Toyota Racing – Kyle Busch
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes
LAS VEGAS (February 21 2020) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kyle Busch was made available to media at Las Vegas Motor Speedway:
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Snickers White Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
What did it mean to win last night’s Super Late Model race at the Bullring and be in Las Vegas?
“It was certainly fun to get back behind the wheel of a Super Late Model. It’s been a little while since I’ve been able to do that. I always enjoy that kind of stuff. Always told the speedway out here that if they ever had the Late Model races going during NASCAR weekend that I would bring my stuff out here and run in it and there you have it. Typically, it’s always been at the dirt track with the World of Outlaws, but I was able to run the pavement track over there last night, had some fun and it was a good race I felt with Derek Thorn. I think he’s one of the best guys on the west coast or certainly there are some others that are really good as well too. It was cool to have a good show and win with our first race out with Rowdy Energy being on the car and having a shot with that too. Good to be back in Vegas and looking forward to a great race weekend here too at the big track and getting into our Cessna Tundra tonight as well as our Snickers Camry on Sunday.”
How did you process the crash with Ryan Newman earlier this week?
“It’s kind of for me, just not knowing everything that went on or what happened in the scenarios and the situation to the extent of everything. I have absolutely no information besides what I saw in the crash at the end and then him getting taken out of the car in an ambulance on the way to the hospital and then the announcements that came out through the media, through Roush Fenway and what they were talking about. That was the extent of it for me. Then seeing him walk out of the hospital was kind of a shock just two days later really. Not knowing again the severity of everything that went on or what he was going through. I’m very limited on the situation.”
When you saw the replay for the first time, did you fear the outcome would be much worse?
“I think anybody would, right? When there’s a guy that’s getting extricated from a car that you always fear the worst, right. You’ve always got to hope for the best. That’s kind of what my situation was after seeing the impact.”
How does a driver get back in a race car after injury?
“It was tough for me. I was out for a while, I guess 11 weeks or whatever it was. Having the injuries that I had and being in the hospital and being laid up being in a hospital bed for a few weeks was challenging in that respect and then getting back in the car for me, I don’t know if you’re asking if I have a different sense of fear or am I scared or what all is going on there. You certainly have some of that in the back of your mind to start with and to get back in. ‘Man, if I get back in and crash right away, is that going to end it all over again.’ It’s kind of the Rowdy Burns aspect of it. He was out with a head injury and they said you can never race again and if you ever race again, you’ll probably die. I guess that’s worst case. You kind of think of those situations, but you try to put it out of the back of your mind as much as possible and just get out there and do your job. It took me I guess five weeks to get back into the circle of things and be able to win again.”
What does it mean to your family to race in Las Vegas again?
“It’s cool to be able to come back home and to have the notoriety I guess that we have now. When we came out here years ago, there were many other drivers that were way bigger than us and way more popular than us. Now that we’ve been here for a while and those other drivers aren’t here anymore, we’ve kind of upped ourselves up the ladder of that and it’s cool. One of these days hopefully there might be a road out here named after us or a grandstand or something of that nature. Don’t get too far ahead of yourselves, that just means I get closer to retirement if they start doing that too early.”
Have people stopped thinking drivers can get hurt in race cars?
“I think sometimes you take it for granted. What we’re doing, the severity of what we’re doing, the course of action of what injury can happen – it can happen in any instance, we’re not invincible. Safety is always an evolution. There’s going to be something else that happens that we have to go through and figure out the circumstances as to why it happened, how can we prevent it from happening again. Not sure what all the instances are in the (Ryan) Newman crash, but there still will be something else down the road I’m sure. We saw it with, I think it was Austin Theriault here who broke his back in a truck crash years ago. Denny (Hamlin), obviously his back as well as (Aric) Almirola’s. There’s a lot of things that will still come of the evolution of safety for all of us. My wreck, we made a lot of changes and advancements, let’s call it, to the race cars and hopefully that can help prevent those such injuries happening again.”
Does there need to be any modifications or other bars installed after the Newman accident?
