KYLE BUSCH
Something to Build Upon
HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. (Nov. 11, 2009) -- As the laps wound down in last
Sunday's Dickies 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor
Speedway in Fort Worth, it appeared as if Kyle Busch and the No. 18 team
were destined for a magical Hollywood-style ending.
Busch had already won Friday night's NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
race, then followed it up by winning Saturday's NASCAR Nationwide Series
event, putting the talented 24-year-old in position to make history in
hopes as the first driver to win all three of NASCAR's top-tier events
on the same weekend.
Adding further drama to the storyline, Busch welcomed a new crew chief in
Dave Rogers, who made his debut with No. 18 Toyota team and quickly
showed why he had been tabbed by Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) for the job. With
Rogers atop the pitbox, Busch led six times for a race-high 232 laps.
As fate would have it, the Hollywood ending just wasn't meant to be as
Busch's fuel tank ran dry with just three laps remaining, dropping him
to a heartbreaking 11th-place finish, but still left him hopeful for the
remaining two races of 2009 and beyond.
While Sunday's finish at Texas turned out to be anything but storybook
material for Busch, the driver of the No. 18 Pedigree Toyota Camry for
JGR will look to build upon the momentum from last weekend as he and
Rogers tackle this weekend's Sprint Cup Series Checker O'Reilly Auto
Parts 500k at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale, Ariz.
Making the crew chief change with three races remaining is all about
getting a head start on communication and learning lessons to build upon
for a championship run in 2010. So while the future for Busch and Rogers
already looks bright, they also already showed last weekend what they are
capable of accomplishing together.
And this weekend in Phoenix, Busch will have the added bonus of working
at a track that has been his home away from home. Busch has nine Sprint
Cup starts at the 1-mile oval in the desert which is just 300 miles south
from his hometown of Las Vegas. He has six top-10 finishes, one pole
(spring 2006) and scored his second-ever Sprint Cup victory there in
November 2005 Checker Auto Parts 500k in his first start at the "Diamond
in the Desert."
Busch's overall resume at Phoenix isn't too shabby, either, considering
he has won two of the last four Nationwide Series races at Phoenix, has
six top-10 finishes in eight Nationwide starts, and has won the pole
three times. He also scored a Camping World Truck Series victory in
November 2007 and, in his four Truck Series starts at Phoenix, he's
never qualified worse than 16th or finished worse than 11th.
A special guest will ride along with Busch for Sunday's race courtesy of
primary sponsor Pedigree, as an image of "Kasey," a four-year-old
rescue dog, will adorn on Busch's Pedigree Toyota. Proud owners Joan and
Charles Petit of Kellar, Texas, submitted the winning entry for
Pedigree's "Luckiest Dog" contest and will be treated to a
three-day/two-night trip to the race, where they'll see their
four-legged friend's face turning laps around the mile oval in-person.
As the Pedigree Racing driver treks further West for this weekend's
festivities, he's hoping -- unlike was the case at Texas -- that Kasey
the rescue dog makes him the "Lucky Dog" that brings home his second
Sprint Cup win at Phoenix and finish the job he started a week earlier.
KYLE BUSCH, Driver of the No. 18 Pedigree Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs
Racing:
What has it been like to win 19 times across the top-three series in
NASCAR this season? And how does that make you feel as you plan to put
more of an emphasis than ever on the Cup side in 2010 in your quest for
the championship there?
"I wish we could have gotten a couple more Cup wins. I felt like there
was some opportunity for those. It didn't work out. We've had a great
year. All the Joe Gibbs Racing team drivers won in their hometown, which
was pretty cool. Denny (Hamlin) won at Richmond (Va.), Joey (Logano) won
up at Loudon (N.H.) and I won at Vegas. That's pretty cool, all in the
Cup Series. And for Joey, of course, it was his first win. It's been a
great year for Joe Gibbs Racing overall. It's been a great year for me
in all three series. I've run the best I've ever run in the Truck
Series and have had good trucks every week. Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief)
and the guys have done a good job with our Nationwide cars every week to
come unload like that. Our Cup program has struggled a little bit but,
unfortunately, sometimes that happens, and Joe and J.D. (Gibbs) ended up
making a change with Dave coming on board. You look at Matt Kenseth. He
won the first two races of the year and he's right there with us sitting
13th or 14th. It's disappointing but, on the other side of things, I
think it was actually a little bit of a good thing that I was able to put
more focus toward the Nationwide deal and get the championship wrapped up
here and not have to worry about both of them. Now, the Nationwide deal
is close to being done with and we can go back to focusing more on the
Cup effort there and try to get ourselves to championship-caliber on that
side. Somebody has to beat that 48 (Jimmie Johnson)."
While you've had a lot of success at Phoenix during your career, you've
been pretty vocal about the need to get better on the flat tracks in the
Sprint Cup car.
"We were okay in both races at Phoenix last year. We weren't running
where we wanted to be but we ran really well in the spring, here, and I
got busted for speeding on pit road and that hurt our finish. I was going
to be very happy with a top-five and it just didn't work out. I know
everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing has been working extremely hard on our
flat-track program in the offseason. That's something we worked hard on
in the off-season but just didn't have the results at Martinsville that
we wanted. We had trouble at both New Hampshire races and Pocono, in
particular, last year. But I know the guys are focused on making those
tracks better. Hopefully, we're heading in the right direction on the
flat-track stuff."
You won in your very first Sprint Cup start at Phoenix, along with two
out of the last three Nationwide Series races there. What does it take to
be successful at Phoenix?
"Phoenix is a 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. I always have a little more fan support
out there, as well. As for the track itself, you have two distinctly
different corners at Phoenix. 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 a 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."
You have opportunities to get back to the West Coast a lot in the first
part of the season. Do you enjoy traveling out there, and do you feel
more comfortable going to that part of the country, since that's where
you grew up?
"Everybody hates the time change. I use that to my advantage since I
think I'm usually on West Coast time anyway. I still haven't gotten
East Coast time down, yet. It's fun for me. It's a cool atmosphere and
the weather is great without the humidity. If it's hot out, it's nice
and warm, so the heat doesn't bother me as much as it does in other
places. And if it's cold, it's a crisp cold. It's still home and I
love being out west, and I really feel at home anytime we race out
there."
-credit: jgr
