Interview With Kyle Busch - Winner of First Car of Tomorrow Race at Bristol
March 26, 2007
KYLE BUSCH ON HIS WIN TODAY:
“I was a good race from my perspective. It wasn’t all that great. We definitely have some work to do. We certainly weren’t the class of the field. Tony Stewart was that. Denny Hamlin was awfully strong as well and the Evernham cars were really good too. They just had bad breaks and had trouble. It’s a hard thing to try to come out with a new car and take the Impala SS and make it run right first time out. We kind of had everything fall out right for us and to get to Victory Lane. But those other guys were definitely better than us, they just didn’t have things fall the right way. “
WHY FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE WASN’T IT A GOOD RACE?
“When I got up front and I was in the top six, Tony Stewart was gone, he was checked out. Second place was five car lengths ahead of third place, which were three car lengths ahead of fourth. We all got kind of strung out. I was 10th, 11th or 12th and I looked up and nothing was going on.
I thought “this is a great race” and then the spotter came on and said there’s a real logjam behind me. There’s a log jam because people can’t turn, they’re sliding up the track and bumping into one another or whatever, trying to make way through traffic and stuff. But when you’re out front, you know, you can’t pass well. For me, I got tight in traffic and then when I got out front and when Denny (Hamlin) came up and passed me I was loose. So at Bristol that’s not cool. “
KYLE, TAKE US THROUGH THE GREEN/WHITE CHECKERED FLAG:
“I was definitely worried at the end of the race. Even so, on that second to last restart when Denny was behind me and Biffle was behind him, they were pleading to come down pit road and those other guys did I knew that if I could get far enough out, hopefully it would be far enough that they couldn’t catch me. I got a great jump. I didn’t look in my mirror for a lap and all of a sudden I did and thought, “Is there a caution out? Where did everyone go? “ I was a straightaway ahead. I just tried to hit my marks and run my line. The thing was so tight; I just couldn’t get it to turn through the corner. I think I was trying too hard but those guys were really gaining on me pretty quick. I knew that if we got to the white flag and a caution came out we’d be okay. But I wasn’t sure I could hold them to the checkered. I’m not glad that caution came out, but I am glad that we won the race.
"On that last restart, I knew that if I could get a good jump on those guys and beat them down into one and two I knew that my car would shoot out of the hole down the straightaway and I might have a bit of breathing room. But that wasn’t the case. I spun my tires down the front straightaway just because they were so cold - I did so on the previous restart too - but it all sort of came together and having Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton, two class acts behind me, that raced me clean that gave me the sort of room I needed to race definitely helped out. They could have very easily made their way to Victory Lane and made our day harder. “
KYLE, BEARING IN MIND HOW COMMONPLACE IT HAS BECOME TO USE THE BUMPER TO MOVE SOMEONE OUT OF THE WAY AND WIN, WERE YOU SURPRISED IT DIDN’T COME AND WOULD YOU HAVE USED IT IF THE ROLES HAD BEEN REVERSED?
“I knew that Jeff (Gordon) would have got an earful if he had laid a fender on us. So I figured I had a little room there but I didn’t know about Jeff Burton if he got clear of Gordon. So Burton got through there and was right on me and I knew that he could very easily do it. I wasn’t necessarily expecting it, as I know he’s a better race driver than that.
He gave me the room to race clean and I don’t know if that was some sort of payback for Las Vegas; he didn’t do anything wrong there but I lost the race and I raced him clean and gave him some room. I gave him some room here. I figured if I left some room down low, he could get his nose in there and body slam his way through. But I tried not to leave anything on the bottom open. And if the roles were reversed, I don’t know. I would probably try a little harder but if I couldn’t get under him without moving him out of the way I probably have done the same thing. It’s not fair to race that way. If you had a better car or something like that for the race. But I knew I didn’t have a better car and I knew I didn’t have better tires so that’s the way it worked out. “
KYLE, DO YOU KNOW MUCH MORE ABOUT THE NEW RACE CAR NOW? IF SO, WHAT ARE THE HIGHLIGHTS?
“We do know a lot more about it. But it’s the same, as we already knew. It still doesn’t turn. For me it’s not a fun car, it’s a hard car to race around the race track with other competitors as you don’t have the maneuverability, you can’t really pass all that well. With the old car if you were tight at least you could go up the race track and then come back down and then shoot out of the hole. But with this thing whenever you started to slide the front tires it continued to slide so it’s almost like you’re on skis out there. Another problem that perhaps nobody thought of is that if you have a front tire go down and there’s no rubber on the race track you’re just going to slide on that ski and into the fence. I think we saw that with a couple of competitors today.
It’s a hard car to set up and it’s a hard car to drive. Maybe if we learn more about it, it will become better but I don’t really remember anyone complaining about the old one we had, so. We’ll just have to work hard on our Impala SS and see if we can make it better. “
KYLE, CAN YOU COMMENT ON THE IRONY OF YOU NOT LIKING THE NEW CAR AND YET WINNING THE RACE?
