NASCAR CUP SERIES
POCONO RACEWAY
HIGHPOINT.COM 400
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
JULY 21, 2023
KYLE BUSCH, NO. 8 LENOVO CAMARO ZL1, met with the media on Friday afternoon at Pocono Raceway. Media availability quotes:
WHERE WERE YOU AND HOW DID YOU FIND OUT LAST YEAR THAT YOU HAD BEEN DQ’D?
“Driving back to the airport after the race.”
WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION TO THAT?
“Yeah, it was a surprise that it happened for sure. Having no idea of anything about that, would come as a surprise – getting a second-place finish taken away from you, but it wasn’t as bad as a win.”
WHAT WOULD IT MEAN FOR ANY OF YOUR TRUCK SERIES DRIVERS TO SCORE KBM’S 100TH WIN TONIGHT?
“Yeah, it would certainly be nice. We have been talking about it for way too long. That would be good. Again, just having too many opportunities slip away for sure over the last three years, and to not have gotten to 100 by now. Only winning one race last year, only winning one race this year….you know, its been pretty lackluster. So, it would be nice to come out here and have a good, strong run with our Zariz Transport Silverado and get back in victory circle.”
HOW HUNGRY ARE YOU COMING TO A TRACK WHERE YOU HAVE WON FOUR TIMES SINCE 2017?
“Yeah, I wouldn’t say the hunger diminishes in any week more so than the next. Missed opportunity last week. I couldn’t carry it. I tried like hell to carry it, just couldn’t do it. You know, so, that hurt us last week in not finishing and at least score some points. Short track package has been our nemesis and still is. So many ideas have been thrown around and we have tried different ideas and concepts and none of them have hit it yet. Obviously, we haven’t found the golden ticket.”
REGARDING THE SECRET TO RECENT SUCCESS AT POCONO
“It was a lot of things. Definitely having a better understanding of how to attack the track and having a better set up that would allow me to be able to run the grooves and everything that I needed to run. When the repave happened here – I am terrible on repaves for a few years. Its finally getting to the point, the last five or six years, that the track has gotten some age on it and some character to it and stuff like that. Spraying the PJ1 allows you to widen it out and run different grooves. You don’t have to follow in the guy behind yours’ wake, because that’s the fastest way around. Not having that here this weekend will be interesting to see if we are back to square one with single groove or what happens in that. All-in-all, in 2014 we started to hit on something with Dave Rodgers and then right after that in 2015 with Adam (Stevens). It felt just super easy and just clicked. We have been fast here ever since that, so hoping that Randall (Burnett) and the boys have a good Lenovo Camaro for me to race this time around and to have some good success again being at RCR.”
AFTER SEVERAL RACES IN THE BOOKS WITH THE SHORT TRACK PACKAGE, HOW BIG OF A CONCERN IS THAT FOR YOU?
“It’s a big concern. You know, again, we are just trying to figure it out. How many things we have tried, I can’t even comprehend to tell you. Obviously, we haven’t hit on it yet. We have Richmond coming up next week, so we have to find something that is going to work for us there. Definitely some conceptual ideas that are going around again, on what to do. We will just have to play it out and see how it goes.”
WHAT EXACTLY WAS WRONG LAST WEEK? BECAUSE THERE WERE THREE SEPARATE INCIDENTS
“It was the same thing every time. Just loose, no grip. I can’t feel the rear or back of the car getting into the corners, on entry, especially getting into the turn. Just tiptoeing and just trying to hold the steering wheel straight and not give it wheel. And anytime you give it wheel and ask for it to pull the car through the corner, the rear just steps out and the rear can’t hold it. So, that was our biggest issue. That has been our biggest issue on all short tracks.”
ARE YOU FLABBERGASTED ABOUT LAST WEEK OR DO YOU NEED WEEKS LIKE THAT WHEN YOU ARE TRYING TO FIGURE OUT THE SHORT TRACK PACKAGE?
“Well, I would say that…..how many short track races have we had? Six? Five? Okay, enough is enough. I don’t think we need any more bad ones to prove that we are bad at them. We need to find what the answer is to be good at them. I know we are all working as hard as we can and I am at the simulator six hours a week, every week, trying to figure it out. We are doing different things and this week we tried some more stuff this week that kind of hit on what our issues were. We were trying to recreate the issues that we had at the track, in the sim. So we feel like we had a little bit of the right direction on that this time around. Again, we will see if that is the case in what we found, but it would certainly be nice if it was just as easy as copy and paste. Like if you could just copy the 5 or the 24, but the 24 ran terrible last week too. Both of those cars were arguably the fastest cars at Richmond the last time around. So, I don’t think it just comes that easy so we have to find out exactly what the right levers and buttons are to push and pull.”
