NASCAR Teleconference Transcript - Kyle Busch
Sepetember 8, 2009
An interview with:
KYLE BUSCH
DENISE MALOOF:
Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to this week's NASCAR
teleconference in advance of the events at Richmond International Raceway.
Those are significant. Saturday's Chevy Rock'n Roll 400 is the final event
in the Race to the Chase, the 10-race stretch that precedes the Chase for
the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Saturday's Richmond race is a cutoff event.
Following it the top 12 drivers in the standings will compete for the NASCAR
Sprint Cup Series title during the season's final 10 races.
Joining us today are two divers who are hoping they are in that group, Kyle
Busch and Brian Vickers. They're among the 11 still eligible for eight
remaining Chase spots. The top four drivers in the current standings, Tony
Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, and Denny Hamlin respectively are in.
We'll begin with Kyle, who drives the No. 18 M&M Toyota. He's 14th in the
standings, 37 points behind Matt Kenseth.
Kyle, it's a simple to-do list this weekend, isn't it?
KYLE BUSCH:
It pretty much is. We just go to Richmond with this weekend's
task at hand, try to do the best we can. Ultimately win the race if we can
or get the best possible finish and try to get the most points out of there
in order to get ourselves into the Chase.
DENISE MALOOF:
We'll now go to media questions for Kyle Busch.
Q:
For the Chase to be a success, is it important for it to have the
drivers with the most wins, like you and Mark Martin? Do you think the
Chase has gotten past the point where it feels like you have to have the
post popular driver in the sport, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., in there?
KYLE BUSCH:
I think we've seen the past few years that there have been guys
that have had a lot of wins, won races, not make the Chase. We've also seen
Dale Earnhardt, Jr. miss it a couple times. He's made it a couple times,
but he's missed it a couple times. I think you still have a successful
season in the Chase, in the sport and the recognition it deserves if I'm not
in it, in Mark Martin is not in it, if Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is not in it,
it's still a success. You have great drivers like Tony Stewart, Jeff
Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin who will be fighting for a
championship, among others. It will still be a great fight down to the end.
Q:
How do you handle the pressure of this? When you get in a racecar,
that's usually when you're most at peace. How do you handle not
overthinking this, pushing yourself into something, getting too aggressive?
The pressure really is on.
KYLE BUSCH:
Yeah, the pressure is on for sure. We just have to do what we
need to do. It's not these two races, Atlanta or this race coming up at
Richmond, that's what's going to put us in the Chase. It's more of the
season that we've had that's kept us out of it.
We've struggled a little bit this year. We haven't been as good as we've
needed to be. Unfortunately we're in this predicament. But last year we
were one of the best cars all season long. We were solidly locked in within
the Chase. Sometimes things change in a year.
But we're trying to get ourselves back in position to get ourselves a place
this weekend, run strong, hard, and come out of Richmond with a good finish.
Q:
Are you afraid if you change anything that would maybe switch things
around or do something that would hurt your effort?
KYLE BUSCH:
Yeah, possibly. I mean, I don't think there's anything we can
change. We just go every week to try to run the best we can and try to
ultimately contend for the win if possible or just get the best finish that
we can get.
Unfortunately we haven't had some of the best cars this year. I haven't
done some of the best driving I've needed to do this year. But we're trying
to get back on par with the way we need to do things. If this weekend is a
success, we win the race, still don't make the Chase, we did all we could.
Q:
Do you think victories should be weighted more? You could finish the
season with more victories than anyone except Mark Martin and not get in.
Should there be an exemption for guys who have won the most races? You seem
to be a driver that people love to dislike. Does that bother you? Do you
feel misunderstood? Do people not know you?
KYLE BUSCH:
I think, you know, the first question, I really don't know how
you can give more points for a win or make sure that those guys are in the
Race to the Chase or whatever. Unfortunately, that's the way the sport goes
sometimes. You got to be consistent in order to make it in. If you're not
consistent, if you just can go out there and win races, who is to say that a
guy that can win five races and have the most wins out of the year, but yet
he sits 10 races out, he picks his five best tracks, wins at those places,
he's guaranteed a spot in the Chase. It won't really work.
I don't know. As far as being the most disliked driver, I feel like I've
got a lot of fans out there that do like who I am and how I drive. I do
have a good, strong following. There's, of course, the legion of fans that
may not like me for what I say on TV, for what I do on the racetrack or
whatever sometimes. But that's a part of the sport. You can't please 'em
all. Dale Earnhardt certainly didn't do it. Darrel Waltrip, Rusty Wallace
didn't do it. Jeff Gordon right now can't do it. Even Jimmie Johnson, who
is probably one of the best drivers on the racetrack as well as off the
racetrack, knowing how to handle difficult situations, he gets boos, too.
