KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Where do you feel the team is starting the Chase?
“I feel like the 18 team is pretty good. We’ve had some not-so-great runs, but still I think we’ve been working through all the mistakes that we’ve made. We’ve been discussing different things as a team that we can do better and what we can work on to overcome those things that have taken us down the last month or so, but all in all I’m looking forward to the Chase starting here. I’m looking forward to going to Chicago where we ran well last year — we finished second and had a chance to win and then again at Loudon (N.H.) — same thing. We finished second and had a chance to win there as well last year and did that again this spring. Dover is always a good place for us, so I look forward to the first round.”
How frustrating have the past few races been?
“It’s been pretty frustrating, no doubt. You want to run well, you want to do well — we were capable of a top-10 at Watkins Glen and we got in a wreck there and hurt our chances. Again, I could go on with the other races where things happened. If things would have worked out a little differently in Atlanta with pit strategy we could have finished fifth or sixth there. It’s just been all over the board. These races are so tight and anything can happen — they’re never over until they’re over. You just have to keep making the right choices and having things go the right way for you. You can end up top-15 pretty easy.”
Does your performance in last year’s Chase give you confidence this season?
“It does — you know you can do it. There’s opportunity there. It’s not necessarily that there are tracks that I don’t run well at. We’ve crossed off all of those that I can run well at or we can win at. That’s not a problem — just being able to put the right setup under the car at the right time for track conditions. Last year, the Chicago race was supposed to be a day race and we were running probably seventh or so and it turned into a night race and we led the most laps and almost won at night. You have to have things kind of go your way and work out right. You have to be smart about it and just talk as much as you can with your crew chief about things that you know you need in the car or what you’re feeling wrong and work on those.”
How do you feel about the quality of cars from Joe Gibbs Racing for the Chase?
“I’m optimistic and I’m ready to go and they have been building new cars. Our car for Chicago is brand new — it has not seen the race track yet. Fortunately, we were able to do that because we built it, tunneled it and everything, then put it on jack stands to wait for the Chase because we didn’t need to use it to get in. We had that luxury. Now that we have a couple sitting there on jack stands ready to go, we just take the covers off and put engines in them and get ready to go and see how they run. This will be our first test here this weekend.”
Do you expect teams that have been strong to be even stronger in the Chase?
“It depends on what level they’ve been operating at — we know our level isn’t high enough and we know there’s room to grow because of what we’re getting beat by each and every single week. The 2 (Brad Keselowski), the 4 (Kevin Harvick) and the 24 (Jeff Gordon) — they are your favorites so how much more can they pick up? I don’t know, they might have been running at 100 percent already and if we can just get to their level and compete with them, then a driver may prevail a little more and you can see some guys doing some good things behind the steering wheel and getting the job done there.”
Are other drivers as hungry as you are to win a Sprint Cup championship?
“I think anybody that doesn’t have one is just as hungry — I believe that. The amount of work and effort and dedication and the things that I feel like I’ve done probably exceeds a little more of what some of the guys have done in their careers. I have no idea — I just say that because I feel like I’ve worked real hard and got a lot of good breaks to go my way and have done some other things that have gotten me to the level that I’m at. It’s anybody’s game right now. There are 16 guys that have the opportunity so may the best man and best team win.”
How does this new Chase format change the approach?
“It levies itself to many different options and circumstances to win the championship this year obviously. You can’t have mediocre days or bad days without wins, that’s not going to work. To have the 15ths or better for the first round — each of those three weeks you’re going to move on — that’s pretty simple I think. Then probably you have to have 10ths or better in the next round to be able to move on to the next one if you don’t have wins. From there, it’s just going to get tougher. Each round it’s going to get tougher. You have to be the top-finishing guy. If there’s three different winners in Martinsville, Texas and Phoenix — those three guys automatically go and there’s only going to be one guy that doesn’t have a win that gets to move on.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
What does it mean to have Darian Grubb back this weekend?
“It’s good to have him (Darian Grubb, crew chief) back — obviously he’s been working probably more hours since he’s been away from the track than he does when he comes on the road. We have been preparing for this Chase for a really long time. At Joe Gibbs Racing, we’ve won all the regular season races before and been the favorites and not won it over these last few years. We have a little bit different approach this year and not that we didn’t want to perform better, but we’re trying to time this thing correctly and hopefully we have.”
Has Darian Grubb had time to work on things he would not have been able to by being trackside?
“He’s (Darian Grubb, crew chief) been working really hard and I think a lot of it is that he says he’s learned how races play out by watching them and seeing live data — able to have really papers all around him of strategies and stuff that he can use for races that are coming up. I think that he’s been able to analyze everything he could and spend more time doing that stuff. Hopefully it all pays off with the right call at the end of the race that nobody else thought of.”
Does this Chase mean more after missing last year’s Chase?
“It makes you appreciate it for sure. When you miss a Chase, and last year I remember reading on Twitter everything and reading all the quotes and everything — you’re nearly non-existent when you’re not part of the Chase from this point on in the season. It’s tough and you want to stay relevant and you want to keep going to keep your name in the mix and give yourself and your team an opportunity. This time around it’s a completely different format and hopefully we’ve come up with a system that gets us through this.”
Do you believe the champion will have to win a race?
“I think the champion will have won a race at some point in this whole grid, but I don’t know. I think the way it’s going to play out with four guys at the end — they’re probably going to get more room on the race track at Homestead from everyone else not wanting to be the person that causes trouble. You will probably have to win. I would say those top-four drivers will probably be in the top-five positions when it’s all said and done.”
