KURT BUSCH PRESS CONFERENCE
KURT BUSCH – No. 41 Monster Energy/Haas Automation Ford Fusion – YOU’VE PICKED IT UP THE LAST THREE RACES. WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN WORKING ON WITH TONY GIBSON? “Nothing particular other than the research we’ve done through the different races that are comparable to the tracks that we’ve just run on, and in all honesty, you have an off week, there’s a reset and now there are 12 weeks to run out the end of the season. I said, ‘Why are we saving anything? If we are saving anything, why are we saving it? Let’s just go now.’ A lot of times you go to Chicago and you pour all the extra wind tunnel notes that you’ve learned into it, the engine department usually has an upgrade. I just flat-out asked going into the off week, ‘Can we go to the Southern 500 with everything we’ve got?’ And there wasn’t any objections and it’s been nice. Everybody really jumped in to give more. Yeah, for these 26 races we’re pushing hard and giving it our all, but these last 10 weeks, these last 12 weeks let’s go after it even more and that’s the Playoff intensity that I want my guys to understand and to enjoy it as well. So we had two races – Darlington and Richmond – right before the Playoffs and I said, ‘Let’s just go with everything and be loose, let’s have fun, and that way we can go to Chicago already knowing what we’re supposed to do to get the job done.’”
WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER ABOUT WINNING THE TITLE IN 2004? “Having the plan beforehand and executing it, and it went perfect nine out of the 10 weeks there. The only week that didn’t go smooth was the engine failure in Atlanta, but a plan was put together months in advance. That’s how you get ahead to be able to bring more energy and more to the track is that your preparations are done months in advance, so we looked at things around July 1 on where we were this year and what we really needed to pour into the car, and I would say that our August and September went really well after changing things around in July.”
ANYTHING ABOUT THE FINAL RACE IN HOMESTEAD IN ’04? “The biggest things from the final race the year I won the championship was 60 laps to go our crew chief Jimmy Fennig said he didn’t want to pit because we couldn’t make it on fuel. We could go about 55 laps on fuel then. I’m looking at the 24 and the 48. They’re just ahead of me and if they pit, I’m pitting because it means we’re all gonna make it to the end on gas together or we’re all gonna run out together. You race the cars around you, not necessarily the race itself. So there’s that added element that you have to adjust to to be a champion in this sport, so that’s the biggest thing that stood out. We ended up making it. There were a couple extra yellows and that helped us all race our way back up to the top-five together. Johnson finished second. I think Gordon was third and I was fifth and I had just enough points in the bank to be able to win the championship.”
WHAT DOES YOUR RESEARCH SAY ABOUT CHICAGOLAND? “We were able to test there a few weeks ago, but Chicago is a worn-out mile-and-a-half track. The track went really well for us, but you compare it to similar tracks like Darlington. I know Darlington isn’t a mile-and-a-half, but it’s fast. It has worn-out asphalt. Now that we have more notes on the stage racing and how points are accumulated, that’s what I’m talking about how you apply things as you learn them. This is the first year for all these bonus points going with you through the Playoffs. Atlanta is a sister track and then Homestead is a sister track to Chicago, so all of the worn-out mile-and-a-halves are the way you prepare for Chicago.”
HOW DO YOU PREPARE FOR THE FINAL 10? “Each individually. You have to go after one really hard in each round to go for that win, but yet consistency will still allow you to advance through these different stages in the Playoffs. So with Chicago, I think that’s the most important one. If you win there, you can win at Charlotte. It’s a fast mile-and-a-half with high grip, but that’s that first race in that round and then you go to Martinsville. That’s the most important race, I think, in the final 10 other than Homestead if you want to win the championship is getting through Martinsville clean and if you win there, you get a free ride to Homestead.”
