Toyota Racing – Kyle Busch
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Kansas Speedway – May 11, 2017
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kyle Busch was available to the media following a charity event at Kansas Speedway:
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Red Nose Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Talk about the event here today where you helped fill Women’s Hope Kits in partnership with WorldVision for local women’s shelters.
“It’s just a great opportunity for us to kind of all get together as a Toyota community to be able to help and give back to the community – the local community here in Kansas. For five women’s shelters we’re able to pack some boxes and some bags and to be able to give them kind of a gift kit if you will, for Mother’s Day weekend. It’s a happy Mother’s Day for everybody, so we just want to say thanks to WorldVision and of course all the women’s health kits here that we’re able to put together and to be able to pack those for them.”
How important is it to give back to the community?
“It’s always important. Any chance you’re in the position that you’re in, you feel grateful and everything else, but you also have a sense of dedication to be able to give back to those that are less fortunate than you, so you try to give that opportunity to them when you’re available and you can do those sorts of things. And here having an open day on Thursday here in Kansas, it gives us that great chance to mingle with friends but also to do something great for the community and help out.”
Does Mother’s Day take on a different meaning now that you have children of your own?
“Yeah, I mean certainly it does. When you’re a kid growing up or you become a 25 year old or 30 year old, you know, Mother’s Day is still important. You still want to spend it with your family, with your mother especially, and make a special day for her. But more importantly when you do become a father and you have a wife and she’s the mother, then you want to make her day extra special. You know this is going to be her second Mother’s Day, so it’s going to be fun for us to have that opportunity and looking forward to being able to get home on Sunday and have a fun time being able to celebrate that with the grandparents as well too.
Talk about this weekend at Kansas Speedway and your expectations on the track.
“It’s always good to come here in Kansas. You know the crowd, the reception, the race track, the community has really built up around the race track here over the last 10 – 10 years or so. It’s been a lot of fun to see all that happen and I’m looking forward to the race. It’s been a great race track for us lately. We’ve had some good runs here the last few times. We’ve kind of seemed to maybe have figured out this place a little bit better. And you know looking forward to the opportunity of being able to go out here and hopefully get ourselves with our M&M’s Camry in victory lane and to do what we did last year and help celebrate Red Nose Day which is coming up in a few weeks as well too for NBC.
Are you looking forward to racing at Kansas more now that you’ve won here?
“I am. Also, it was – even the last few times before we won here last year, that we’ve had some really strong runs here. We finished in the top five, I think six of the last seven or eight races that we’ve had here. We’ve seem to have gotten a setup or a hold of this place I’d say and hopefully we don’t screw that up this time around and we can continue our strong runs and our fast pace of being able to have a shot to win.”
What do you think of stage racing?
“I think it’s certainly interesting. I don’t think there’s been a lap more talked about this season than lap 160 or whatever it was at Martinsville (Speedway), when I got knocked out of the lead by a lap car for a Chase spot or for a point for the playoffs. Overall, it’s just been a different form of racing let’s say. There’s some opportunities there that present themselves that haven’t in the past and it lends itself to – just more opportunities of having moments that are a little bit more exciting throughout a race and not having it just kind of linger on until the end and having just that checkered flag be the most important part.
Is it easier for the young drivers to adjust to stage racing, especially for those who come from the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series or XFINITY Series where shorter races are run?
“I don’t know. I don’t know exactly what it is or why, if that’s the case, as to why it seems like the younger guys have developed more points than some of the veteran guys. We haven’t quite been up front the way we need to be throughout the Chase sections, segments, whatever you want to call them, and we’ve kind of missed the opportunity to get those points that we need. I’m looking forward though to having fast cars throughout entire races, not having pit road speeding penalties or issues that kind of knock us back and have to – we got to fight our way back to the front from those. We did that at Richmond (International Raceway). We had a penalty, we got back in the field, we came back up to the front and then we had another penalty kind of put us in the back. It’s just all around. There’s comers and goers throughout these races, but it’s more important obviously to stay up front through the entire event.”
You had a strong run at Talladega, does that give you confidence heading into this weekend to run well and say ‘hey, that one win was stolen from me’?
“No, no, no, no. Not at all. It’s just circumstances just didn’t lend themselves to us. We just weren’t in the right place at the right time I guess. I thought we were. Circumstances just kind of don’t go your way and you don’t win these things sometimes. Overall though, we’ve probably legitimately had a shot to have won at least five races this year in my mind. We’ve been in position or have had an opportunity to win five different times this year and we just haven’t been able to close the deal. That’s the most frustrating part for us is we just haven’t been able to get to victory lane yet, but we know we’re on the brink of it. We know we have fast cars. We know we’re up front and we just got to put it all together.”
Do you like that there are fewer night races this season?
“No. I really enjoy night racing. I think night racing is one of the more fun times of the season. The cars just seem faster at night. The tracks just seem faster. The action seems a little bit better sometimes. But also day races, when it’s hot and it’s slick and you get to move around all over the place, those are really good events as well too. I like running the night races. I’m excited about Kansas being a night race and then Charlotte (Motor Speedway) being a night race going into the 600 (MENCS race). It’s such a long race – starts at day, ends at night. You get two of the best worlds in that one.”
How much does the race track at Kansas change from the night race in the spring to the day race in the fall?
“For me it behaved a lot different last year. The night race it just seemed like you had grip the entire run. You could really abuse the car and abuse the tires and everything just kind of stayed with you. But then in the fall race when it was sunny and warmer out, you really had to take care of your tires and kind of keep the heat out of them so you weren’t sliding around as much and then falling back on the longer run.”