“I have no idea. I haven’t seen the car. I just saw what we all saw on television. To get an up close look at it would certainly show a whole different perspective of it than just what I saw on TV.”
Does it matter that you’re losing 15 minutes in first practice today?
“I don’t know, practice is what 50 minutes? It certainly isn’t going to be helpful or beneficial, but with time of day and everything being what it is, probably the first 15 minutes isn’t that big of a deal.”
How hard was it on your family awaiting news on Ryan Newman’s condition?
“I would sense that all of us are kind of wanting to know as soon as possible to know for ourselves, not necessarily because we want to get it out and leak any sort of news, it’s just a matter of self-assurance that those that you’re racing against are okay. It could be any of us in that situation at any particular time especially with restrictor plate racing and those places you race so fast and so close together the whole time that those crashes tend to happen a lot. The families certainly go through a lot. I know Samantha (Busch) was quite concerned and she had her mind on my crash and then Ryan’s (Newman) crash and asking me some questions about other crashes over time to try to understand the whole perspective and like I said, you can’t. They’re all their own instance and have their own consequences and severity and things like that around them.”
Do you think we’ll see a better race at Las Vegas with this package the third time around?
“You know, I don’t know. Typically, the more time you give these engineers and the guys to figure out a package, the more they screw it up and make the racing worse for the fans. It can certainly go the other way here with us getting a better understanding of how to make the cars feel better and drive better in traffic. When you can do that, you can have a better feel and a better race because you can work your way around the traffic a little bit more. Last year, I think this race in the fall time too, I remember we were really, really loose to start and we kind of worked on our car, got better and we were way better at the end of the race. Last year, I coulda, shoulda, woulda won the spring race if it hadn’t been for me speeding on pit road. We came back and I think ran third anyways. It’s something that sometimes it’s easy to pass and sometimes it’s not. When you’re really on and your car is really hooked up, it’s just like the old package, you could pass guys and you could move your way up through the field. When you’re just that least little bit of off, it seems like you’re really far off with this package right now.”
Is there an ‘aero-war’ between drivers?
“It’s the same for everybody, you’re trying to shut the guy off behind you. You’re trying to shut his air off. That’s why the blocking is so bad, even at some of these places. The guys out front, they’ll mirror drive wherever the hell you’re going to make sure they shut your air off so you have to get out of the gas and be out of the gas and lose momentum and they can get a gap on you so they don’t have to deal with you again. As soon as you sort of lose that lead draft, if you’re not fast enough to catch back up to that guy in front of you, then you just continually seem to lose ground. That’s a big part of what we’re all doing and it’s an aero-war of just shutting the guy off behind you.”
Is there a part of your car you try to protect?
“Getting close enough to you, once they get close enough to you and they get on your right-rear, when they’re first there on your outside, it makes you really, really, really tight. Then as they start to go by you, it sucks you around and makes you really, really loose. The closer they are to your right side is not good. That’s one that you’d like to protect, but you can’t always do that.”
When did Denny Hamlin get so good at superspeedway racing?
“Denny (Hamlin) I think has really gotten way better ever since this car. He was always an aggressive plate racer, one that would make moves that you’re kind of like, ‘Man, if you would just stay in line, I think this would turn out better.’ He still does that today, but he’s making it work for himself. Not staying in line is better for Denny. I think that ever since this car has come, whatever car you want to call it – Gen6 – he’s been a really good plate racer. He’s been fantastic at the game, he’s understood it and he’s made moves that I sometimes wouldn’t make that work and he’s able to pass a guy and get in line. How he got passed down the back straightaway and fell to third to then how he got attached to the 12 (Ryan Blaney) and then was able to push the 12 back up to the 6 (Ryan Newman). I don’t know how all that happened so fast within three and four to the middle of the frontstretch. I don’t know if the 12 backed up to Denny or how all that went down. That’s how I would imagine it went down, but I haven’t seen any of the data. It was just interesting how he’s very knowledgeable and skillful in his moves and his attempts at making passes.”
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