ANYTHING DIFFERENT PAST THIS YEAR? “I feel like this is my chance to be the best leader that I can be and to project the image to all of my crew members, to my crew chief, to Stewart-Haas, to Ford, Monster Energy, to Haas Automation, everybody that’s a part of this 41 team, it’s my job to show them – and I’ve done that since the break – on we’re going there to win, we’re going there to execute as a team, and we’re gonna get all we can out of this Playoff run knowing that there are some variables still out there as far as my contract and where the sponsorship will all line up. It’s a matter of just focusing on the task at hand and that’s each practice, each qualifying session and each race.”
DO YOU APPROACH THIS AS THOUGH IT COULD BE YOUR LAST CHANCE AT A CHAMPIONSHIP? “I feel like there are plenty more opportunities for championships to happen, but with the unknown you have to utilize the present and it’s not looking at the past, it’s not looking at the future, it’s living in the present.”
HOW DO YOU KEEP THE CONTRACT DISTRACTION FROM AFFECTING YOU AND THE TEAM? “You hire good people, and I have a great staff around me with my agency and the trust that I have I people that work for Ford Motor Company, people that work for Haas Automation and the people that work for Monster Energy. It’s having the trust I them and the right people around you in a situation like this.”
IS AN ANNOUNCEMENT COMING SOON? “There will be. As soon as I have more or it’s complete, then there will be more updates.”
HAVE YOU SOLVED THE BALANCE ISSUE WITH YOUR CAR? “I feel like there is still more to learn and more to apply, but I felt like when we were making changes this past month we would gain grip in the front of the car and the rear of the car, where we were trading it back and forth most of the summer. When you’re finding grip in one spot and losing it in another, you didn’t really affect your overall lap time or the strength of the car or the feel of the car. I think now we’re finding things that are helping it gain grip in both ends and the next step is being able to do it for short run speed and long run speed. We see guys like Truex that seems to be better on long run speed, but Larson is better on short run. I would call us, on a scale of 1-10, an eight on long run speed, but a six on short run speed. We need to be better there so that way we’re prepared for green-white-checkers or extra yellows at the end of the races.”
IS EXPERIENCE A FACTOR IN THE PLAYOFFS? “You can’t replace experience. It helps and I’m glad I’ve got that in my back pocket each time I fire up the car. I won a championship at a really young age and it surprised the NASCAR world. It surprised myself, but it was executed with great leadership from Jimmy Fennig, my team at Roush Racing and having basically the key ingredient is raw speed. Raw speed is what this new format is built around and if you have raw speed through the regular season, now you have bonus points that carry with you all throughout the Playoffs. So guys like Truex are gonna be tough. Larson is next. You have Johnson, my little brother, Keselowski, they’re in that group. We’ve been running well as of late, qualifying good and finishing good, and each time I look at the scoring pylon there are a few Toyotas ahead of us. There’s a bunch of different ways to skin this cat, and yet, the new kids if they just have that raw speed, and we saw that in Daniel Suarez last year in Miami. I’m like, ‘Where did the 19 car come from?’ And he got the job done and now look at him, he’s got a Cup ride. So you never know what’s gonna happen.”
IS ANYTHING AT SHR A DISTRACTION NOW? “I’m smart enough now to see how it all adds up and how different parts of the program have to come together to make it a successful operation. And Stewart-Haas Racing is doing the work they need to do and, for me, I know my job is to be entrenched with Tony Gibson, Johnny Klausmeier, my pit guys and just the overall health and well-being of the 41 car.”
DO YOU HAVE A LEG UP BY BRINGING YOUR NEWEST STUFF TO DARLINGTON AS OPPOSED TO CHICAGO? “It could be going two ways. Everybody shows up with their stuff at Chicago and we’ve already brought all our stuff and now are we gonna be behind? But these last couple of years it’s like we save everything for Chicago and then we run the same position. It’s as if we should have brought this stuff sooner and gathered better momentum, better finishes and had more opportunities to win races. Worst-case scenario is you get eliminated after this first round so what did you do? You spent 25 races prepping for three? No way. I want to go to try win every week and in this game it’s tough. I hope that we’ve made all the right moves because there’s a game within a game, and I hope we’ve made all the right moves and now we can go to Chicago knowing that we’ve got our stuff and it should be comparable to when everybody brings their stuff.”
