KYLE BUSCH
Hitting on 21? Really?
HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. (Nov. 5, 2008) -- When playing the card game
blackjack, pretty much everyone knows that the big payout comes when you
get to the magic number of 21.
So why in the world is Las Vegas native Kyle Busch hitting on 21? If
anyone should know the rules of 21, you'd think it'd be a guy from Las
Vegas.
While Busch, driver of the No. 18 Pedigree Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing
(JGR), may not actually be playing much blackjack these days, he's hit
plenty of jackpots in 2008. He notched jackpot number 21 last week in
the O'Reilly Challenge NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Texas Motor
Speedway in Fort Worth when he drove JGR's No. 18 Toyota to victory lane
for the 21st time.
Busch has scored eight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victories, 10 Nationwide
Series wins and found victory lane three times this season in the NASCAR
Craftsman Truck Series.
The 23-year-old looks to add wins 22, 23 and 24 this weekend as he
competes in all three series at Phoenix International Raceway. And while
the Friday (Truck) and Saturday (Nationwide) shows will be important to
Busch, the main event (to borrow another Vegas term) will come Sunday
behind the wheel of his No. 18 Pedigree Toyota in the Checker O'Reilly
Auto Parts 500k NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.
Busch has seven Sprint Cup starts at the 1-mile desert oval and has five
top-10 finishes, including three in a row dating back to the spring
2007 race. He won the pole for the spring 2006 event and scored his
second-ever Sprint Cup victory on Nov. 13, 2005 in the Checker Auto
Parts 500k in his first start at the "Diamond in the Desert."
His "undercard" resume isn't too shabby, either, considering he has
won the last two Nationwide Series races at Phoenix, has four top-10
finishes in six starts, and has won the pole three times. In three
Craftsman Truck Series starts, he's never qualified worse than 16th and
never finished worse than 11th. To top it off, he won the November 2007
race.
So that's why it's time to break the rules this weekend as Busch sets
his sights on "22"... and "23" and "24"...
KYLE BUSCH: Driver, No. 18 Pedigree Toyota Camry at Phoenix
International Raceway
Have you met or exceeded the goals you and the No. 18 team set at the
start of the season?
"We've exceeded our goals for the season. Our goals were to get
a win first, and then a couple wins, and then solidify ourselves
as contenders, get into the 'Chase,' and be able to compete for
the championship. We really didn't get a shot to compete for the
championship, which is too bad. But there were plenty of highlights,
like sweeping the road course races, winning the first race at Atlanta
for myself with Joe Gibbs Racing, Snickers and M&M's, Toyota and Steve
Addington (crew chief), and winning all the races I've won this year."
You won in your very first Sprint Cup start at Phoenix, along with
the last two Nationwide Series races there. What does it take to be
successful at Phoenix?
"Phoenix is pretty neat place. For some reason, I've always run well
there. I don't know if it's that I'm comfortable being back close to
home on the West Coast, or what. The coolest thing about Phoenix is
that you have two distinctly different corners. Turns one and two
are different than three and four, and there's also a kink in the
backstretch. Being able to run well there depends on how well you can
turn in the center of turns one and two, and yet still have a good
drive up off the back straightaway because it's so long and fast. Then,
getting into turn three, you really need to rotate. Just past the center
of turns three and four, you have a little bit of kink on the apron,
where you need to be able to turn and get a good drive off the corner.
It's really dependent on how I like the car set up so I'm able to make a
good lap time. There are plenty of tricks to that place that you need to
know to be successful."
With six combined races left, how many wins do you think you can rack up
over the last two weekends?
"We're trying to get as many as we can. It doesn't matter from here on
out. There's still two more Cup races, two more Trucks and two more
Nationwide, so that's (six) more opportunities to get more. If we happen
to win one more, two more, three more -- it doesn't matter what it is.
It's just that we're putting the effort in and running up front to have
a shot to win each race."
You seem to be comfortable at tracks that are short and flat, like
Phoenix. Why is that?
"For some reason, I'm always fast on the flat tracks. I just have fun at
those types of places. It's fun for me to be able to get the car hung
out and loose all the time. But at a flat track like Phoenix, you can't
necessarily do that because you lose your forward bite so much and you
can't drive up off the corner as well. I just seem to be comfortable at
the one-mile flat tracks, for some reason. It probably has to do with
running some of those types of tracks growing up, and also with my Late
Model team."
While you've had a lot of success at Phoenix during your career, you've
been pretty vocal that you need to get better on the flat tracks in the
Sprint Cup car. What are your expectations for this weekend?
"We were okay in the spring race at Phoenix, but we weren't running
where we wanted to be. I know everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing has been
working extremely hard on our flat track program, recently. That's
something that we'll need to improve on for next year to have a shot at
the championship. We had trouble at both New Hampshire races and Pocono,
in particular, but I know the guys are focused on making those tracks
better. Hopefully, we're getting back heading in the right direction on
the flat track stuff."
Have all of your wins and records this season really sunk in yet?
"The year's not over, yet, so once the checkered flag falls in the Cup
race at Homestead, then it'll be time to reflect and look back on it
all and be, like, 'Wow, that's pretty cool.' I don't even know all the
numbers, to tell you the truth. All I know is the wins -- the 10 in the
Nationwide Series and the 21 overall. It's just phenomenal the way this
year's gone. A lot of that success, of course, is right down to Joe
Gibbs Racing and all these guys putting their hearts and everything into
the organization with the Nationwide stuff and (with) the Cup stuff.
It's pretty special times for us, so we'll have to cherish it while
we're having it and, hopefully, it'll continue somewhat next year, too."
-credit: jgr