You're not going to be able to please the whole legion of everybody.
Q:
Would you have imagined yourself in this position last year, sitting on
the bubble? Do you kind of look at it as every season being different?
KYLE BUSCH:
Every season's different, that's for sure. This season, the
way it's gone, has kind of been a struggle. But, you know, a lot of people
picked us to be the champions this year because of the year we had last
year. We fell off in the Chase a little bit.
But for some reason we just haven't been able to hit our stride. We need to
get back to being able to be consistent week in and week out. Even during a
race, being consistent.
This past weekend at Atlanta, we were really, really good the first four
runs of the race, and then we kept getting looser and looser all night. I
kept falling back a little bit. At the end of the race we got tight. We
just couldn't keep up with the racetrack the way we needed to do. It didn't
work out for us.
Q:
There's been some frustration from you during races about what the 11 is
possibly doing better than you guys. Do you have any feel for that? Do you
and Denny work well together or share information, try to get you two doing
the same thing?
KYLE BUSCH:
Yeah, it's kind of a struggle a little bit because it seems
like whenever Denny finds something that he can really run well with, and we
try to put it in my car, I can't drive it. I'm not very good at being able
to put in what Denny can put in his car and run well with it.
So Denny and I talk. We share information all the time. Our teams work
real closely together. All the Gibbs teams do, as a matter of fact. We
were pulling Logano in there and using his notes, now that he's getting to
the tracks a second time, stuff like that. It's hard because these cars are
so temperamental, trying to find the right setup and the right thing that
works is hard to do.
But we do talk and we do try to share information as much as possible.
Q:
A lot of teammates say that, particularly the Hendrick guys, Dale Jr.
can't drive a car the way that Jeff does. If something works for one guy,
why doesn't it work for another?
KYLE BUSCH:
It's just the way that drivers are. It's the way that a driver
enters the corner, which is different than the next guy. All of us have
different driving styles. There's not one driver out there that has the
same driving style as another. Everybody is different.
That's the thing, 'cause sometimes when we go to test, Denny and myself,
I've pushed myself to drive more like him, and I've become a little bit
better at learning the ways that he does drive his car, so it helps me
sometimes. While we're in a race, I can go back and think to that, try the
things I know Denny is doing. It seems to help sometimes. It's hard to
carry that every single lap because it's not the way you were brought up
driving or the way you drive your cars. You're trying to pick up somebody
else's traits. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad. If you can get a
car that drives really, really good, that fits you, then ultimately that's
who wins every week.
Q:
As you look back on the season, is there one particular race where you
might say you really wish you had another shot at that one, where you had a
great car, didn't get everything out of it you needed to?
KYLE BUSCH:
Uhm, that's a good question. I haven't thought of that really.
I'm trying to think. I mean, I know Infineon was a track that I missed out
on. We fell back I don't even know how many times through the field the
last couple cautions that came out, then we raced our way back up through
there, but still ended up finishing like 23rd or something like that or 25th
maybe.
When you look at it, I mean, the Daytona 500, I wish I had that one back,
for sure. We ran 41st, getting in a wreck with the 88 and the 83 there.
Unfortunately, you know, that was probably the biggest race that I'd love to
have back.
Another one would be Chicago. Just to try to figure out what went wrong
there. We know we lost some spring rubbers during the race. If I could
have maybe felt that or if I could have maybe communicated that something
different was within the car that maybe we could have got a better finish
out of there, too.
Q:
How do you like your chances at El Dora tomorrow?
KYLE BUSCH:
I don't like 'em. It's supposed to rain. I don't think
anybody is going to have a very good race if we're going to be raining. If
it's dry, I'm looking forward to it. Looking forward to driving
Bloomquist's car. I drove one of his chassis owned by Rick Eckart
(phonetic), driven by Rick up in Kasey Kahne's foundation, ran second up
there. So that was fun. To get my feet wet back on the dirt again was
definitely cool. I'm looking forward to going up there tomorrow.
Q:
A couple weeks ago after Bristol you said your target numbers with 3160.
That would be 14th place this week if you don't lead a lap. Is that still
your target or have you had to adjust that at all?