ARE YOU A BACON FAN? “I’m a bacon fan, yes. I like mine slightly underdone and not too crispy.”
WHAT HAS DANICA MEANT TO THE SPORT? “She’s meant a tremendous amount to everybody – to have pioneered the way for many women to look at our sport and that you can have the chance to be competitive. She did that in Indy Car and she’s done that everywhere she’s been. I see more female racers around our country and around the world for that matter interested in racing. She paved the way. She’s a true pioneer in this day and age of social media and the power of media recognizing that she’s moving the needle even though she wasn’t running consistently up front. She was a very professional teammate and always willing to learn. She maybe had a bit too many rookie mistakes that lingered into the middle part of her career, but we always wanted her to finish the races stronger and to be able to get in there and get those door donuts and get the fenders crinkled up and still come back with a good finish. Some of that isn’t just being a female, it’s that open-wheel mentality that’s tough to bridge out of and all of our group right now you’re seeing a ton of talented young kids or even the veterans that have all come up through late model racing, spent a ton of time in trucks, XFINITY and know the stock cars in and out. So she had two variables going against her, but she did a tremendous job. I was hoping to see her continue on, but that won’t be the case.”
DO YOU FEEL SHE BELONGS IN THE HALL OF FAME? “I believe so. She’s too powerful and too hard to ignore on what she did outside of the car. There’s many women that are in the hall of fame in the NHRA world, I don’t see why she wouldn’t be in the hall of fame here in the NASCAR world.”
WOULD IT BE A BIG DEAL TO GO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP FOR FORD? “I don’t have any problems finding motivation to win this year. It came from the off season switch to Ford, Monster announcing they were gonna be the entitlement sponsorship. I felt like Daytona this year was gonna happen and it did, and I’m trying to channel those same thoughts, theories, practices and the mindset to go through these next 10 weeks the same way that I went through those 10 days down in Daytona. It would be a fantastic victory for SHR, for Ford, for Haas Automation, for Monster Energy, for everybody. That trophy I can see over your shoulder is beautiful and I want to have my name on it first, just like I had the first Nextel Cup.”
IT WOULD BE A GOOD YEAR FOR SURE. “I was done after winning Daytona. I got married. Steven Tyler was at my wedding. I was nailing it in January and February.”
DO YOU HAVE A GAME PLAN FOR WRIGLEYVILLE? “I don’t think I’ll be able to make it to a game this time around. I’ve got a bunch of buddies in town that came in for games and for the race, but our focus is on the car. It’s on these 10 weeks and we need to be in contention all the way to Homestead. That’s my goal. The Cubbies can be second this year because they won the World Series last year.”
RYAN BLANEY PRESS CONFERENCE
RYAN BLANEY – No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion – DO YOU HAVE A GAME PLAN FOR THE PLAYOFFS? “I really don’t have a huge game plan. My team and I sat down this week and we talked about things. What differences you’re gonna do or what the game plan is and I think the best thing you can do is just race like you have all year. The intensity level does rise when you get into the Playoffs, and there’s a lot more take than there is give, especially based on the regular season, but I don’t think we change our mindset up too much. It’s just racing at the end of the day. It’s the same thing we’ve been doing for 25 weeks and I think if you change it last minute, that can throw everybody for a loop. I think our team is working really great together right now. They’re doing a really great job of communicating and I feel like our cars are getting back to where they need to be to run well, so hopefully we can apply that for the final 10 here. That would be pretty neat.”
DO YOU FEEL THERE IS AN UNDERDOG VIBE WITH YOU AND YOUR TEAM? “Yeah, I feel like there’s an underdog vibe, especially with us three (Stenhouse and Dillon). I know our team, for sure, has been called an underdog, dark horse, all that stuff, and that’s great. Our team doesn’t have as many wins as some other cars. There are other teams that have been really strong this year. There are three that I can think of that have really shown up and kind of dominated the regular season, and I think if we just clean up some stuff on our end, we can be right up there with them too and just find a little bit of performance, but I don’t really mind being called an underdog or dark horse and anything like that. That means if you exceed expectations you kind of know that it’s even that much cooler and better when you can do that. I don’t mind being called that, but I do think we are viewed as that.”
