Diamond Hill Plywood Co. 200 - Kyle Busch Notes

KYLE BUSCH
NO. 5 LOWE’S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO
DARLINGTON PREVIEW

DRIVER KYLE BUSCH:

ON DARLINGTON RACEWAY:
“I think it’s a fun place to race. I love the old tracks where you slip and slide all over the place. It has some bumps in it, kind of like Lowe’s Motor Speedway does. You really have to have your car hooked up, because you’re just running on sand and shells all day. It’s hard to keep your tires under you on long runs, that’s for sure. We ran really well here last year when we finished second to Brian (Vickers), so I’m definitely excited to come back here with the same chassis he won with. This is also the same chassis we ran so well with in Vegas a couple of weeks ago, so it’s becoming one of my favorites.”

ON THE NEW SAFER BARRIERS:
“First, let me say that how awesome it is that these tracks are going to the expense of putting these walls into place. I’m hearing the new walls take up about two feet of racetrack, so that’s definitely going to take some getting used to. I’m not complaining, though. I don’t think there’s a driver in the garage who isn’t willing to give up some racing groove to be better protected in case of a crash. I hope it won’t be long before every track where those walls will work will have them installed.”

ON HOW THE NARROWER RACING GROOVE WILL AFFECT SETUPS:
“You’re going to see guys slowing down a lot more to be able to get through the turns. You’re also really going to have to work on getting your car to rotate through the center of the turns to be successful. You’ll need a ton of forward bite to get up off the corners after slowing down that much, too. It’s going to be all about which drivers and teams can adapt to the new configuration the quickest. I think you may see some guys struggle who have run well here in the past, and you might see some guys near the front of the field who don’t usually do well here. I love a challenge, so we’ll just see how things shake out on Friday.”

ON TIRE WEAR:
“This place was the best teacher I could have ever asked for on how to manage your tires. When we raced here in the Busch Series last year, I did everything I could to take it easy on my tires in the early part of the run. Our lap times would be mediocre, and we’d just have to let guys go by. Later in the run, though, I’d always reel them back in. It’s just very hard as a driver to not go all out from the very first lap of a run, but you just have to remember that it’s only the last lap that pays.”

CREW CHIEF LANCE McGREW COMMENTS

ON HOW THE NARROWER RACING GROOVE AFFECTS SETUPS – “The narrower track is really not going to change the way we approach the setup of the car. You still have to get the car to the driver’s liking, and then it’s all up to him from that point. We’ve got the notes from Kyle’s second-place run, as well as the notes from our win, so we’ll come in with something similar to what worked for both cars last year and just tweak it from there. I don’t know which tire Goodyear is bringing, but as notorious as this place is for chewing up tires, I don’t think we’ll see tire compounds that are as soft as you might get at some other tracks.”

STATS & FUN FACTS

QUICK LEARNER – Saturday’s NASCAR Busch Series event will mark only the second time Kyle Busch has raced at “The Track Too Tough to Tame.” While it takes some drivers years to figure out how to get around the notoriously difficult track, Busch managed a second-place finish in his very first race at the facility, the August 30 Winn-Dixie 200 NASCAR Busch Series event. Busch finished just behind his Hendrick teammate, race winner Brian Vickers. In Saturday’s event, Busch will pilot the same chassis (chassis No. 232) that Vickers used to claim the victory last August.

RAYBESTOS ROOKIE POINTS LEADER – Kyle Busch has won the Raybestos Rookie of the Race Award as the highest-finishing rookie in all three NASCAR Busch Series (NBS) events this season. Busch leads Paul Menard by seven points (37 to 30) in the running for the title of Raybestos Rookie of the Year, and is the only rookie in the top-20 in the NBS drivers’ standings (Busch is currently 12th).

CHASSIS INFORMATION- Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 232. This chassis was driven by Brian Vickers to a Busch Series win at Darlington Raceway in August, 2003. Most recently, Kyle Busch drove the car to a 15th-place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 6.