KYLE BUSCH
NO. 5 LOWE’S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO
DOVER SPEEDWAY PREVIEW
Q&A WITH DRIVER KYLE BUSCH:
YOU RACED AT DOVER IN THE FALL BUSCH RACE LAST YEAR. WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER ABOUT THAT EVENT?
“We had a good enough car in practice that we could have probably qualified on the pole, but since qualifying was cancelled because of the hurricane, we had to start by points in 21st. There was a wreck early on that everybody checked up for, and we got caught up in that and killed the nose of the car. The damage made it to where we didn’t have a good enough car to move back up through the field. After that, we just got some experience and got some laps around the place. We did what we needed to do in order to get some experience to go back this time.”
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE PLACE?
“The tires are going to wear out a lot in practice until we get a lot of rubber down with the Cup and Busch cars. The track is a lot of fun. You kind of dive off into a hole when you get down into the corners, but then you jump back up out of it coming up off the corner. It’s the ‘Monster Mile.’ You try not to get yourself into trouble, but when you do, it’s usually pretty big.
“You’re going to need a good handling car, one that’s going to be able to turn with the front, but not be too loose in the back. You really need to try to hold the bottom line the best you can. If you can stay right on that white line, you’re going to be money. Brian (Vickers) and Lance (McGrew, crew chief), they were able to figure that out last fall and win here.”
YOU AND MARTIN TRUEX, JR. HAVE SWAPPED THE POINTS LEAD AGAIN. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT?
“It’s just like last year. The points leader seems doomed to have the bad luck the following week, or have a bad week or something. Hopefully, we can keep this roll going, and we just kind of want to keep getting our top-five and top-10s, even though we had sort of a bad week, if you want to call it that (at Nazareth). We still ended up 10th. We’re not really too worried about the points right now. We still have a long season to go. The top-fives and top-10s, if you just keep getting those, those are the points that you need to be there at the end of the year.”
Q&A WITH CREW CHIEF LANCE MCGREW
YOU WON HERE WITH BRIAN VICKERS LAST YEAR. WHAT ARE YOUR MEMORIES OF THAT?
“Both races last year, we were really contenders to win. Late race in the spring of last year, we were second behind Kenseth, and Kenseth missed a shift on a restart and we ran into him and knocked the nose off the car, and we still finished top-10. The cars were real competitive both times last year. It’s been a good track for us. I feel like the car we’re bringing this time, aero-wise, suits the track really well and hopefully, we’ll continue the roll we’ve kind of got going here.”
WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE SUCCESSFUL AT DOVER?
“You have to get the driver good and comfortable in the corner, because that’s the nervous part of the whole deal. You also have to keep the car turning really well, because the track generally tightens up. You have to build some stuff into the car where you can adjust on it all day and keep the car freed up enough where it can be fast.”
ANY CONCERN THAT YOU DIDN’T TEST HERE?
“No, not really. We didn’t test here either race last season, and came here with pretty similar setups to what we had run here in the past. We were good both times, and ended up winning the race in the Fall.”
DOES ON-TRACK SUCCESS BREED MORE SUCCESS?
“Oh, absolutely. It kind of worked that way for us last season. We finally got on a roll and the momentum carried us on through the end of the season. With as well as we ran at Richmond, and really as well as we ran at Nazareth without the pit trauma, I think we could very easily have had three wins in a row right now. This sport is a lot about momentum, and it just seems like when things are going your way, they continue to go your way until something happens. While it’s going good, you’ve got to ride and hang on with both hands and brace yourself for when it turns around and goes the other way. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t.”
STATS & FUN FACTS
CHASSIS INFORMATION- Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 298- Chassis No. 298 is new to the Hendrick stable in 2004. Kyle Busch drove this chassis in a race for the first time at the May 8 Busch Series event at Gateway International Raceway, where he finished fifth.
DID YOU KNOW? –
Kyle Busch leads the NASCAR Busch Series drivers’ points standings by 38 points over Martin Truex, Jr.
With its win at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, the No. 5 team has nine top-10 finishes in a row (the most of any team). In 20 career NASCAR Busch Series starts, Kyle Busch has eight top-five finishes and 13 top-10 finishes, for averages of .400 and .650, respectively. In the past nine races, the No. 5 team has an average finish of 4.3.
Kyle Busch has led the most laps (579) and has won the most prize money ($538,635) of any Busch Series driver in 2004. Busch has led at least one lap in each of the past eight races. Busch has led the most laps in three races this season (at Texas Motor Speedway, Richmond Int’l. Raceway and Lowe’s Motor Speedway), and is the only Raybestos Rookie to lead a lap this year.
Kyle Busch holds the record for most pole positions in a season (four poles) by a Raybestos Rookie. Busch broke Kenny Wallace’s 15-year hold on the record (Wallace won three poles in 1989, his rookie season).
The No. 5 Team Lowe’s Racing Chevy will carry the logos of Shop Vac Corporation on its quarter panels this weekend. Shop Vac Corporation is the recognized world leader in wet/dry vacs. Shop Vac is one of four Lowe’s vendor partners (with Briggs & Stratton, Gladiator Garageworks and Pella Windows and Doors being the other three) sharing placement on the No. 5’s quarter panels this season.