DO YOU FEEL THERE IS LESS PRESSURE ON YOU? “I don’t really feel any pressure and I don’t think that comes as being called an underdog or anything like that. If we won eight races throughout the normal season, and we’re going into the Playoffs, I still wouldn’t really feel any pressure. I don’t think it would be any different. It’s just a great opportunity and really excited to be a part of the Playoffs with the Wood Brothers. It’s my first Playoffs. It’s the Wood Brothers’ very first time. There are a lot of members on my team that it’s their first time ever competing for a championship, so we’re all just really excited. I don’t think there are any nerves just because we don’t know what to expect. If we can have the mindset that it’s just racing, because that’s all it is and it’s nothing different that what we’ve been doing, I think that will be pretty good. But I don’t really feel any pressure. I hate to use that word. I hate to hear that word, to be honest with you, but I’ve never really felt any of that, just good opportunities.”
HAVE YOU LOOKED AHEAD TO CHICAGO AT THE EXPENSE OF SOME RACES IN BETWEEN? “Yeah, definitely. I will say that our cars haven’t been as fast as let’s say the 78 or the 18 or the 42 at times and that’s just facts. They’ve been really fast this year and they’ve done a great job, but at times I feel like we’ve been able to compete with them. You’ve seen it at Pocono and Kansas we had a great run, and a couple other tracks where we’ve been able to be up close to them. But these Playoff cars are always getting built and our Chicago car has been in the works for a long time. They’re constantly changing, whether it’s setup stuff or body or modifications they find throughout the week. We’re changing stuff today, just last-minute things that the aero group finds or the engineers find that we think will be better. Hopefully, we can get some of that performance to where we can compete with those guys every single lap. I know the last couple months we haven’t had the best of runs, and that’s really not a lot of car performance, but things not happening our way or taking more chances than we probably should after we got a win at Pocono just because we could do that and take more chances of trying to win races or stages and them not playing out for us. It’s hard to kind of see where you stack up before Chicago. Even Darlington, the last mile-and-a-half, it’s hard to really even see where you line up there because it’s such a unique race track and Richmond is hard to kind of tell. Until we get out for first practice you don’t really know, but I think we have some great upgrades, so hopefully we can get a little bit better and see, but we won’t know for a few more days.”
WILL IT HELP HAVING BRAD AS A RESOURCE? “Yeah, Brad has been a great mentor to me. I look up to him a lot and I have a lot of respect for Brad. It would be neat to be able to be competing against him for a championship. That’s a touchy situation because obviously we want all Fords to win, and the main goal is to get a Ford to win a championship, whether that’s my car, if I can’t do it I want Brad to do it, if he can’t do it we want a Stewart-Haas car or Stenhouse to win it. That’s just the main goal over there, but obviously we’re worried about you want to be the driver that wins the championship for them. You don’t want to see another Ford driver win. You want to be the top guy over there. Brad and I will help each other a lot throughout the Playoffs and trying to just help overall speed in our cars, but as far as giving each other spots on the race track, they’re a competitor too, so we’ll help each other out a lot and try to figure out how to make both of our cars faster, but they’re just another competitor to be honest with you at the end of the day. You might race them a little bit nicer than I would let’s say the 18 car, but it’s just at the end of the day you’re trying to beat them also. But we do a great job of comparing notes and trying to get the team better because that’s what we want.”
WHAT ARE YOU INTERESTED ABOUT EXPERIENCING IN THE PLAYOFFS? “I’m just excited to be a part of it. Last year you could see the intensity ramp up, but I wasn’t a part of it. This year being a part of it, I am really excited to see and race around drivers who are running for a championship and being one of them also and seeing how that intensity level raises around them. That’s what I’m very excited for. I’m looking forward to seeing what changes because I love the competition side. I like to see what everyone can do behind a wheel. I like to see drivers drive and to be a part of everyone driving their absolute hardest for 10 weeks because it’s not gonna start halfway through the Playoffs, it starts at Chicago and that level stays the same throughout the whole time. I think that’s what I’m most looking forward to, that and these last 10 races are my last 10 for the Wood Brothers as far as I know of, so that is gonna be really special to try to finish it off strong with them, whether I’m making a great championship run or winning number 100. I really want to do that for them, so those are two areas I’m really looking forward to.”
