KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Crispy Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Do you feel the weight of attempting to win a Sprint Cup championship each season?
“Not necessarily at the beginning of the year, but when it comes down towards the end of the year or you fall out of contention of being able to win a championship you just then know or realize or feel that a whole year or a whole 365 days is essentially wasted. It’s frustrating in that respect that I haven’t been able to win a championship yet – I certainly want one. I certainly feel that I’m capable of winning one and our team is capable of winning one. It just hasn’t been all the right circumstances yet.”
Do you get tired of answering questions about it being ‘your year’ to win the championship?
“It’s not the questions I like to answer, but it’s the questions I have to answer because truthfully we haven’t put it all together yet. Whether it’s been me or whether it’s been the team or whatever, it just hasn’t happened. You definitely hope this year will be different and you know you can put that success together and at the end of the day sit at the head table in Vegas.”
Is the addition of Carl Edwards bringing more energy to Joe Gibbs Racing?
“I don’t know that Carl (Edwards) has necessarily energized us any more than just the opportunity to have four cars and have four teams. We know Carl is a great addition or we wouldn’t have hired him if he wasn’t, but I think it’s the fourth team and the fourth experienced crew chief that we have and the four experienced drivers that we have – it wasn’t a rookie crew chief or a rookie driver coming on board with the fourth team that would have us saying we’re not even going to use those guys’ notes for the first year. It’s exciting for all of us. I think the most excitement to me is getting behind the wheel of the new Camry and having M&M’s Crispy being back. Then also just the fact of having the relationship with Adam Stevens (crew chief) that I have over the last couple years in the Nationwide Series to now hopefully put that to good use in the Sprint Cup Series.”
How did the foot surgery go during the off-season?
“Everything went according to plan – probably better than planned actually. I feel like just this week I’m right back to where I was prior to even getting the surgery so now anymore healing that does happen from here on out is just a positive, so the surgery was a success. I broke a sesamoid bone years ago in the bottom of my foot and just let it naturally heal, that’s the only way it would heal, but there was no blood flow down there. It healed, but it was still cracked, but just the scar tissue built around it to hold it together and then I broke it again a couple years ago and it’s just always been aching in the car, walking around or anywhere. Finally just getting it out and getting it taken care of and now it’s pretty good.”
What do you expect from Erik Jones this season?
“I expect a lot from Erik Jones and I think Erik Jones knows that, he sees that and sees the potential that he carries. I just hope he still fits in his helmet as people talk about him and to him over the course of this season – how successful he can be and what his potential is. I think it’s very high. He’s got a great regard for his cars, for car control, for the trucks or whatever it might be. I see nothing less than him winning rookie of the year and being a champion in the Truck Series this year. That’s what we’re set out to do and that’s what he feels like he’s ready to do. The races that he’s had over the last couple of years to build that experience has been really good for him and I’m excited to see that go to the next level.”
How would you explain the feeling of starting the Daytona 500?
“It’s crazy because I felt that as a rookie maybe my second year, but I don’t necessarily feel it that much now. I feel it like another race, but it is the first race of the year and you want to start it off well. Are you always really ready for the start of the season? Who knows? If the Daytona 500 was the fifth or sixth race of the year would it be better for me or better for somebody else? Maybe or maybe not. The only way I can explain it to people is if you ever get excited or the adrenaline starts pumping and you don’t necessarily have any feelings and it’s just excitement. It could be for people experiencing the birth of a kid or something like that or seeing their kid go through graduation or something like that. That’s sort of the feeling that you get of getting ready to start the Daytona 500. To me, I get nervous or pumped up or excited for the start of the Super Bowl. I’m excited and I’m jacked up for it so I can only imagine what the players feel and that’s sort of the feeling that you get.”
What would be bigger for you, winning the Daytona 500 or the birth of your son?
“Right now, the Daytona 500 would definitely be bigger, but All-Star week in May, it’s probably definitely going to be the birth of my son. Both I just couldn’t imagine. I can’t imagine the feelings I would have, the feelings Samantha (Busch, wife) would have, the team, all of us would be able to share together. It would be a special moment.”
Do you expect fatherhood to change you similar to what happened with Kevin Harvick?
“You certainly hope so. I just think it all timed out so well for him (Kevin Harvick) obviously. Being with a new team and I know exactly what he’s talking about how you go to work and you just wonder if this is what you want to do and you’re not happy doing it and then you go to a new team and it’s like, ‘Holy cow.’ Everything changes and the world flips upside down. I had that same feeling when I went to Joe Gibbs Racing. When I was leaving Hendrick, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to leave or what to expect at the next place, but it all fell together so easy and it was awesome. I know exactly what he was going with there, but then the birth of a son and all of that working out pretty well. It’s exciting for them and you can’t say life’s perfect because it never is – it looks like it is on the outside, but it never really is on the inside. Just read Samantha’s blog. It certainly worked out really well for them and it looks peachy right now.”
What do you think of the new qualifying format to determine the front row for the Daytona 500?
“I think teams spend all winter long trying to massage a Daytona 500 car to go out there and sit on the pole. The engine builders build strong engines to try to sit on the pole and I’ve only ever had one restrictor plate pole in my entire life and that was the old style qualifying, so I’m not necessarily a fan of the old way either because I’ve only won one because it’s all car and engine. That’s what those guys work for. Now it’s all circumstantial. It doesn’t even have any driver skill to qualify on the pole for the Daytona 500. It’s strictly being able to get out there in the right pack, transfer through and then make it in the right spot when it comes down to the end.”
Does the shortened qualifying time make it more chaotic?
“It makes it a lot more chaotic. If you see the first group dilly dally around and sit on pit road for two and a half minutes and then they go out and they make a slow run because they’re all not lined up correctly, that just puts it straight onto the second group to not look like the same type of idiots to just get in a line and go out there and run 20 cars for four laps or however many laps you can get in. You will all run faster than the entire first group. I guarantee you there will not be that many smart 20 drivers that will do that together to work in one pair and beat the first group out. We all have our own way of doing it and our own way is the best way, but it definitely never lines up with anybody else’s way.”
