Toyota Racing – Kyle Busch
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Dover International Speedway – May 3, 2019
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kyle Busch was made available to the media in Dover:
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Pedigree Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
I was curious about Raphaël Lessard, if you were impressed with his speed yesterday in practice.
“I didn’t get a real good sense how practice went from any of my guys. Overall, just saw that he was at the top of the sheets first practice. That is always kind of difficult to tell sometimes how that exactly happens. I think they made a mock run at the end of first practice so I think that is what put them up there. It is all about the lap tracker and consecutive laps, consistency and things like that. We talked a little bit this week about coming here and being prepared for it, so it was nice to be able to help him out and get him up to speed a little bit to see that they had speed at least. I hope they can do a good job. This is the biggest track he has ever seen or been on and the fastest he has ever gone; it will be a big learning experience for him.”
In practice that you just finished, 23 cars went faster than the track record. Do you feel that increase in speed going around here?
“There is no questions you feel that going around here. It is really fast. Probably, I don’t know, probably too fast for here. The faster we tend to go in the middle of the corner doesn’t always produce the best racing. We will see how that translates. It is going to be big numbers in qualifying obviously. But we will see how that translates into the race. I am not overly excited about it. We will just have to fight through it and see what happens.”
Judging by first practice and how fast were you going, what are your expectations for qualifying?
“I guess it is a good thing that I had my media availability, because I would not be coming in here after qualifying judging by how fast our car goes. Obviously, not where we want to be. Slower than we want to be. It would be nice to be closer to the front. But speeds are just really, really fast.”
Looking ahead to next week, what are some of the challenges racing up in Kansas?
“Going to Kansas next week, it is a little further on my radar. It is a night race, so it is cool to be able to race on Saturday night, and have Sunday off. The challenge to Kansas is just going to be what it takes with this new package and the faster speeds. Or I guess, we won’t be faster at Kansas, you have the 550 package there. We will see what that is going to be. Is it going to be wide open or is the draft going to be in affect? Where is the groove going to be? Typically it has been on the high side where the banking is the highest, so that is kind of what you look at going to Kansas.”
What does it mean to you to race on Memorial Day weekend? How do you feel about the military and everything that happens in Charlotte?
“We have the All-Star race in between. Memorial Day weekend in Charlotte is a big weekend. It is huge for our sport and NASCAR, and for what the red, white and blue means to all of us. Being able to help support the military on Memorial Day weekend is a lot of fun. It is nice that the NASCAR initiative has grown over the year with NASCAR Salutes and the NASCAR program having a person’s name on our cars, on our windshields, and we can honor that family if they choose to come to the race track. The last couple of years, they have had their family there, and we have been able to honor them. Fortunately last year, I was able to get that first win and go to victory lane and they were there, so it was cool to do. It is an unfortunate situation that only one guy gets to win, but there is the opportunity to celebrate unique lives that paid the ultimate sacrifice.”
How much off throttle time do you have?
“For the qualifying laps here you were not fully off of the throttle. You just kind of roll out to about 20%, hold it for about 200 feet, and then start feeding it back gas as quick as you can in order to be able to get the run of the corner into the straightaway. Lots of on throttle time. You are never all the way off of it.”
You said the speeds are probably too fast. What is too fast? Where would you draw the line?
“You pretty much know as a driver what too fast is. If you have a problem here with the speeds we are carrying into the corner, it is going to hurt. The faster you go, the harder you are going to hit the wall. The INDYCAR guys were flying around here, and they don’t come here anymore, because it was too fast, too dangerous for them. Eventually, there comes a point where it becomes too fast for a stock car too. Whether that is or not, I guess that is people other than myself to think, but I would much rather appreciate racing and being able to race at a more tolerable speed than we are going right now.”
Are we approaching the danger zone here?
“No question.”
Any significance to you become the first driver in almost 30 years to have 10 top ten finishes to start the year?
“It is good; it is cool. It is kind of on our mind right now; going into every week, we want to win. That is what we strive to do every time we hit the track. We thought it would come to an end last week at Talladega and it was close. We were right on the verge, but we made it through another one. We have the opportunity this weekend to go to the Monster Mile and try to come out of here with another top 10 finish. Last week, we had Talladega that was working against us, and no disrespect to my sponsor, Pedigree, they are fantastic people and fun to work with, but I do not think I have finished in a Pedigree race car the last five times I have raced in one. Hopefully, we can finish, and if we can, hopefully, we finish in the top ten.”
