else. Whether it’s moving up, the groove moves up in (Turns) 1 and 2 or if he’s able to carry more speed through (Turns) 3 and 4, you’ve got to watch him though because it changes. He will find different speed on the track all throughout a tire run. It might be corner entry at the beginning of the run. It might be corner exit at the later part of the run. He is able to find the last little bit out of this track that nobody else has been able to find over the years.”
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