THE WOOD BROTHERS ARE LOOKING FOR THEIR FIRST CHAMPIONSHIP SINCE 1963. “That’s pretty special when you look back on it and think about that they’ve never really been able to accomplish that. They’re first time being in the Playoff system is really cool to have done that for them, and just to give them a shot. As a kid, and I’m sure the Wood Brothers would tell you the same thing, as they were growing up all they wanted was to A, win races and B, be able to have a shot at winning a championship and that’s what I wanted to do when I was watching my dad race and growing up around the race track. I think that has been very special for everybody, but I haven’t put a ton of thought into that. The Wood Brothers have never been in this spot before and we just want a shot at it. I know they’ve had shots at it in previous years. I’m not saying they never had a shot at it, but in the Playoff system it’s pretty cool to be a part of and to be a driver for them, to have a possibility of bringing them a championship makes me excited to get going.”
IS YOUTH A HANDICAP IN THE PLAYOFFS? “I don’t think so. The experience level isn’t there as let’s say a Jimmie Johnson or a Matt Kenseth, who have been a part of these Playoffs for a very long time and who have won championships. That might be a disadvantage, the experience level, but I think having the youth on your side you’re always just kind of on kill all the time, and I think that’s what these Playoffs are about. I don’t think that’s a bad thing to be, so there are two ways of looking at things, but at the end of the day, like I said before, it’s just racing and it’s really no different drivers than what you’ve been racing against all year and what I’ve always raced against, so they do have experience on their side, and that might benefit them for sure, but I think expectation is just really not there for us. We just have curiosity and excitement to be here, and I think that’s a really big asset too is we’re a very young team and our inspiration is the Wood Brothers and to win a championship. So it kind of goes hand in hand, I guess.”
ANY EXTRA CARS OR DOUBLED UP EFFORTS GOING INTO THE PLAYOFFS? “Not really. I know some teams have swapped pit crews around, but we have our same guys and I think that’s the best way to do it. Our pit crew does so well all year that I don’t think you change them up. I don’t think that makes them feel very good. If you are a pit crew who deserves to be a Playoff team and you get thrown off to another car, I don’t know how I’d feel about that, but I don’t really think we’ve changed much. Like I said, the preparation for the cars is way more, you go throughout that the whole week. We’ll change stuff. I think the trucks will probably leave tonight to go to Chicago, and I’m sure they were changing things this morning on my race car. They find stuff at the last-minute, so that prep work that goes into the cars weeks out, weeks prior to the race is definitely intensified too – just like the racing.”
DOES THIS GIVE YOU A BOOST JUST TO MAKE THE PLAYOFFS? “Yeah, that part was very neat after Richmond to stand up there with 15 other drivers and get your picture taken with the trophy and realize, ‘Hey, I deserve to be here too.’ Our team deserves this opportunity and this chance to be here. That was very special for me. I’ve wanted to be a part of that ever since they started that and I saw it as a kid. It was neat to be up there with some people you looked up to as a kid as well as some of the younger drivers that you’re competing against, so that part was really neat to me to do after Richmond.”
IS IT INTIMIDATING TO YOU AT ALL? “Not really. I don’t really get intimidated. These drivers are people just like us. I’ve watched them when I was younger. I’ve watched a lot of them. I’ve been big fans of a lot of them when I was younger growing up in this sport, and I just think it’s really neat. I don’t really feel any pressure or if I’m intimidated by anybody. I feel like once you kind of feel like that you’re out of the game and you take your head out of the game, so everyone is a racer and I don’t think the intimidation factor is anything that really concerns me too much.”
