Carquest Auto Parts 300 - Kyle Busch Notes

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

Q&A WITH DRIVER KYLE BUSCH:

LOWE’S MOTOR SPEEDWAY IS WHERE YOU FINISHED SECOND IN YOUR BUSCH SERIES DEBUT. HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE BACK? “You’re always excited to go back to the track named for your sponsor, but we’re just going to treat it just like any other weekend and try to the best job that we can. It’s one of those tracks that’s hard to get a hold of. It’s real slick, it’s bumpy, and it’s a lot of fun. I can’t wait.”

YOU’RE GOING TO TRY AND RUN BOTH THE BUSCH AND NEXTEL CUP RACES THIS WEEKEND. ARE YOU READY TO DRIVE 900 MILES, TOTAL? “I don’t think it will be a problem. It’s a good thing our main program (the Busch Series) is before our secondary program, but I think we’ll be OK. Hopefully, we have a good enough car on Thursday to put the Cup car in the show and not have worry about that on Friday. The Cup deal is great, and I want to do well for CARQUEST and Mr. Hendrick on that side, but the Busch car is definitely our main focus, and we’re really going to concentrate on that.”

Q&A WITH CREW CHIEF LANCE MCGREW

LOWE’S SPEEDWAY IS A TRACK WHERE THE WEATHER REALLY AFFECTS THE CAR’S HANDLING. DO YOU AGREE? “Oh, yeah. It’s very, very temperature sensitive. Sun to no sun, temperature, hot versus cold, it just plays a lot of havoc with the grip of that racetrack. I think all asphalt tracks are that way, somewhat. For some reason, some are more sensitive than others, and I don’t know if it’s the makeup of the asphalt or not, if it oozes a little oil up, or if it the track is just worn. I’m not really sure.

“If you can get your car really good when the track is slick, if it gets overcast, you’re just going to be that much better. Basically, you hope it’s really hot and sunny when you’re doing your practice, and you’re looking for grip and working on the racecar to try to get it hooked up, because you know if you were to get a cloud or if were to cool off a little bit when you’re qualifying, you’re going to be faster.”

DO YOU BUILD MORE ADJUSTABILITY INTO THE CAR AT THIS TRACK, SINCE YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT THE WEATHER MIGHT DO? “Sometimes you do. It really depends. You kind of watch the weather, and hopefully the forecast is fairly accurate. When I didn’t think the car was right, I’d build in more, but when we’ve been fast, I haven’t built in a ton extra (adjustability). Handling really comes into it, and you can take a car that may not have as strong an engine, and you can definitely pass people there because your car is handling. You can have a poor qualifying effort and make up a lot on the track because some teams just don’t quite get the handling package the cars need.”

YOU’RE IN THE MIDDLE OF A LONG STRETCH OF RACING EVERY WEEKEND. HOW DO YOU KEEP YOUR TEAM FROM WEARING DOWN? “It seems like, after you get in a groove and do four or five races in a row, it just becomes a normal thing. Fortunately, in the Busch Series, you’re usually going to get a day off each week anyway. You try to do what you can. Fortunately for us, we’ve got enough guys back at the shop that we can continue to get cars built, instead of taking the entire crew on the road. I guess that’s one of the benefits of being a bigger team in this series. I try to give the guys as much time off as I can without slowing down progress at the shop.”

WILL A LOT OF THE SHOP GUYS WHO USUALLY DON’T TRAVEL BE AT THE RACE? “Yeah, they will. The one I’m really excited about having at the track is our shop foreman, Randy Atkins, who was injured in a motorcycle wreck last year. He’s going to make an appearance out there and walk around on race day, and I’m sure a lot of people will be happy to see him.”

STATS & FUN FACTS

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. Kyle Busch drove this chassis to a 15th-place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 6, and a 17th-place finish at Darlington Raceway on March 20.

DID YOU KNOW? –