Toyota Racing – Kyle Busch
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
ISM Raceway – March 9, 2018
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kyle Busch was made available to the media at ISM Raceway:
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Skittles Sweet Heat Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Are you concerned that NASCAR has made decisions based on social media?
“Absolutely. I think what they see on social media and also goes based off of driver penalties and other things as well, too.”
Is the perceived social media impact on officiating a good thing or bad thing?
“I think there’s too many voices. I think the at the powers that be that are way higher than me need to figure out how to shut that off and not pay attention to it sometimes, and do what they think is best for the sport as what we’ve done for 60 years. It seems the last 10 especially has been more so. And listening to those that are watching it and those who are watching it have too many varying opinions. You’re not going to please them all. It doesn’t seem as though we’re setting ourselves up for the best going forward by listening to too many of them.”
How do you think the changes here will impact the fall race?
“I think the restart zone for sure is going to be interesting, going to be different. I think that as far as the track being flipped, I don’t think once you’re running if that’s going to make much difference. I think with the restart and everything, there is more room I feel like when you get off in Turn 3. Right now, if it was Turn 1 for restarts, it feels like you would try to figure out how to get single file by the time you get to Turn 3, which is Turn 1 right now. It will have some changing effects on what’s going to happen with restarts and such. And with the restart zone moving, if you’re further back in the pack and trying to get a good restart or whatever, you’re still going to bending a corner almost. I don’t think it will be that much different but it will be somewhat different.”
Do you think cars will fan out like they do at Pocono?
“Well you can’t pass until the start-finish line. You only have a certain amount of space until you get to Turn 1. I am sure you’ll see some desperation moves and some bad decisions be made and carnage ensue . But hopefully none of it is with us.”
What does Brexton think of going fast, we saw you took him to the dunes?
“He likes it. So far so good. He always kind of likes speed. His Lightning McQueen cars that he has are supped up. They’re not standard speed at all. He likes to go a little faster than his friends. That’s always pretty fun to watch and see. But we were at the dunes this weekend. Last year he went out with me a little bit. We didn’t go too far or too hard because obviously with him being that small, they’re not fully developed yet. You try to keep it light on the G loads, with banging his neck around and things like that. This time around we went for a longer dune ride but we still tried to keep it to his pace. There were times he picked up his hands and was air driving like holding the steering wheel. When we were going down, he was turning and going up and he was turning. And then he fell asleep for a little while. He’s obviously pretty chill and gotten the hang of it pretty quick.”
Can you describe the strategy in the dog-leg right now?
“Right now with the dog-leg when you take the restart right here, you have a corner to try to get up to speed and get your thoughts and things going when you get to the dog-leg. Then once you get down around the back straightaway, everyone tends to fan out. It tends to get pretty wide over there and guys get pretty aggressive on how much they want to cut it. With no ride height rule with the Cup cars, we obviously slam the cars pretty hard and the side skirts bend and then things kind of happen in the race and you have to be conscious of that. You have to try to pick and choose where you use the dog-leg and how hard you want to be aggressive on using the dog-leg and beating up your racecar. All that goes into your mind as you’re racing around through there. If it comes down to the end on a late restart with three to go or a green-white-checkered, then you have utilize as much of a shorter distance as you can in order to make up spots.”
