TOYOTA QUOTES
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Flavor Vote Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
What does it feel like to be in victory lane for your third consecutive time?
“All these guys – everybody on this whole M&M Camry, they do a great job for me. I can’t say enough about Adam Stevens (crew chief) and my guys and the pit crew tonight. They won this race for us. They got us off pit road first those last two times that we came down for tires and got us where we needed to be. In case anybody is wondering why this car is so many different colors this week, it’s for the M&M’s Flavor Vote. So, anybody can go and vote for their favorite flavor of M&M’s so there’s Mint and Expresso or Raspberry and then those flavors will be in stores this summer. It’s a pretty cool deal that M&M’s does every year and gets new flavors out to the market. I can’t say enough about this Toyota Camry. It was just awesome today. Out front all day long. I want to thank DVX Sunglasses, Rheem, Interstate Batteries, Cessna, NOS Energy Drink and all of the fans. This is really cool for as good as the crowd was tonight. Really cool out here in Richmond, really chilly but otherwise it was a fantastic evening so hopefully everybody enjoyed that.”
How cool is it to win three races in a row?
“It’s definitely cool we’ve won three in a row. We did it a couple years ago and now I don’t know if you can shoot for four in a row. It’s hard to go to Talladega with that much of a winning streak and think that you can go to victory lane, but we’re going to go there anyway and give it a shot. We’ll see what we can do. Our guys are amazing. They’re awesome every week and I love racing with these guys and Joe Gibbs Racing. Everybody at TRD (Toyota Racing Development) Costa Mesa, I appreciate you guys. I think this is the first Toyota to win the Toyota Owners 400 if I’m not mistaken, but if I’m not congratulations to the last guy but I’m pretty happy to be here tonight.”
What was the difference for you in the end of the race that got you here to victory lane?
“I think the difference for us tonight was just the adjustments. Trying to stay with the race track all night long. Adam Stevens (crew chief) and my guys did a phenomenal job. I think one of the other keys to the night was just my guys – my pit crew – they got us out front when it mattered the most those last two pit stops. They were awesome tonight on pit road. I’m really excited to be in victory lane at the Toyota Owners 400. I can’t say enough about Toyota, M&M’s and everybody that works on this car. Interstate Batteries, NOS Energy Drink, Cessna, Black Clover and the fans of course. I appreciate the fans. This was a great evening of racing. I hope everybody enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun and great to see such a good crowd out here tonight. I don’t know man. Just cool to get M&M’s back here in victory lane.”
How were you able to make your way through the field early in the race?
“The first run of the race we actually made really good ground. I was really happy with the way our car took off there at the beginning of the race. As the night kind of wore on we just didn’t quite have that advantage to everybody. Everybody kind of gained and got a little better and we made some adjustments and changes to the car in order to try to help ourselves and it seemed to be better there. Then, the last couple runs were just short runs. Adam (Stevens, crew chief) and the guys making the right adjustments to the car to have it faster on the short run was where it was at.”
Have you ever had this much momentum in your career with three straight wins and seven consecutive top-three runs?
“No, and you know I certainly would love to be doing this if this was week 10 of the playoffs we’d be talking about something pretty cool, but I hope it’s not peaking too early. Obviously this is way early in the season. We’ve got a long way to go. These guys are hungry and warmed up and ready to rock.”