KYLE BUSCH:
I mean, I still think that's a pretty good target. It's going
to be tough, though, because not only do we have to beat the 83, but we also
got to beat the 17. We need those guys to finish worse than 25th or
something like that.
I mean, it's going to be hard. It's definitely not going to be easy. All
we can do is do the best we can do. If we win the race or if we win top 10
or even 14th, we did all we could do. That's all we're gonna have. It's
not going to be Richmond that keeps us out; it's going to be the rest of the
year that we've had our struggles that's going to be what kept us from being
in the Chase.
Q:
Everybody around that bubble spot is going to have a little bit
different strategy in this race. Can you describe your strategy and how it
may change during the race.
KYLE BUSCH:
Yeah, I mean, our strategy is just going to be the same as it's
been the whole year. We just go out there and try to run the best we can.
Fortunately we won the Richmond race in the spring there, so we feel like we
can go back there and do well there. I'd run there about every time I've
been there.
If we have another good, solid run, like a top-10, a top-five run, we really
don't need to change anything. During the race, we'll have to do everything
we can to try to win the race. If there's gonna be, like last time, there
was a caution with 50 to go, some people in the back came in and put tires
on and raced their way up through there. Fortunately the race went green
the rest of the way, where I had enough of a lead where I didn't have to
race any of those guys.
If something like that comes around this time again, we'll have to see where
we're at in the running order, how many laps to go, see if we need to make a
pit stop to get ourselves the finish we need or if we just stay out. It all
just boils down to how the race is looking.
Q:
Do you keep an eye on the guys around the bubble spot?
KYLE BUSCH:
There's nothing you can do. You can't change what they're
doing. You can't make race calls for those guys and tell them that they
need to pit or whatever. There's really no point in going through that
frustration and trying to figure out where those guys are. You just see
what it boils down to at the end of the day.
Q:
Sunday night at Atlanta, last 11 laps after the restart, you made up
five spots. 15 points. That restart from that point on, was that
desperation, controlled desperation, or just typical run at the end of the
race?
KYLE BUSCH:
It was just typical go as hard as you can go. You know you
didn't have to save tires for the long run, 11 laps to go. It was basically
all or nothing those last laps.
Unfortunately there, when we took the green and we were racing down into
turn one, some guys got jumbled up. I was going to go to the high side but
a car pulled up in front of me and broke my momentum so that sort of hurt a
little bit of my run towards the front. Then we had been fighting tight,
real bad tight the previous run before that. We made some adjustments there
on pit road for that to try to free up the car.
It helped a little bit, but I still got a little bit tight towards the end
of that race so I wasn't able to make up the ground I was hoping to. I was
hoping to finish ninth. I think we had a car that was capable of getting
back to seventh, eighth or ninth. If we could have got up there, then I
would have been much happier with that than where we ended up in 13th.
Q:
If you make the Chase this weekend, what makes your team a title
contender?
KYLE BUSCH:
That's a good point. Like I said, we've struggled this year
some places and sometimes it's been me, sometimes it's been the car,
sometimes it's been both not being able to hit it. I hope that we can be
serious title contenders. We ran well at Loudon earlier this year. I don't
remember where we finished there. I think we were like seventh or something
like that.
But, you know, we feel like we can run well there. We've always had good
cars at Dover. Unfortunately earlier this year we had a bump stop failure
that put me back to 23rd. Then we go to Kansas, where we were running well
last year until we had fuel issues. Talladega is in there. California, we
really like that place. There's some good tracks for us in the Chase that
we can really well run well at and shine.
As far as being championship contenders, the only thing that we can really
do is just try to run as consistent as possible. I don't foresee us being
the guy that's going to finish first, second or third every single race like
you can count on the 14 or the 24 or the 48 on doing. We're more of the guy
that's going to be maybe third here but then we might be seventh, eighth,
ninth here or 11th or 12th there. If that's good enough to win a
championship, then certainly we'll be championship contenders, otherwise
we'll just be chasers.
Q:
The Truck Series, can you imagine yourself competing and leading a
series at age 51 as Ron Hornaday is?
KYLE BUSCH:
Yeah, possibly. I thought the standalone event at Chicago was
kind of fun. There was a lot of people there. The garage area was kind of
calm. It was weird to be in just in the Truck Series garage for the whole
weekend. Normally I'm runningback and forth between Truck, Nationwide, Cup,
all that stuff.
I feel like the Truck Series is a little bit more laid back. Hornaday likes
it there. He's got a good home there at KHI, they're running really well.
