Target House 300 - Kyle Busch Notes

KYLE BUSCH
NO. 5 LOWE’S/SHOP VAC CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO
CALIFORNIA PREVIEW

KYLE BUSCH’S HISTORY AT CALIFORNIA SPEEDWAY: In his first race at California Speedway, Kyle Busch qualified 24th and finished seventh in the NASCAR Busch Series event in May. An accident during the first practice session forced Busch and his No. 5 team to go to a back up car prior to qualifying.

Q&A WITH DRIVER KYLE BUSCH:

You’re taking the same car to California (Speedway) you won with at Michigan (International Speedway) in August. Is this a weekend where you can gain more ground in the points chase? – “I think going back to California, especially with the car we had at Michigan, is going to be really good for us. I think we’re going to probably go back with almost the same setup (we had at Michigan), maybe just change the front springs and the front bar just a little bit in order to try and accommodate the fact that California has less banking. Trying to get that left front corner down is a little harder to do at California because of the banking but (crew chief) Lance (McGrew), the team and I will work on it in practice and hopefully get what we need.”

In the last 10 races of the year, you get to go back to a number of tracks you’ve already raced at this season. Does that build your confidence? - “It gives us more confidence, no doubt. I feel like I have a better understanding of what these racetracks need and what the car needs for these racetracks. We’ve been lucky in that we haven’t really struggled like some people thought we would at tracks I had never been to. We’re also fortunate that we have some test sessions left for places like Kansas (Speedway), where I’m going for the first time. I’ve never been to Phoenix (International Raceway) and I only have about three laps around Atlanta (Motor Speedway), but those tracks are the kind of layouts that seem to suit my driving style, so I think we can be competitive at those places.”

Q&A WITH CREW CHIEF LANCE MCGREW

The chassis you’re bringing to California (Speedway) is the same one you dominated with at Michigan (International Speedway). Does that boost your confidence? – “Well, yeah, the racetracks are really similar, but they’re not exactly the same, so we’re not counting our chickens just yet. We’re not getting our hopes up too high that we’ll have just as dominant a car here as we had in Michigan because you just don’t get too many of those.

“California, the first time around, I think was kind of before we hit our stride and before we really figured out what we needed to do to the car to get Kyle comfortable here. Hopefully, since then we’ve stepped up our game a little bit.

“We basically are going (with a setup under the car that’s) real similar to how we went to Michigan. Actually, going back and looking at the notes from Michigan and cross-referencing everything, it was not really far off how we raced at California (in May). We’ve just got a tweak here and a tweak there that really helped us at Michigan.”

The team has two wins and a third-place finish in the past three races. How does that affect your team’s confidence? – “It’s always nice to be riding a little wave of success when you go to any racetrack. This sport is a lot about momentum and whether you feel like you’re running good enough to get the finishes or not, or if you’re running really well and not getting the finishes, that will beat on you just as bad as running poorly and not getting the finishes. It’s all about the bottom line and right now, we’ve managed to put together a nice little streak and we hope to keep it going.”

Some people say this championship will go to the team that makes the least mistakes. Do you agree? “Definitely. When it comes down to the end like this, with as competitive as both teams are, it will just take being in the wrong place at the right time and having another driver get in to you, or making a mental mistake in the pits, or an engine failure, and I believe that will be the difference. I don’t believe one team will be able to dominate the other one and outrun them week in and week out. I think it will come down to either one of us or the other having a problem.”

CHASSIS INFORMATION- Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 275 - Chassis No. 275 is the same chassis Kyle Busch drove to a dominant win at Michigan International Speedway in August. Busch also drove this chassis at Chicagoland Speedway in July, where he led the most laps before an engine problem late in the race dropped him to a 12th-place finish.

STATS & FACTS