NASCAR CUP SERIES
LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
PENNZOIL 400
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 4, 2023
KYLE BUSCH, NO. 8 ALSCO UNIFORMS CAMARO ZL1 met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying session at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Press Conference Transcript:
WHAT DO YOU THINK THE CHALLENGES ARE FOR CHASE (ELLIOTT) TO COME BACK FROM HIS INJURY?
“It depends on what and where the break was, obviously. If it’s a mid-leg break and you get a rod and screws, it’s not too terrible and not that bad. If it’s something more like knee- or ankle-located, that’s going to be a bigger issue of a joint that needs to move and bend. That’s the big piece of what’s unknown at this time, from my knowledge anyway. If it’s just a regular leg break like I had, it’s going to be at least four weeks, I would think, based off getting a rod and screws, then your bones starting to fuse and getting a little bit of fusion going. That’s about the length it takes to get something going. I’m sure he’s in good hands. I reached out to him last night and this morning to talk to him a little bit about my experience in it and (that I’d) be happy to help and talk to him and help him through all the things that I did that helped my recovery be speedy.”
INAUDIBLE.
“I just told him when he gets all settled to give me a call. It’s a memoir. I’m not going to type it.”
WHAT’S IT LIKE WHEN YOU’RE TRYING TO WORK ON YOURSELF AND REHAB WHILE EVERYONE IS OUT THERE RACING? HOW HARD IS THAT ON A DRIVER?
“It can be tough. Even as good of a support system as I had around me during my injury, there was a time when we were watching the races on Sunday and you kind of break down and miss that fact of being out there and being in your car and having a chance of going out there to compete. That’s what we live for and build on our whole lives to have success. Chase is plenty young and I’m sure plenty healthy enough that it’s not going to be anything too crazy to go through, but it’s just a situation that he’s in at this time. Anything I can do to kind of help that, I’m more than willing to give him a bit of advice.”
YOU GOT A BIG OVATION WHEN YOU WON AT CALIFORNIA. HOW WAS THAT, AND DO YOU SENSE THE REACTION FROM THE FANS ARE CHANGING FOR YOU?
“It’s awesome to hear everything. The way it’s kind of gone on this year with going to the Clash and running well out there, then getting spun but coming back through to have a good finish… all the finishes we’ve had and all the races that we’ve run, we’ve been right up front and we’ve been fast. It gives my legion, Rowdy Nation, a sense of pride to be cheering us on and having an interest in watching again and not dreading watching again. That’s what makes it fun for me, foremost. Then of course too to see adding to that legion of fans and having an opportunity to win here in my hometown, to win last week at California… I’ve raced a lot in Nevada, California, Arizona and Utah when I was a kid growing up, so it’s nice to come around these parts and still score victories. No matter where on the Cup series, you want to win. To do that last week at California and to hear the afterwards was really cool. It’s awesome to me to hear a little bit of a changing of the guard, which is fun. Hopefully it keeps going.”
WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO GET OUT OF THE TEST NEXT WEEK WITH THE NEW SHORT-TRACK PACKAGE?
“I don’t know if you’re really going to get out there in a group and set up a simulated race or anything like that. We’re all just going to do our normal practice where we roll out together, we spread out a little bit and we go. I don’t think we’ll really get a chance to foresee what our cars will be like in traffic until we line up for the race and go. As far as practice goes, just trying to get a feel for what the pace is going to be, what the feel is, is it going to be way slower or is the car going to have a lot less grip, all that sort. That’s kind of the biggest thing you’ll set up for.”
ARE YOU ENCOURAGED BY THE CHANGES THAT WERE MADE TO THE CAR?
“Yeah, I would say so. I think there’s a couple of different things that I would have done. But I like direction and the things they did do, talking about diffuser strakes, reducing the underbody effects and things like that. I think we tried so hard on that with this car to design that into it, and I think we kind of created another two-headed monster, if you will, with the back of these cars needing to be down as low as they need to be. Last year we had tire issues for awhile, and it seemed like the teams got that squared away a little bit. We’re all still battling the same things of trying to get that car as low as you can because the underbody effects are just so huge?”
CAN YOU PREPARE FOR BRISTOL ON DIRT SINCE IT’S SUCH AN ANOMALY?
