Catching up with ... KYLE BUSCH
Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, has a victory, three top-fives and six top-10 finishes this season and is 11th in Nextel Cup points. But he's also had some hard crashes in both his Cup and Kyle Busch Series cars.
He recently met with members of the media, including Rick Minter of Cox News Service, to discuss the season.
On the severity of the penalties imposed on the No. 8 team of Dale Earnhardt Jr. (100 points, $100,000 fine and six-week suspension of crew chief Tony Eury Jr.) for having an improper wing mount: "It was a little harsh for what it was. I don't think it really paid much dividends to the performance or advantage or anything like that. ... I have read a couple things that it was an honest mistake. It was a part that was manufactured early in the development of the [Car of Tomorrow], and it got misplaced and put on the car, by accident."
On Juan Pablo Montoya, the ex- Formula One driver in his rookie season in NASCAR: "He's a fiery guy. He likes to go out there and ruffle some feathers, sort of like I did when came into this deal and maybe still do today. It is good to see that. I believe in that kind of stuff. It's just racing. You are out there to race, so you race as hard as you can every lap and get the most out of your equipment, and the most out of your car, and obviously a couple drivers have gotten a little frustrated because he's not so easy to pass. I don't think that the world of racing revolves necessarily around how easy you are to pass; it's all about trying to win races."
On his attitude on bad-racing luck and whether it will eventually change on its own: "Well, you just kind of have to go along with it. Last year, it was a pretty good year. It was our sophomore season. Everybody kind of plays a little bit to the sophomore slump, but we didn't have one. This year, I feel more like it is probably my sophomore year, having the bad luck that we have had a little bit. Hopefully it will come and it will go, and you have your good years and you have your bad years.
"Obviously this year it started off running well at Daytona, running up front for most of the race there with Tony Stewart and Kurt [Busch], and then they got involved in a crash. Then everybody thought, well the 5 car was the third-best car, so it's their race to lose, and obviously we lost it. ... We had our ups there and we had our downs at the end of that race, and then we went on to California, Atlanta, and Bristol and here and there and everywhere, and we've been all over the board."
On how beat up he was after two wrecks at Talladega: "The first one, the Busch race, was obviously the worst one, but I was a little sore getting back into the car on Sunday. My shoulder got hit on the headrest when I was upside down there because my headrest comes up over my seat.We are working on widening that out so that we don't have that problem again. ... I felt pretty comfortable within the race cars though. I felt safe. I got out of the first one and got involved in the next one the second day, minding my own business running on the bottom and trying to fall to the back and having cars run
across my nose. That was a bad deal. Monday I felt back to normal. I actually wasn't too sore and got back to the gym and was working out as normal and throughout the rest of the week."
On whether he focuses on the entire season or just the 26 races leading up to the start of the Chase: "It's to the Chase right now. You've got to be in the top 12 in order to make your season. Right now, we are 11th, so we are almost on the brink of falling out. ... It is all about trying to keep the consistent finishes going and get back up [in the standings]."
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