Ford 300 - Kyle Busch Notes

KYLE BUSCH
NO. 5 LOWE’S / SHOP VAC
CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO
HOMESTEAD-MIAMI PREVIEW

TEAM NO. 5’s HISTORY AT HOMESTEAD-MIAMI SPEEDWAY: Team No. 5 has not scored a top-10 finish in either of the two Busch Series events the team has competed in at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Driver Brian Vickers finished 11th in this event last season and clinched the 2003 Busch Series drivers’ points championship.

Kyle Busch has never raced at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but he tested here in a Winston Cup Series car last year, and tested his No. 5 Lowe’s Chevrolet here last week.

Q&A WITH DRIVER KYLE BUSCH:

Your brother, Kurt, is leading the Nextel Cup points standings, and your Hendrick teammates, Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon, are just a few points back. Who will you be rooting for on Sunday?: “Man, that’s a tough question. It’s difficult, because my brother is family, obviously, so I have to root for him. But Jeff and Jimmie are my teammates, and that makes them family, too. I’d love to see my brother win his first championship, but I’d be excited for Hendrick Motorsports to see Jimmie or Jeff win it. I’m pulling for all three of them. I hope one of them is able to bring the trophy home this weekend. Whichever one gets it, that’s the way it was meant to turn out.”

You tested here in your No. 5 Lowe’s Chevrolet last week. What did you think?: “We had a decent test. The first day and a half, we weren’t able to make anything happen, but in the last couple of hours, we found some stuff that really made the car more comfortable and a lot faster. The asphalt has lost some grip since I tested here last year in a Cup car, but it’s still got a lot of grip. It’s going to be a fun race. I really like the variable banking a lot.”

While I’m sure you’re disappointed about not winning the championship, are you pleased with your success this season? : “Yeah, first off, I have to congratulate Martin (Truex, Jr.) and his team. Those guys had an incredible year, and they deserved to win this deal. I had a lot of fun battling with them all season.

“I’m really proud of how much we’ve accomplished as a team. We broke a lot of rookie records that belonged to Greg Biffle, who’s a really talented driver, so that means a lot to me. I’ve learned a lot this season from Lance (McGrew, crew chief) and everyone on this team.

“I really wish we’d have been able to bring this organization a championship, especially with everything that’s happened recently, but we can hold our heads up and say we gave it everything we could. It wasn’t for a lack of effort. I’m very proud of the way the team performed.”

With the championship decided, does that take some pressure off you and let you just focus on winning Homestead? “It does take some pressure off, because we know we have the second points position locked up, regardless of whether we win or finish 43rd on Saturday. That really lets us just hang it out there and go full bore for the win. We do that every week, but we can go out on Saturday with one thing in mind, and that’s winning the race. We’re not looking for a top-five or a top-10 so we can have a good points day. We want to win the race.”

Q&A WITH CREW CHIEF LANCE McGREW:

With the championship decided, is the pressure off the team now?: “The pressure to win the championship is off, but there’s always the pressure of trying to win the race. I’d really like to get that rookie record (for most wins) for Kyle. I think he deserves it. The way they rate rookies in this series is kind of unfair. You’ve got guys like Ron Hornaday, who’ve been racing forever, but when he came over to the Busch Series, he had to run the rookie stripe. It’s kind of crazy.

“The true spirit of the (rookie) award has been kind of lost, because you’ve got guys with so much experience coming into the series that have to run the (rookie) stripe. The fact that (Kyle) has won so many races and led so many laps as a true rookie, I think there’s a lot more spots in the record book that he deserves to have his name beside.”

Is it nice to not have to worry about where the No. 8 car is running this week?: “We got in such a hole there (in the points) for the last five races or so that we didn’t really focus on what the (No.) 8 car was doing, because we were far enough back that we just had to focus on winning. We had some good runs, got some really good finishes, had some bad luck and it just didn’t work out. It wasn’t in the cards.

“We looked over last year’s results and looked at the points after 33 races last year, and we’re over 250 points ahead of where we were last year at this time. We’ve got two more wins, we’ve got four more poles, we’ve got two more top-fives, so we’ve improved in almost every category (from last season). That’s definitely not anything to hang our heads about.

“The (No.) 8 car just got on a run and just couldn’t do anything wrong. Everything just fell their way. Like it or not, luck had a lot to do with it, and they made their own luck. They just did not make any mistakes and that’s what it takes and it paid off for them.”

DID YOU KNOW?- When Kyle Busch and the No. 5 team’s 2004 statistics are compared to what the team had accomplished heading into Homestead last year with Brian Vickers, the eventual 2003 NASCAR Busch Series Champion, Busch’s rookie accomplishments become even more impressive.

CHASSIS INFORMATION- Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 318- This chassis is new to the Hendrick stable in 2004. After qualifying fourth, Kyle Busch was involved in an accident and finished 29th in the Busch Series race at Kansas Speedway in October.

STATS & FACTS