Emerson Radio 250 - Kyle Busch Notes

KYLE BUSCH
NO. 5 LOWE’S / SHOP VAC CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO
RICHMOND PREVIEW

KYLE BUSCH’S HISTORY AT RICHMOND INT’L RACEWAY: Kyle Busch started 17th and finished 22nd in a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Richmond in Sept., 2001. In his first NASCAR Busch Series race at the facility in May, Busch started on the pole (setting a new Busch Series track qualifying record) and led 236 of 250 laps en route to the first Busch Series win of his career.

Q&A WITH DRIVER KYLE BUSCH:

What have you learned about Richmond International Raceway?- “Basically, what I’ve learned is that you’re never going to get comfortable all the way around that racetrack. You’re going to have to throw away one end of the racetrack in order to become better at the other end. Basically, you’re going to fight a ‘loose in’ condition and be tight just past the ‘center off.’ So you try to fix the center off so you can get a good run up off the corner and you try to get in the corners as light as you can but still as hard as you can in order to keep your momentum going.

“It’s a little, tough racetrack. It’s a lot of fun, but it’s not a regular short track. Sometimes at a short track, you can go into the corner and stop in the center, basically, you know, ‘park it’ as I call it, and then leave and go again. But at Richmond, you’ve got to keep that momentum going and let it roll through the center and not slow down too much.”

With all the hype surrounding the “Chase to the Championship” in the Nextel Cup Series, would you like to have seen the same format in the Busch Series?- “I think it probably would have been a great idea. They’re making such a big deal out of who’s going to be in the top-10 in the Cup Series and who’s not. It probably could have been a great advantage for the guys that are mired in eighth, ninth, 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th in our series as well. You’ve got Ashton Lewis, who I believe is in 10th place and doesn’t have a sponsor. It could have been a great thing for him in order to get some exposure to get a sponsor. Some of the other guys back there, they could have talked about the runs they’ve put together lately in order to be in the top-10. It definitely wouldn’t have hurt, as far as that goes.

“For myself, I’m glad that (the points format is) the way that it is, because of the fact that I only have to race one guy for the championship instead of having to go back and race 10 guys. It’s a lot easier for us to think about one instead of 10. It’s definitely going to be great for the Nextel Cup Series and their exposure, and maybe they’ll think about implementing the same system next year in the Busch Series.”

Q&A WITH CREW CHIEF LANCE MCGREW

What are the keys to being successful at Richmond Int’l. Raceway?- “It’s really difficult to keep the car on the bottom of the racetrack through (turns) one and two. If you can really get the car turning good through there and you’re able to stay on the throttle coming up off the corner, it creates a pretty good passing opportunity getting into (turn) three. (Turns) Three and four, you don’t see as many passes coming off of that corner as you do one and two. It’s hard to get the car good off of two.”

Would you like to see the “Chase for the Championship” format in the Busch Series?- “I wouldn’t like to see it in our series, because I think it opens a whole can of worms about having an influx of Cup drivers coming into the series in the last 10 races. Taking a 10th-place car, which I believe is Ashton Lewis, if all of a sudden he decides to jump out of the car for the last 10 races and they put Jeff Gordon in it, the chances of them winning the championship are probably pretty good. It would be the owner’s championship, but still. I really don’t think that’s something that NASCAR wants to see happen, but it’s always a possibility if our points system were the same as the Cup side.”

CHASSIS INFORMATION- Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 273 - Chassis No. 273 is the same chassis Kyle Busch drove to the pole position and the win at Richmond International Raceway in May.

STATS & FACTS