“No. Matter of fact, we have way too much practice when we go there. Two hours of practice on a dirt track that deteriorates is genius. If I could fix that, we would literally have a five-lap hot-lap in groups and then go right into heat races. That’s it.”
COULD YOU FEEL THE ENERGY FROM THE CROWD WHEN YOU WON LAST WEEK, AND ARE YOU AS COMFORTABLE WEARING A WHITE HAT AS A BLACK HAT?
“No. All my stuff is black for a reason. It’s fun to always kind of play up with the fans and stuff like that. My fans especially are awesome. I’ve got a lot that I wouldn’t say that I know personally, but whenever you see them at venues or at autograph sessions or KBM when we do Fan Day, you recognize these folks and you’ve seen them for 10 or 15 years. It’s interesting just to continue to build off of that with new fans. It’s a lot of fun. People get a different read on me as I’m getting older and getting wiser and all those great things. Hopefully that doesn’t mean I’m slowing down though.”
YOU SOUNDED FRUSTRATED WITH THE QUALITY OF THE RACING IN THE FIELD LAST NIGHT. COMPARED TO PREVIOUS YEARS WHEN YOU WOULD RACE IN TRUCKS IF THEY NEED TO DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT?
“I don’t know if it’s just inexperience or what. Obviously it’s a learning series. But if you’re not learning coming out of ARCA how to not crash, then you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing well enough. Just a lot of crashes last night. I haven’t gone back and rewatched it to see some of the circumstances of some of those, but I’d imagine a few of those are probably avoidable. The other thing that’s frustrating too is with the Truck Series with as short as the stages are, why are we destroying our stuff in a 30-lap run when we can come back to the pits, recycle with pit stops and things like that, and shake and bake a little bit with how you get on and off pit road. The only thought I had to fix that… we had a caution four laps before a stage break was coming. Then we went green and then we had a caution for a stage break. If we want to go 30, 35, 40 laps or whatever it might be, let’s race 40 laps green and if we go 40 laps green and throw a yellow instead of throwing a yellow, four more laps and then another yellow because of a stage break. Just change it up. I don’t think anything is going to happen to that but that’s just been my thought.”
NOW THAT YOU AND YOUR BROTHER ARE THE WINNING BROTHER TANDEM AFTER AUTO CLUB AND NOW THAT YOU’RE BACK HOME, HAS THERE BEEN ANY TIME TO CELEBRATE WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY?
“We have a small family. It’s just Kurt, my mom and dad. My grandmother moved from Vegas back east with us, but she’s since passed. My mom is out here and she has some friends she hangs out with. So she does the friends tour, if you will, when she gets back to Vegas. For myself, one of my buddies that I used to race RC cars with got on a road trip last week and went down to Florida for Bike Week this week. It’s a small-knit group that we have here in Vegas. It’ll be fun to focus on the racing here at the big track and also Brexton tonight at the Bullring. I’m excited to get him over there and see what he’s got tonight.”
WHAT’S YOUR EXPECTATIONS IN YOUR KAULIG RACING DEBUT?
“For what I felt yesterday, I’m hoping for a top-10. But if the adjustments that we did overnight go the way we hope they will, I feel like we have a shot to race in the top-five. That, I feel like, is doable. Last week, Austin had a great run in the car. He was really fast. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to run that car. It’s sort of the backup car. But I still feel like with RCR chassis and bodies and everything that it’s all really close. That’s not going to be the problem. It’s just going to be the main setup of the car is way different than I’m accustomed to feeling in Xfinity. I haven’t done it for awhile too, but that’s no excuse. We’ll give it everything we’ve got.”
AS A TEAM OWNER, DO YOU PUT ANY RESTRICTIONS ON YOUR TRUCK SERIES DRIVERS AS FAR AS WHAT THEY CAN DO OUTSIDE THE TRACK?
“No. As drivers and humans, we have to go live life. We can’t just be locked up in a room at home and wrapped in bubblewrap. Years ago when I was racing late models and a little bit of dirt cars, Joe (Gibbs) would always kind of warn me not to get hurt or whatever. Then I got hurt in his car doing something for him, so it was like ‘Any stipulations you ever had were out the window!’ I had free reign. It’s a part of it. You never know what’s going to happen. You just deal with it when it comes.”