Do you expect drivers to be more conservative in the first round?
“You will be sure to back off your pit road speed a little bit, the pit crews have to make sure everything is tight so if you have to slow down to do that — the first round especially is going to be about mistakes and don’t make those mistakes. Don’t beat yourself. We know we’re capable of moving on — just at the speed that we’ve been. We just can’t beat ourselves. I think there is a sense of being conservative and you’re going to be a little more conservative if you’re not first or second battling for a race win. Of course if you do that you lock yourself in and you can go play for two weeks. I think on restarts it’s all going to be a little more touch and go than what we’ve seen.”
What is the wild card race for your team in the Chase?
“To me Kansas is the big race for us as a race team because that was where we were the slowest in the spring to the field. We really struggle there since they repaved the race track and have those hard tires. I think Kansas is as much of a wild card race as Talladega is for us. Obviously, our superspeedway racing has been amazing this year and I don’t know what our average finish is, but I think it’s like two in all the races. You hope that law of averages doesn’t catch up to you because it will eventually, but that second bracket right there with Kansas and Talladega — that’s going to be the tough one to get by.”
Do you have more confidence about this Chase format?
“You don’t want to draw too much attention to yourself, but I believe that as soon as I saw this grid and how it all worked out and the Chase tracks I was like, ‘Wow, this is like tailor made for us.’ It really is, we just have to get to that eliminator eight or whatever it’s called and that’s when we get into the wheelhouse of our race tracks that we’ve performed at in the past. For us I think that if we can make it to Homestead and have a shot, we go from being the extreme underdogs going into this probably to the favorite being that we’ve won there over the last couple years. Who knows how it all plays out. You have to get there first and you can’t look that far ahead. Our focus is here in Chicago, but you have to be consistent I believe these first two rounds and get yourself in position for those last four races.”
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
How do you feel about the team’s chances in the Chase?
“I feel pretty good about it. I feel like we’ve been getting more competitive. I know I’ve been saying it for a long time. I know Richmond was a disaster, but that was 100 percent my fault. I just got in the fence and ruined our day. Atlanta we had to gamble on strategy, but on the first restart I really felt like we were probably going to win. Had a second restart and just got beat by Kasey (Kahne). Bristol we made kind of a call there because we knew we couldn’t win how we were and got out there a ways and just not far enough. We were leading late and ended up third. I feel like we’ve been getting closer and we’ve been running in the top-five a lot. All the finishes don’t show it because we’ve been caught up in so many accidents this year. I feel good about it. We don’t have the wins to show for it yet, but I really think — I could be wrong, but I really think we’re going to win some races yet this year. Obviously if you can win in the Chase the way they have all this stuff setup, that’s a good thing because you can transfer. Hopefully we can get some at the right time.”
Is there strategy involved to move through this Chase format?
“When you look at the first round, they’re going to drop four people out and let’s just assume that a Chase driver wins the three races and let’s assume it’s a different one. There’s still nine drivers — it’s pretty simple math so I’m glad I could do that. There’s still nine drivers that get in by points. As you go on, obviously the way it would have worked last year when you get to that last round, three of those spots would have been filled by winners and one person by points. Then obviously you want to be one of those winners, but you want to be a winner every week. The fact is that there’s only one winner and 42 that aren’t. I am a one week at a time guy. I feel like for all the talk and all the different strategies and how everything is laid out and everything like that, I always think that ever since the beginning of time when they counted points, the strategy is really simple to try to get to the championship — you go out with the idea of trying to win. If you can’t win — if you can win every race then you’re going to win the championship, but if you can’t in and you’re off and you finish second then you got the second most amount of points and so on and so forth. If you can’t win on a given day then you want to finish as high as you can no matter what happens. Hope the results are good enough.”
Do you expect to have better equipment for the Chase?
“It’s a competitive business and we all have to do our job to the best of our ability. It’s never one thing you can aim at for why you’re not running good. I think we realize we’re at a deficit in some certain areas or some areas more than others and we’re trying to work on all that and can always get it better. I feel like the stuff we have coming this weekend for instance I think is a lot better than the stuff we took to — I don’t know, pick out a mile-and-a -half from a couple months ago. I feel like we’re definitely a lot better. Our equipment is better than it was then. You have to get it setup right, call the race right and have good pit stops and not make mistakes on the track. You still have to do all those things and have good restarts and all that and have to get the results. I feel like our stuff is probably right now the best it’s been all year.”
How important is the first race at Chicago?
“It’s important — now I guess you can’t say it’s equally important as all the last 10, but it’s equally as important as the first three. I always think it’s nice to get off to a good start — you don’t want to be in a hole and then be thinking about panicking or making a move that you normally wouldn’t make or something like that. I think you want to keep everything business as usual and do the things you know how to do and the things you’re comfortable doing and go from there. Certainly it would be great to start it off with a win like we did last year. That’s what everybody is thinking.”
How difficult will the second round be with Kansas, Charlotte and Talladega?
“That’s a tough round — a really tough round. Not so much Charlotte, that is kind of the same for everybody, but Kansas is really tricky and it’s really hard to pass and then Talladega — who the heck knows what’s going to happen there. That’s a tough one — I’m glad it’s the second round and not the third round because there is a few more cars in it. That’s a tough one, especially going to Talladega for the last race of that round. I think it’s going to be really weird and interesting because whoever is in it, I think you’re going to see people riding in the back because they think there’s going to be a wreck, but you have to go eventually. I think there’s going to be a lot going on there. That will be an interesting one to narrow it down from 12 to eight.”
