Winn-Dixie 250 - Kyle Busch Notes

KYLE BUSCH
NO. 5 LOWE'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO
DAYTONA PREVIEW

KYLE BUSCH'S LAST VISIT TO DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY: In his very first race at Daytona, Kyle Busch won the 200-mile ARCA event on Feb. 7, 2004, in a Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. The following weekend, Busch was running in the top-five in the NASCAR Busch Series event until his engine overheated and ended his day 19 laps from the finish. Busch was credited with a 24th-place finish.

Q&A WITH DRIVER KYLE BUSCH:

DAYTONA WAS YOUR WORST FINISH OF THE SEASON (24th). WHAT ARE YOU EXPECTING THIS TIME AROUND? "I'd really like to change the worst finish part and make this race one of our best finishes. We know (Dale Earnhardt) Jr. and (Martin Truex) Jr. are going to be tough, though. Hopefully, the car will perform like it did at Talladega and really suck up in the draft, and be able to pull out and pass."

THIS CAR WAS DRIVEN AT BOTH RESTRICTOR-PLATE RACES SO FAR THIS SEASON. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO IMPROVE THIS CAR SINCE TALLADEGA? "We cut the nose, the tail and both rear quarter panels off this chassis in order to improve the aerodynamics. The left rear was rubbing really bad, and the nose and tail were pretty banged up from hard racing at Talladega, so they needed some work. The guys at Hendrick are always working on ways to make the cars better, and they feel like they found a few things they wanted to incorporate for this race. I'm excited to get back here, especially under the lights. That's going to be cool."

DID THE VETERANS WORK WITH YOU IN THE DRAFT MORE AT TALLADEGA THAN DAYTONA? "A little bit, just because our car was so good. (Ron) Hornaday and I worked really well together, made some good holes and got up through the field, especially in the last few laps. I'd really have liked to have seen what would have happened if the race had stayed green. I think I could have helped push Hornaday to the win. He was pretty stout."

YOU'RE HALFWAY THROUGH THE SEASON, AND ARE IN THE POINTS CHASE. HAS THIS CAUSED YOU TO REEVALUATE YOUR GOALS FOR THE YEAR? "Yes, I have changed my goals, but the team's goals have pretty much remained the same. They've been focused on repeating as champions, and they show that every week by how they prepare the cars and how they perform on pit road. For me, I'm now aiming higher than I was at the beginning of the year. My goals coming into this deal were to try and gain experience, win a pole, win a race and try to win Raybestos Rookie of the Year, and finish in the top-10 or maybe even the top-five in points. Now that we've gotten several poles and several wins, my goal is to try and help this team win another championship."

Q&A WITH CREW CHIEF LANCE MCGREW

SINCE WE'RE HALFWAY THROUGH THE SEASON, WHAT GRADE WOULD YOU GIVE YOUR TEAM'S PERFORMANCE IN THE FIRST 17 RACES? "I'd have to give the team an 'A' or an 'A-minus.' Kyle's doing an awesome job, and everything's just been going super good. I look forward to the rest of the season and going back to some of these racetracks a second time, now that Kyle has some laps under his belt at some of these places."

NASCAR WILL IMPOUND THE CARS AFTER QUALIFYING. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THAT? "I think it's great. Some of these teams do stuff during qualifying, like using 'trick' oils and stuff like that, and hopefully impounding the cars will put an end to that. The garage will open later on Friday afternoon, so that'll also make for a shorter day for the team, which is good."

SAME QUESTION WE ASKED YOUR DRIVER: WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO IMPROVE THIS CAR SINCE TALLADEGA? "We actually got a chance to tweak on the body a little bit, and get to the wind tunnel (Aerodyne in North Carolina) and spend a little time with it. We've tried to maximize the suspension and maximize the cooling of the car. We've had some trouble with some overheating issues, so we've worked pretty hard on trying to get the thing to stay cool."

HOW IMPORTANT IS TEAM CHEMISTRY TO YOUR SUCCESS? "It's absolutely everything. From the top to the bottom, these guys and girls that work for me, I appreciate everything they do. It took a couple of years for everything to really gel together, and to know what each person is going to do and when they're going to do it. Since it's all fallen into place, you hate to say it, but it's been pretty easy to have the success we've had, because it hasn't been an extreme challenge to make everything work. It just works."

CHASSIS INFORMATION- Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 222- Chassis No. 222 is the same chassis the team used at both restrictor-plate races so far in 2004. Busch drove this chassis to a 24th-place finish at Daytona International Speedway in Feb., and a fourth-place finish at Talladega Superspeedway in April.

STATS & FACTS