KYLE BUSCH, NO. 8 ALSCO UNIFORMS CAMARO ZL1 met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying session at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Press Conference Transcript:
WHAT DO YOU THINK THE CHALLENGES ARE FOR CHASE (ELLIOTT) TO COME BACK FROM HIS INJURY?
“It depends on what and where the break was, obviously. If it’s a mid-leg break and you get a rod and screws, it’s not too terrible and not that bad. If it’s something more like knee- or ankle-located, that’s going to be a bigger issue of a joint that needs to move and bend. That’s the big piece of what’s unknown at this time, from my knowledge anyway. If it’s just a regular leg break like I had, it’s going to be at least four weeks, I would think, based off getting a rod and screws, then your bones starting to fuse and getting a little bit of fusion going. That’s about the length it takes to get something going. I’m sure he’s in good hands. I reached out to him last night and this morning to talk to him a little bit about my experience in it and (that I’d) be happy to help and talk to him and help him through all the things that I did that helped my recovery be speedy.”
INAUDIBLE.
“I just told him when he gets all settled to give me a call. It’s a memoir. I’m not going to type it.”
WHAT’S IT LIKE WHEN YOU’RE TRYING TO WORK ON YOURSELF AND REHAB WHILE EVERYONE IS OUT THERE RACING? HOW HARD IS THAT ON A DRIVER?
“It can be tough. Even as good of a support system as I had around me during my injury, there was a time when we were watching the races on Sunday and you kind of break down and miss that fact of being out there and being in your car and having a chance of going out there to compete. That’s what we live for and build on our whole lives to have success. Chase is plenty young and I’m sure plenty healthy enough that it’s not going to be anything too crazy to go through, but it’s just a situation that he’s in at this time. Anything I can do to kind of help that, I’m more than willing to give him a bit of advice.”
YOU GOT A BIG OVATION WHEN YOU WON AT CALIFORNIA. HOW WAS THAT, AND DO YOU SENSE THE REACTION FROM THE FANS ARE CHANGING FOR YOU?
“It’s awesome to hear everything. The way it’s kind of gone on this year with going to the Clash and running well out there, then getting spun but coming back through to have a good finish… all the finishes we’ve had and all the races that we’ve run, we’ve been right up front and we’ve been fast. It gives my legion, Rowdy Nation, a sense of pride to be cheering us on and having an interest in watching again and not dreading watching again. That’s what makes it fun for me, foremost. Then of course too to see adding to that legion of fans and having an opportunity to win here in my hometown, to win last week at California… I’ve raced a lot in Nevada, California, Arizona and Utah when I was a kid growing up, so it’s nice to come around these parts and still score victories. No matter where on the Cup series, you want to win. To do that last week at California and to hear the afterwards was really cool. It’s awesome to me to hear a little bit of a changing of the guard, which is fun. Hopefully it keeps going.”
WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO GET OUT OF THE TEST NEXT WEEK WITH THE NEW SHORT-TRACK PACKAGE?
“I don’t know if you’re really going to get out there in a group and set up a simulated race or anything like that. We’re all just going to do our normal practice where we roll out together, we spread out a little bit and we go. I don’t think we’ll really get a chance to foresee what our cars will be like in traffic until we line up for the race and go. As far as practice goes, just trying to get a feel for what the pace is going to be, what the feel is, is it going to be way slower or is the car going to have a lot less grip, all that sort. That’s kind of the biggest thing you’ll set up for.”
ARE YOU ENCOURAGED BY THE CHANGES THAT WERE MADE TO THE CAR?
“Yeah, I would say so. I think there’s a couple of different things that I would have done. But I like direction and the things they did do, talking about diffuser strakes, reducing the underbody effects and things like that. I think we tried so hard on that with this car to design that into it, and I think we kind of created another two-headed monster, if you will, with the back of these cars needing to be down as low as they need to be. Last year we had tire issues for awhile, and it seemed like the teams got that squared away a little bit. We’re all still battling the same things of trying to get that car as low as you can because the underbody effects are just so huge?”
CAN YOU PREPARE FOR BRISTOL ON DIRT SINCE IT’S SUCH AN ANALOMY?
