Toyota Racing – Kyle Busch
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
New Hampshire Motor Speedway – July 14, 2017
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kyle Busch was made available to the media at New Hampshire Motor Speedway:
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Why is this track so difficult for one team to dominate like you see at other facilities?
“I think it’s challenging just because the effect of traffic and sometimes not being able to get through traffic as well as you want to and being challenging with the aspect of being able to pass here. You know, there are some times where the guys that do have really, really fast race cars can pass and get through traffic okay and get back to the front, but that doesn’t seem to happen year after year. It’s not like you can just shelf a car and put it to the side and say, ‘That’s our Loudon car. We’re going to bring that thing back,’ and it just doesn’t quite work that way. You know, the things change around here with tires and the way you get around here, the bumps change and the character of the race track changes, so what one guy set up four years ago might be good four years from now and that’s an eight-year span or vice versa it just might be that you were good here two years ago and you’ve kind of lost what you had that was good because the track has changed on you.”
Is it gratifying to find a guy like Erik Jones and help mentor him along to become your teammate?
“Yeah, I think that the Erik Jones story is certainly rewarding. I think it lends itself to us racing against each other in the super late model ranks back in 2011 or ’12 or whichever year it was. I raced against him at the opening race of the year in January and then at the end of the year that year in December at the Snowball Derby and, you know, it was certainly I guess a home welcoming to NASCAR for him and being able to have him beat me in that race, but overall he’s done a great job with what he’s been given and being able to put him in the right places with the right people and having him come through the Kyle Busch Motorsports Truck program on to the XFINITY program at Joe Gibbs Racing and then into the Cup program. That’s how you see those feeder programs work, but it’s not that you’re going to have those feeder programs working year after year because there’s not enough seats, you know? You can’t have – I did have Erik, I have had Daniel (Suárez) come through our place as well too, but if you look at it now, that’s me, Denny (Hamlin), Daniel and Erik, so either myself or Denny are the next two out if I continue to feed them through KBM (Kyle Busch Motorsports) as quickly as I have been, so we’re watching our backs. That’s for sure. But overall it’s been a neat experience. It’s been a fun experience and having Erik do as well as he’s done is rewarding for me, for us at KBM in being able to see him succeed.”
How was last night’s Late Model race at Thunder Road?
“Yeah, it kind of came together really quickly. It was about six, seven, eight days ago that my buddy from up here called me and said, ‘Hey, the guys at the race track want to know if you’re interested,’ and I said, ‘Okay, well, sure. What kind of car? What are we racing,’ and all that stuff and it wasn’t necessarily my favorite thing to come race in the ACT (American Canadian Tour) car, but it was fine and I just thought I’d give it a shot. I’d never been to Thunder Road. I had to talk the wife(Samantha Busch) into doing it and finding something for her and Brexton (son) to do while we were up here, so we got all that taken care of and went over there and got used to the race track kind of early. Man, we started so far off with the race car and then came to where we were pretty good, pretty decent and thought we actually had a shot to win. I blistered a right rear tire in 21 laps of the race and ended up spinning out. Went back, got a practice tire put on to replace it, came back, got all the way back up to third I think it was and then my crew chief decided, ‘Hey, we better pit and put on our tires for the end. Otherwise we’re going to get run over,’ and I was like, ‘I got the track position now. I don’t want to have to go back there again,’ but, anyways, I listened to him and went back in traffic and worked our way back up through and I think we got up to as high as five or sixth and then on a restart – I have no idea what the guy next to me was doing – but he just flat out drove right through me, put me in the frontstretch wall, which made me climb the wall and – ‘cause the wall’s off camber to the race track – so I climbed the wall and then got off the wall, spun around and everybody else missed me that was behind me in the field, but after that everything was knocked out of place with the car. The steering wheel wasn’t right – it didn’t feel right – and so it just – we were done for the night. You know, may have an opportunity to come back. We’ll see. We’ll see what the race track wants to do and, you know, what will happen next year. It was certainly fun. I enjoyed it all until I got ran over, so thought I had a shot to win being where I was. I was actually – the guy that ended up winning the race, he was ahead of me when we came out of the pits on that tire cycle and I passed him through that run and then was ahead of him when I got taken out there, so he ended up winning the race. I thought I had a shot, so maybe next time.”
How do you feel going into Indianapolis with this rules package and stage racing?
“Yeah, it’s going to be interesting, you know? I look forward to Indianapolis every year now. We’ve certainly picked up on something the last couple of years that has made us really good there and we’ve been fast over the years, but it’s just the last two years have been really good for us. Certainly hope that we can take the same powerful equipment and car and everything and have a good shot at being able to win that race. We would certainly like to get it three in a row. That would be nice. That would be special. That would be something unprecedented no one’s ever done, so I look forward to that and seeing what this new aero package at Indy has in store for us.”
Is there something you’ve figured out there or have you just run well there?
“I think it’s a little bit of both. I think I figured a little bit of something out, but I also think that me figuring something out has helped us be able to develop our car better too, you know? Like setup-wise, I know what I need within the car now that makes you faster at Indy than at what I had been running in the past.”