If I had the opportunity when I was 51 years old, I'd love to do it.
Q:
Are you impressed by what he's done?
KYLE BUSCH:
For sure. This year definitely they've really stepped up their
game. Even though they may not have needed to step up their game, they did.
They won five or six races in a row, whatever they did, I don't remember.
Rick is a smart individual. Ron is a good driver. KHI is a good
organization, a good company to work for. DeLana and Kevin have done a good
job there, given a lot of people a start in racing or have carried on their
racing résumé. It's cool to see them guys running well. I love the Truck
Series. It would probably be something for me to go back and do when I got
up there in age.
Q:
You're having another great season in Nationwide. Given your position
on the bubble, are you going to go back and maybe rethink all the racing
you've been doing the last two years? Perhaps it's cutting into your Cup
program.
KYLE BUSCH:
I mean, the only thing it's really cutting into my Cup program
is me being able to spend time with Addington at the racetrack without
having to run back and forth between the garages and stuff like that.
That's just the biggest part of it. The racing on the racetrack really
isn't that big a deal. I don't get tired. So it's not that.
I actually feel like I learn a lot of things when I'm out there racing on
the racetrack every day.
It's just not being able to spend time in the shop as much with the guys,
spend as much time with Steve trying to discuss things.
But Joe Gibbs Racing is a smart organization. They're great at what they
do. They build awesome racecars. We just need to get a little bit better
sometimes at some racetracks that we go to and making calls during the race
and stuff that we can actually keep going forward. Sometimes I feel like we
make good calls and we think about it, it's like it sounds good, but it
doesn't work. We need to figure out why things aren't working.
We work as hard as we can at trying to make everything better. I don't
think it's my racing that is what has caused us to be where we're at.
Q:
Do you find yourself more at ease in the Nationwide car, does it suit
your style more?
KYLE BUSCH:
Yeah, I love the Nationwide cars. They're fun. They're a
blast to drive. They don't have as much horsepower, which I don't like. I
wish they still had the open motors. They have a tapered spacer that
restricts horsepower. I wish they were still open. The downforce of the
cars, the way they drive, the way the chassis are, it's all really cool.
It's kind of the way I've grown up in racing, being able to get the most
grip out of a racecar. These COTs, you try to do the same thing, but it's
so hard to find any. We do all we can every week. But the Nationwide stuff
just seems to fit more to my driving style for whatever reason. I love
those cars and can really hustle them and drive them through the corner.
Q:
You talked about inconsistency in racetracks, inconsistency in the calls
that go on throughout the race. If there's somebody possibly you've worked
with in the Nationwide or Truck Series that is attune to giving calls or
making decisions during the race that might better suit your style,
strategize with Addington on race day?
KYLE BUSCH:
We have our engineer who is up there. It's not just Steve
that's up there. We have Chris Gale, our team engineer, for the last two
years. Has been with Steve since Steve was the crew chief there. We've had
another guy that's come in these past couple weeks from JGR working behind
the scenes more as an engineer. He's been on the box, too. We've had some
guys that we've been trying to get better with, trying to understand the car
more, why the changes go the way that they go. We're trying to understand
it exactly.
But I've had some of the same things in the Truck Series. I'll make a call
to Richie or whatever to change this or change that, and it either won't
work as much as I expected or it doesn't do at all what I thought it would.
The same goes to be said with the crew chief calls. They'll make calls.
I'll agree with it. It won't work.
It happens in Trucks, it happens in Nationwide. Seems like it happens more
in Cup because of this car. It's so hard to get a handle on this car. I
have the utmost respect for Steve and the guys he chooses to put up on the
box with him. I feel like those guys are the best guys I can work with.
It's just maybe us getting a little bit better at something, whether it's
communication or whether it's spending more time at the shop figuring things
out or answering more questions. Sometimes when you try to answer more
questions, you come up with more questions, so it's hard.
Q:
Is there anyplace you'd rather go this weekend than Richmond?
KYLE BUSCH:
Bristol. Bristol or Richmond, that's about it. Those seem to
be our places that we can really run strong at. Charlotte is another one.
At least it's not a place like Pocono or somewhere that I might struggle
pretty bad, the Brickyard or something like that.
I feel good about it. I'm excited about our chances. I feel like we can go
out there and try to win another one. That's all we can do to put ourselves
in the Chase.
DENISE MALOOF:
Kyle, thanks very much for joining us today. We appreciate
your time. Good luck this weekend.