“No. Matter of fact, we have way too much practice when we go there. Two hours of practice on a dirt track that deteriorates is genius. If I could fix that, we would literally have a five-lap hot-lap in groups and then go right into heat races. That’s it.”
COULD YOU FEEL THE ENERGY FROM THE CROWD WHEN YOU WON LAST WEEK, AND ARE YOU AS COMFORTABLE WEARING A WHITE HAT AS A BLACK HAT?
“No. All my stuff is black for a reason. It’s fun to always kind of play up with the fans and stuff like that. My fans especially are awesome. I’ve got a lot that I wouldn’t say that I know personally, but whenever you see them at venues or at autograph sessions or KBM when we do Fan Day, you recognize these folks and you’ve seen them for 10 or 15 years. It’s interesting just to continue to build off of that with new fans. It’s a lot of fun. People get a different read on me as I’m getting older and getting wiser and all those great things. Hopefully that doesn’t mean I’m slowing down though.”
YOU SOUNDED FRUSTRATED WITH THE QUALITY OF THE RACING IN THE FIELD LAST NIGHT. COMPARED TO PREVIOUS YEARS WHEN YOU WOULD RACE IN TRUCKS IF THEY NEED TO DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT?
“I don’t know if it’s just inexperience or what. Obviously it’s a learning series. But if you’re not learning coming out of ARCA how to not crash, then you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing well enough. Just a lot of crashes last night. I haven’t gone back and rewatched it to see some of the circumstances of some of those, but I’d imagine a few of those are probably avoidable. The other thing that’s frustrating too is with the Truck Series with as short as the stages are, why are we destroying our stuff in a 30-lap run when we can come back to the pits, recycle with pit stops and things like that, and shake and bake a little bit with how you get on and off pit road. The only thought I had to fix that… we had a caution four laps before a stage break was coming. Then we went green and then we had a caution for a stage break. If we want to go 30, 35, 40 laps or whatever it might be, let’s race 40 laps green and if we go 40 laps green and throw a yellow instead of throwing a yellow, four more laps and then another yellow because of a stage break. Just change it up. I don’t think anything is going to happen to that but that’s just been my thought.”
NOW THAT YOU AND YOUR BROTHER ARE THE WINNING BROTHER TANDEM AFTER AUTO CLUB AND NOW THAT YOU’RE BACK HOME, HAS THERE BEEN ANY TIME TO CELEBRATE WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY?
“We have a small family. It’s just Kurt, my mom and dad. My grandmother moved from Vegas back east with us, but she’s since passed. My mom is out here and she has some friends she hangs out with. So she does the friends tour, if you will, when she gets back to Vegas. For myself, one of my buddies that I used to race RC cars with got on a road trip last week and went down to Florida for Bike Week this week. It’s a small-knit group that we have here in Vegas. It’ll be fun to focus on the racing here at the big track and also Brexton tonight at the Bullring. I’m excited to get him over there and see what he’s got tonight.”
WHAT’S YOUR EXPECTATIONS IN YOUR KAULIG RACING DEBUT?
“For what I felt yesterday, I’m hoping for a top-10. But if the adjustments that we did overnight go the way we hope they will, I feel like we have a shot to race in the top-five. That, I feel like, is doable. Last week, Austin had a great run in the car. He was really fast. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to run that car. It’s sort of the backup car. But I still feel like with RCR chassis and bodies and everything that it’s all really close. That’s not going to be the problem. It’s just going to be the main setup of the car is way different than I’m accustomed to feeling in Xfinity. I haven’t done it for awhile too, but that’s no excuse. We’ll give it everything we’ve got.”
AS A TEAM OWNER, DO YOU PUT ANY RESTRICTIONS ON YOUR TRUCK SERIES DRIVERS AS FAR AS WHAT THEY CAN DO OUTSIDE THE TRACK?
“No. As drivers and humans, we have to go live life. We can’t just be locked up in a room at home and wrapped in bubblewrap. Years ago when I was racing late models and a little bit of dirt cars, Joe (Gibbs) would always kind of warn me not to get hurt or whatever. Then I got hurt in his car doing something for him, so it was like ‘Any stipulations you ever had were out the window!’ I had free reign. It’s a part of it. You never know what’s going to happen. You just deal with it when it comes.”
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