BUSCH SCORES 60th TRUCK SERIES WIN
Tundra sweeps top-four finishers, scores fourth straight victory to start 2021 season
ATLANTA (March 20, 2021) – Kyle Busch drove to his first Truck Series win of the season and 60th of his career at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday afternoon. Tundra drivers swept the top-four finishing positions and have won the first four Truck Series events to start the 2021 season.
Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
Atlanta Motor Speedway
Race 4 of 23 – 130 Laps, 200.2 Miles
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, KYLE BUSCH
2nd, AUSTIN HILL
3rd, JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK
4th, JOHNNY SAUTER
5th, Sheldon Creed*
8th, MATT CRAFTON
10th, STEWART FRIESEN
11th, GRANT ENFINGER
13th, DEREK KRAUS
16th, BEN RHODES
20th, SPENCER DAVIS
28th, DANNY BOHN
35th, CHANDLER SMITH
37th, AKINORI OGATA
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
KYLE BUSCH, No. 51 Cessna Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 1st
What does winning, especially the way you did today, do for you mentally?
“It’s just a great opportunity to race in great stuff with KBM (Kyle Busch Motorsports), Cessna Beechcraft. This Toyota Tundra was awesome. I can’t say enough about my guys, everybody at Kyle Busch Motorsports. They do such a great job with a lot of hard work. Without their preparation and dedication, we wouldn’t be as successful as we’ve been as an organization. It’s great to get back to Victory Lane. It’s cool to get back to Victory Lane in Billy Ballew’s (former NCWTS team owner) backyard here in Atlanta. We carried the Billy Ballew Motorsports decal today. If you need a deal on a sweet used car, go see him in Dawsonville. All of the Chase Elliott fans want to go there, but tell them that I sent ya.”
Marty Lindley, your crew chief, you brought him to KBM. He got his first win today. What does he bring to this team?
“It’s just a part of good people, having good people. Coach (Joe Gibbs) always says you have to have good people to have success. We’ve had great people, and we’ve had good people too and it’s just a matter of evolving. This sport is ever-changing. Six months from now the setups will be different again. It’s cool to have fresh ideas, different concepts and things that we can continue and try and continue to improve. It’s good to see John Hunter (Nemechek) come home with another top-three today with him racing for a championship this year, that’s important. Certianly, I want to give a shoutout to Samantha (Busch) and Brexton (Busch) at home. Brexton is racing tomorrow, so he didn’t make it this weekend, so good luck buddy. Thank you to Rowdy Energy, Murphy USA for being on board today.”
Did you think win 60 in the Truck Series was attainable?
“Yeah, obviously I thought we had a great truck at the start of the race. We just kept working on it all day. We were loose to start and we got it a lot better there. That final stage, we just took off and it was super fast, super good. Can’t say enough about everybody at Kyle Busch Motorsports – thank you. Thank you to Cessna Beechcraft, TRD, Toyota and Rowdy Energy, Murphy USA. Billy Ballew, if you need a used car in the Dawsonville area, I know that’s Chase Elliott country, but tell them that Kyle Busch sent you.”
What contributions has Marty Lindley made to Kyle Busch Motorsports thus far?
“It’s all about great people. You win with great people in this sport and we’ve had great people and we still have good people. Just bringing Marty (Lindley, crew chief) on has been a refresher if you will. Six months from now, setups may not be the same and so just having some of those fresh ideas and some of those different concepts that we can apply to our Tundras to make sure we can go out there and continue to win and have good days like we did with John Hunter (Nemechek) and myself and race for that championship.”
Did you leave Las Vegas wanting to win in this series that much more?
“Yeah, absolutely. Anytime I’m in my truck I want to be able to go out there and score the victory. With good competition and good competitors, it’s not easy. With John Hunter (Nemechek) coming on board, at Vegas he was super fast and did everything right, no mistakes. We’ll go back and regroup and make sure that 4 (Nemechek) truck can stay in front of that 16 (Austin Hill) truck the rest of this year.”
AUSTIN HILL, No. 16 United Rentals Toyota Tundra, Hattori Racing Enterprises
Finishing Position: 2nd
Second for the second year in a row in Atlanta. You could match Kyle Busch’s speed, but was it just early in the run where you gave some up?