WHAT IS YOUR SENSE OF HOW SHANE VAN GISBERGEN IS GOING TO BE AT INDIANAPOLIS ON THE ROAD COURSE?
“I would say he is the favorite going in. For sure. I would say that the gap will be closer from Chicago to the rest of the field that he had. He had us all beat by six to eight tenths of a second a lap. I would say going into Indy we should all be within two to three tenths, but he will still be the best guy.”
HOW EXCITED ARE YOU TO RACE WITH BRODIE KOSTECKI AND HAVE YOU GIVEN HIM ANY ADVICE?
“Yeah, we tested together our V8 Supercar that we have at RCR earlier this year. So, he was there when we first went out and I think he had me covered by about two seconds a lap and then as the day kind of progressed, and by the end of the day, we actually ran times that were real comparable and right on top of his. It just took me a while to get used to those cars and what they are and how you can really attack corners. Just various driving techniques that those cars take, but I think those guys are all very good at what they do, and they really understand the heavy stock car feel and basis for these road courses. So, I would assume that he will be strong as well. Hopefully I can lean on him and learn a lot from him and have some time in the sim and stuff like that with him that will allow us to be better off when we get there as well and better prepared.”
HAS THERE BEEN ANY NOTICIBLE DIFFERENCE IN SWITCHING MANUFACTURERS IN YOUR TRUCK TEAM AS FAR AS PERFORMANCE?
“I would have said right after Vegas that it was seamless and we are actually better off, you know? We won Vegas in dominating fashion earlier this year and all of us qualified 1-2-3. It was really, really good and gave us high optimism for the year, but since then it just hasn’t quite gone that way. Kansas was a struggle for us and we were just super off on balance. We did not have a very good feel there for what we needed from sim. So for Pocono, I didn’t do any sim stuff for here. I just told them to rely on past notes because we have always been really, really fast here. Just look at what balances we need and go from there and we will see what happens again, with no PJ1 being sprayed down. I would like to think that our stuff is just fine and its just as good as it should be. Unfortunately, William (Byron) didn’t get any wins in his races that he was with us either. So that was another head scratcher and a bit unfortunate. We know we have to get better and there are some things that we are lacking on. I have tried to voice that, so hopefully we can remedy.”
WHAT HAVE YOU TOLD YOUR TEAM TO MAKE SURE YOU DON’T HAVE THE GEAR ISSUE AGAIN?
“Just make sure the clutch is bled and works good. And that is about it. No, that was kind of an ironic situation the way that all worked out. The clutch went out and I was stuck in high gear and the way that the fuel mileage race was, it was perfect fuel mileage for the end of the race and me being able to kind of save and conserve fuel. The rest of the pack was on a different fuel strategy so they had to pit or stop and that gave us the opportunity to get the lead.”
HAVE YOU THOUGHT OF TRYING TO WIN A TRUCK SERIES TITLE WHEN YOUR TIME IS DONE IN CUP?
“Yeah, I mean I kind of tried that back in the day. 2008, 2009, somewhere in there where I ran as many races as I possibly could. There were some races where it gets expensive trying to fly back and forth and the only way to do that is private air travel obviously. Then the rules all came about where you can’t run that and so whatever. Obviously, it’s kind of been an idea of mine you know and not necessarily why KBM is still going, but obviously we give back to the sport a lot by doing that and all the drivers that have come through there over the years. I would like to give back to me a little bit, or take from it, as I get closer to hanging it up. And then obviously turning it over the Brexton.”
WHAT WAS YOUR THOUGHT PROCESS IN RUNNING DOUBLE DUTY HERE AT POCONO RATHER THAN ANY OTHER TRACK?
“You want the truth? I am only allowed so many races to choose from on the truck side, so this was about one of the only ones that was left that I could choose. With all the limitations on the Cup drivers in being able to race in the lower divisions, I was out of options. So, that is just kind of why it was. I enjoy coming to Pocono, I don’t mind racing here, I have won a couple of times in the trucks. But it is nice to just get back out there and see what we have and work on our program at KBM and evaluate. So, it will be nice to kind of get my final shakedown of that for this year and a brand-new truck. I look forward to learning the most we can.”
DO YOU THINK DRIVERS SHOULD BE DISQUALIFIED OR DO YOU THINK THE WIN SHOULD STAND?
“I think we have had this debate for years. To me it depends on the severity of it, right? Like the piece of tape that was there, last year, for that infraction, I felt like it was a bit over the top. Obviously, it was a blatant thing that shouldn’t have been there, but honestly if it was something missed, then that is the price we have to pay as a team. We win and we lose together. So the cars have to be right, and more right now than ever because the rules and the infractions are just so stiff.”
About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, available in 79 countries with more than 3.2 million cars and trucks sold in 2020. Chevrolet models include electric and fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.
