Kyle Busch (third) was the highest-finishing Toyota driver in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race at Kansas Speedway that was won by Joey Logano.
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 3rd
What does this finish say about your team as you move forward in the Chase?
“It says good things about us. This M&M’s Camry was awesome — I can’t say enough about Dave Rogers (crew chief) and the fight in this 18 bunch. They’ve done a really good job this year, this time and it’s a matter of keep piecing these things together like that. Mile-and-a-halves haven’t been our strong suit this year, I think our best finish was a third at Kentucky. We know we have some work to do in our program. Those two guys up front just left us — they were flat out flying today. I’m sure there were a couple other cars that were good to finish third, fourth, fifth — we were about sixth or seventh, but we’ll take a third. It feels good to come out of here, especially at Kansas with a top-five here. I think for me, it’s all about places widening out. You have to have options and places that you run one lane along the bottom — Michigan, here — until they’re seasoned, they’re just no fun. It’s just follow the leader. Here today it was all over the place. I’m actually shocked we got up to the wall today. Pretty impressive, it’s fun to do and again, great job by my guys.”
How strong was the car in the race?
“The guys gave me a great race car from the start — we definitely worked on it and we hit on some things during our qualifying runs that was really good for us and we carried that into the practices yesterday and then into today’s race. Just a great M&M’s Camry — can’t say enough. Those first two guys were gone — they were checked out and I had nothing for them, but just glad to be able to hold off the rest of the guys behind me and come home third. Proud of the effort and its Kansas so it’s good. Now we can move on and see what we can do at some of these other places.”
How did the team work to make the car better during the weekend?
“I don’t think we thrashed or worked too hard or too quick in areas in order to make the car better, we just methodically thought about it and worked on it. We made some good gains on making the car drive the way I wanted it to drive. This track definitely aged from where it was when we were here in the spring to today — I was impressed and thought it was fun to be able to move around for as wide as the race track got. I hate one lane race tracks and it wasn’t one lane today, it was everywhere and you could go anywhere you wanted to. There at the end you could definitely see the top is starting to favor already and pretty soon it will be a one lane race track around the top just because of the progressive banking and the progressiveness of it, it’s fast up there. Need to work on that and get better at racing the top like that and maybe we can win one someday.”
What does it mean to earn a top-five finish at Kansas?
“It’s good and it means a lot to come out of here. I set my mind to it that there is no reason why we can’t run good here. There is absolutely no reason and other guys can do it so I can do it and my teammates can do it — there is no reason. We did that here today and it felt good. Again, we just need to carry on and continue to run strong in these remaining races and have another good, solid run next week at Charlotte and then we can go into Talladega with a little bit of a cushion on our side.”
Does a third-place finish at Kansas feel like a victory?
“I want champagne and to do donuts right now, but I think they would frown on that if you’re third. All good, just can’t say enough about the effort of this 18 bunch. This M&M’s Camry was awesome today. Dave Rogers (crew chief) and all the guys did a really good job this weekend. They listened to my feedback and I felt that my feedback was good. We got the pieces in place that we needed and all race long we kept up with the race track and we kept up with our adjustments there. Those first two guys there, they just checked out on us. I had nothing for them and I felt like I was running a pretty good pace, but those guys were flat out flying. There may have been a couple other good cars out there today that didn’t have good finishes that could have finished third, fourth, fifth, but I felt like we were a good sixth or seventh place car. Circumstances worked in our favor there and we ended up third. Again, can’t say enough about the effort of this team. Looking forward for the next few weeks.”
What were the concerns with the engine in the closing laps?
“Typically, anytime we get the motors hot they start to stink and they start to fill the cab with smoke and that’s what was happening there from the second to last restart on. I was just praying that it was going to make it the whole way and get us to the end. That’s not what we needed to see happen. Fortunate that all is good, the motor made it. Thanks to TRD (Toyota Racing Development) — appreciate their help and them fighting hard to try to get us some horsepower. It feels good to run up front.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 7th
What does how you ran at Kansas say about your race team?
“Well, you know it’s kind of a best case scenario for us in our FedEx Office Toyota team. Just a solid day. We didn’t think we were going to contend for a win here today, but we knew we could contend for a top-five, top-10 finish and we did. I’m proud of my team — no mistakes on pit road, just nice smooth day. I saw those guys having a lot of issues. We don’t have a lot of the speed that those guys have, so maybe if we can get them out this round, then maybe there’s a fighting chance we’ll get to the end of this thing.”
How do you feel about this finish and the next two Chase races of this round?
“I feel good about where we’re at. It was a good race for us all around. There are some guys that are faster than us week in and week out and they had some issues — we didn’t and kind of capitalized on that and finished well. Proud of the team — this is a good run for us and this is obviously the type of runs that we need to keep moving on. We’ll take sevenths all the way out.”
BRIAN VICKERS, No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Finishing Position: 10th
How did the car handle in the race?
“The car was a handful most of the day. I think we wrecked 15 times and didn’t hit anything. We didn’t get much practice yesterday — we had a couple shock issues that kind of messed us up for the two practices. Then we finally got that figured out on the last run of practice. Basically, today’s race was our practice. It just took us until the end of the race to kind of get it figured out. There were a few runs there where we were horrible and trying to learn and trying things that didn’t work and did work. Then that last run the guys said, ‘Screw it,’ and threw the kitchen sink at it with a couple changes where we were trying to learn something for the future and it was just awesome. We drove back up from 20th to 10th and could have been even better if we would have had more time and track position. Proud of the Aaron’s Dream Machine guys — they did a good job getting the car better. It was just unfortunate that we weren’t better most of the day. We could have been racing for a win. Considering everything we had to overcome this weekend I would say we’re pleased, but not satisfied.”
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 13th
What happened in the race that hampered your finish?
“Not good — we just got some damage there and took a long time to fix it. That got us way behind and then it was just uphill from there. We had a set of tires that got loose then we had an unscheduled stop and got behind. Just could never get back to the front.”
CLINT BOWYER, No. 15 Pink Lemonade 5-hour ENERGY benefitting LBBC Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Finishing Position: 18th
How was the race?
“We just struggled all day. Got damage early on and our pink lemonade 5-hour ENERGY Toyota was never the same. Hate it at my home track.”
COLE WHITT, No. 26 Moen Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Finishing Position: 23rd
JJ YELEY, No. 83 Burger King Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Finishing Position: 29th
ALEX BOWMAN, No. 23 Dr. Pepper Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Finishing Position: 32nd
MIKE WALLACE, No. 66 435 Overland Park Place Hotel Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports
Finishing Position: 34th