“I told Alan as early as the test that I just can’t stand to drive this thing. It’s terrible and I hope we can just go out there and win the race and then tell everybody how terrible it is. I’m glad we were able to do it. I’m serious. I told him that (laughs). I don’t know; I’m done talking about it. It’s hard; it’s terrible. With the Busch car, it’s been fun; it’s been great. Like Alan said, we took it in-house and we worked on it and we worked on that program and I think we turned it around. It’s a lot better to run well on Saturday to learn things and to be able to transfer that on to Sunday. Even though the cars are different you can still learn a little bit about the race track. That’s always going to be said. The more track time, the better even though the cars are different. That’s why I run Truck Series races. The biggest thing for me to do on Saturday is to run as well as we can for our sponsors for Mr. H and for all those guys that work so hard at the shop and build those things. “
KYLE, WHAT WAS GOING THROUGH YOU MIND DURING YOUR PASS OF HAMLIN FOR THE LEAD?
“Coming out of turn four down the front straightaway there I saw the in the middle of turns one and two, the No. 48 car was having a little bit of trouble there. I don’t know what happened to him; I’m not sure if it was a flat tire or what. I knew that there was going to be some jumbling up going down the back straightaway so I just kept looking out my windshield as far as I could see. I saw Denny looking low off of turn two and I saw that Jimmie was trying to get down low and I saw some other slow cars down there so I just stuck it on the top and kept my foot in it. I was able to clear him and get by him and got through turns three and four and then the caution came out. Just being on top of the wheel as well as looking far enough ahead just made me get through there. That probably gave us the win, of course, being able to get up front like that. “
KYLE, YOU SAID THIS CAR IS HARDER TO DRIVE. HOW MIGHT THIS FORCE YOU TO CHANGE AS A DRIVER?
“It’s harder to tune which makes it harder to drive. Because you’re telling the crew chief this and you’re telling him that and we can’t fix it. We’ve tried everything. And any time you try to help the center you kill the entry and exit. You want to get the car to turn through the center of the corner then it’s spinning out getting in and coming off the corners. Any time we fix the entry and the exit now I’m plowing through the center again. It’s just so hard to tune. That’s what made it hard to drive. Because you’re searching all over the place and you can’t find anything - nothing works. So you’re just sitting there struggling with the thing. I just go off into the corner today, when I had it good on entry, I just go off into the corner and full-lock left the thing and judge my turning ability by how fast I needed to go through the corner.
If it was turning good then I’d speed up a little bit. If it wasn’t I’d slow down a little bit. You just hold the wheel full-lock. It’s not very fun. There’s no maneuverability with the thing. That’s my take. “
KYLE, CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR NEW LOOK?
“Whatever (laughs). Rick hasn’t told me to cut it off yet so I’m all right, I guess - so far. As long as I keep acting nice and doing the right thing. “
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM LAST YEAR TO THIS YEAR ON HOW TO RACE OTHER DRIVERS?
KYLE BUSCH: “It’s just getting time and spending time with everybody. There in New York when we did the top 10 stuff in September, I got to get around those guys a little bit more and we all have some of the same interests.
You’re so busy all the time that you just want to go home and sit on the couch. So you don’t really get together much. You race these guys every week. When I raced growing up, I’d race it for a year and then jump to the next division. So I got to the Busch Series and I won races and then I left. I got to the Cup Series and that’s where you stay. This is it.
You’re done. You’re at the top. You’re done moving up. So I came in trying to win races and roughing people up and moving them out of the way. And I thought about it and I thought I’ve got to race these guys for the next 15 or 20 years. It’s going to be a while. So, I decided to step back a little and try to make some friends and try to gain some ground on being allies with everybody and not having many enemies. “
YOU SEEM LIKE A MOST UNHAPPY WINNER. IS THERE ANY PRIDE TO BEING THE FIRST WINNER OF A COT RACE?
“I’m very proud of out whole team and that we were able to pull through and get the job done. But it wasn’t easy for us or for anybody else. Everybody has had to build these things. Everybody has worked their hearts out but we were able to prevail today. I’m glad we were able to get the victory today. Hey, I’m a happy winner. I’m the happiest I’ve been in a while because of all my Busch Series races and being so close and having stuff happen. It wasn’t a fun day. Yesterday was a fun day. I had fun racing those cars. But I just didn’t have fun racing this thing today. “
WHAT IS IT ABOUT BRISTOL THAT WORKS FOR YOU?
“It’s a fun place to race. It’s a great place. It’s hard to get a ticket here. It’s sold out for years. I don’t know what it is about this place that makes Kurt (Busch) or I run good here. I’ve had three third place finishes in the Busch Series. One second-place finish in the Cup Series and I won here today, so I’ve had some more recent success than I’ve had in the past just getting accustomed to everything. But that’s all out the window now because they’re tearing this place up as soon as everybody leaves. “
ON THE 200 WINS FOR RICK HENDRICK AND 600 WINS FOR CHEVROLET:
“On the Hendrick wins, all that goes to Rick Hendrick. He’s a great individual - not only a great boss. He’s the best owner. He’s the best person to work for. When you work for a guy like him who gives you all the tools and all the opportunities. It’s great. He believed in me when I was nobody. He deserves all the credit for the 150 wins and for the 200 wins.
And Chevrolet is obviously a great partner of ours. They’ve supported us through thick and thin. They supported us in 2000 when we were pretty bad and won maybe two or three races that year. They’ve always been there. For them to get 600 means a lot. We’re real proud of the fact that we were able to give that to Chevrolet in the new Impala SS, which is great. I know that’s important to them because they need to sell cars on Monday. I’m real happy and proud to be affiliated with them. “