Do you think Matt Kenseth will continue to run in the Cup Series?
“Yeah, I mean certainly – I said last week, you know, Matt (Kenseth) and I have had a great relationship since we’ve been in this sport. Knock on wood, we’ve never had any issues with one another. We’ve never gotten into it, so I hope to keep it that way. You know, he’s been a fantastic teammate. Denny (Hamlin) and I actually courted him when we knew Joey (Logano) was leaving and so we wanted some experience in there. We wanted somebody we knew would be capable of contending with us and racing for championships and so, you know, it was cool that we could have him join us. It’s unfortunate that we’re at a cap and we can’t continue to grow the organization at Joe Gibbs Racing, but it’s tough to see Matt step aside and not be able to race with us any longer. As far as where he goes from here, I have no clue. Literally, I try to pay as little of attention to silly season as I possibly can as long as it doesn’t endure me, so I certainly hope and would like to think that Matt Kenseth can find a ride because I think he’s got another whatever he wants to race in him in him and I’m sure that he believes that’s probably another three years or so at least and so if he can find that, man, than I’d love to still have him out there and race against him every Sunday.”
Were the drivers hoping for the two VHT stripes that appear to have developed?
“I think what they were just trying to do is we always run that one lane here, which I call it the middle lane, you know? And so they were just trying to widen the race track a little bit and give a little bit more opportunity for us to be able to run side by side and not just feel like we’re crashing here all the time or running into each other on restarts and whatnot. I don’t know. Until I get out there and feel it out, we’ll see how it goes, but it was discussed through the Driver Council and I like it when they do that instead of just spurring it on all of us when we get to the tracks so then if it doesn’t work then it’s just their bad idea, but at least if it’s the Council’s involved then it’s all of our bad idea, so as of right now, we’ll just have to wait and see until we get out there.”
What’s your assessment of Noah Gragson’s season?
“I think Noah’s (Gragson) progressed well, you know? It certainly started out shaky and rough, you know, at Atlanta and we had a practice spin at Charlotte and Kansas – can’t remember what happened, I think he was just kind of a little bit off the pace at Kansas – but he’s really good at the short tracks. Martinsville was good. Iowa was good. Gateway was okay – they had to start in the back because we had an issue under the hood that was our fault – but last week was probably the most impressive to me at Kentucky. No one informed him of the drainage grate, so he went four wheeling through the infield there for a lap and spun, but we chalked that off as another race that Noah spun in, but at least he was able to recover, you know? He brought it back to a solid, top-five finish, so couldn’t be more impressed with that and all of that – bad things – that all happened in the final segment, so he didn’t have much time to make it all back up, but he did, so that showed progress in what him and that team is capable of, so hopefully we can continue that on. This is the second half of the year now – not you’ve really got to show what you’re made of and win a couple times and get him ready for a championship season next year.”
Is it frustrating that your team is fighting to get to the level of Martin Truex Jr. this year?
“Yes, it certainly is. Each week, we go to the race track hoping that we have prepared the best possible car we can, that it is the number one car, that it is going to be half a second faster than the field, but in all reality when you get out there and you get to the race track, you know, you’re temptations kind of get slapped in the face a little bit, you know? So we’ve just got to mind our own business and do what we’re doing and hopefully we can continue to evolve and get better. I feel like our setups are really close. The thing that’s most frustrating is when your car balance is okay, but your speed is off, you know? So when your car balance feels good and you don’t have any speed, there’s nothing you can do to fix it, but when your speed is there and your car balance is off the you have something you can fix to make your car faster and then you have a chance. We’re kind of on the first end of the spectrum right now where the cars are driving pretty good – it’s just that’s as fast as I can make it go. It won’t go any faster, so we’re just limited a little bit and we’ve just got to continue to work on speed and see what we’re missing and obviously it’s the biggest question of the universe right now probably which is why the 78 is outperforming the house cars, so we’re just as confused and disgruntled by it as probably others.”
Do you have a theory why Martin Truex Jr. is faster?
“I don’t not have a theory. I wish I had a theory. I’ve had probably 10 theories since they’ve joined us and none of them are true, so I’m done with theories.”
Would you like to see the four-team cap at the Cup level reassessed?
“Yes and no. It’s hard to reassess that because if we continue to grow to five or to six then that means you’re probably taking away from the other teams that are lower in the stable, so it’s a double-edged sword, you know? Obviously, you want to have more good teams out there – that’s going to elevate the sport, it’s going to make the sport stronger and tougher – but you’re not going to have as many new owners coming in because they just feel defeated before they even get started, so that’s kind of where you’re at and where the balancing act has to take place, so that’s in NASCAR’s hands.”
Do you plan to ever take Kyle Busch Motorsports to the Cup level?
“Yeah, no. No. The simple answer is no. The long answer is just because there is no competing with the structure that these teams have that have had it for 20 years, you know? It’s people. I’m not going to start up an organization and be able to hire the best of the best people without just outspending everybody else and obviously without huge sponsors which are hard to come by – it’s hard to find small sponsors these days – so it’s just I don’t see it feasible at this day in age.”