“Yeah, when we had that last restart. I was trying to save my tires a little bit. I didn’t want to kill them right off the bat. When it was go time, I started matching Kyle’s (Busch) lap times. We had a green flag pit stop, got out in second. The pit crew did an awesome job today, but yeah, I kind of gave that gap up and I could never close it. I was matching his lap times, but I need to be a little bit quicker. Our United Rentals Toyota Tundra was really fast today. We had to fight a little bit of adversity today with restarts and stuff that happened on the race track. We had to rebound, but all in all, a solid day. I wish we were racing here again because I love Atlanta Motor Speedway. It’s my home track. I can’t thank the fans enough for coming out and watching today. It was awesome to have you guys back. I just wish I could have got the job done. This is a fun place to run.”
What more did you need on the final long run to catch Kyle Busch?
“The biggest thing was when we had that last restart and we had the long run, I didn’t race the 4 (John Hunter Nemechek) has hard as I should have. I kind of let him go instead of racing for that second spot and I let them kind of get out and I was saving tires just trying not to slip the right-front or right-rear, just trying to keep the tires on it. Right when I started going and we were about to pit, the last 10 or 15 laps, I was really trying to go. I could run what Kyle (Busch) was running and every now and then I would run a little faster, but I just got too far of a gap on that restart and that’s really what cost us there at the end of the race. When we all had our pit stops, my pit crew did awesome, I got out in second and actually closed on Kyle a little bit after those pit sequences. I would run a little faster than he would, he would run a little faster than me and we were just kind of going back and forth. Traffic played a bit factor in today. All in all, it was a solid day for our United Rentals Toyota Tundra. Just stings a little bit. I want to win here so bad. I wish we were coming here again. I wish we raced here at least twice a year. Such a fun place to come to. You’re slipping and sliding, you’re up on the wheel each and every lap so it’s so much fun. Thank the fans for coming out. Just needed a little more at the end there. I needed to fire off a little harder there and not let them get so far out. I can beat Kyle, I just didn’t today. I ended up being second to him.”
JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK, No. 4 Mobil 1 Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 3rd
What did you need to catch the top-two in today’s race?
“Needed a little bit of a different adjustment there at the end. We were off a little bit, I felt like, all day. Overall, not terrible. Just proud of all my guys here at KBM (Kyle Busch Motorsports). This Mobil 1 Toyota Tundra was fast all day. I don’t know what happened there on that green flag pit stop, but I’ll have to go back and study some. I don’t know if I gave up too much getting to pit road or what. It seems like that’s where we ended up getting beat and then it kind of transferred to the race track and made it even bigger. Overall, proud of the performance, great points day and won both stages. Came home third. All we can do is keep clicking away at these top-threes and our wins are definitely coming.”
Was the tire fall-off what you expected on the longer green flag runs?
“I know I ran the truck race here last year, but we had damage early and really didn’t get to understand that. I haven’t been here in a truck in probably four years or three years, something like that and actually have been decent. It’s a little bit different getting back to the Truck Series and having less sets of tires and what not, but overall, fun day and solid performance.”
Couldn’t quite out-do the boss today, but how was your run overall?
“I felt like we were strong in stage one and stage two. I felt like we could hang with Kyle (Busch), and then we got around in him in lap traffic at the end of the stages. Solid points day overall for our Mobil 1 Toyota Tundra. I can’t thank everyone at KBM (Kyle Busch Motorsports) enough and all of our partners for supporting this deal. Overall, I’m happy with the day, but I’m disappointed. I was hoping to beat Kyle today, but I didn’t have anything for him there at the end. I’ve got to go study some green flag pit stop stuff and get better there. It’s always a work in progress. We will be back next week at Bristol dirt and hopefully go get us a win there.”
JOHNNY SAUTER, No. 13 Vivitar/RealTree Toyota Tundra, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 4th
Can you describe your race and the adjustments that had to be made both on pit road and behind the wheel?
“We just got behind there, we had a fuel can issue or something on those first stops so we had to go to the back. I knew in the first 15 laps that we has a really good Vivitar Toyota. We just had to bide our time and get track position back. I think we were close to the top-10 by the end of the second stage. Just had really good long run speed. Really proud of Joe (Shear, crew chief) and everybody at ThorSport. Thank Toyota, TRD, Vivitar – this is the kind of run that you need, especially when the year started out the way that it had. We had speed, got a little bit of work to do, but a long ways from where we were in Las Vegas. Just proud of everybody.”
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