Dover 200 - Kyle Busch Notes

KYLE BUSCH
NO. 5 LOWE’S / STA-GREEN CHEVROLET
DOVER PREVIEW

Q&A WITH DRIVER KYLE BUSCH

YOU’VE ONLY MADE A HANDFUL OF STARTS AT DOVER, BUT YOU’VE ALREADY SCORED SEVERAL TOP-FIVE FINISHES HERE. DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE THE TRACK FIGURED OUT? “I don’t think you ever completely figure out a track. You’re always learning something new every time you race somewhere. Your setup is always going to be a little different, due to weather or track conditions or whatever. I’m not sure if we’re going back with the same setup under the Busch car (that we had in June) this time around or not.

“For me, it’s still about gaining experience, too. I can use the seat time, because we tested here a few weeks ago in the Cup car, and we didn’t test as well as we’d have liked. Hopefully, I can learn some stuff in the Busch car that will help us out on Sunday, too.”

DOVER IS KNOWN AS A TOUGH TRACK. IN YOUR OPINION, WHAT’S THE TOUGHEST THING ABOUT “THE MONSTER MILE.” “Oh, man. It’s the whole track that’s tough. I mean, you drop off into a hole when you’re going into the turns. You want to keep your speed up in the center of the turns, but when you do, it usually causes you to ‘push’ coming up out of the turns. If you don’t get your car pointed just right coming out of the turns, that can cause you problems, too. If you turn too hard coming out of the turn and put too much wheel in it, it will cause your rear end to want to snap loose. If you don’t put enough wheel in it, then you’re tight and you’ll end up knocking down the wall. It’s a track where you constantly have to find a compromise in your setup to get the car to do what you want it to.”

Q&A WITH CREW CHIEF CHAD WALTER

KYLE BUSCH TESTED HIS CUP CAR AT DOVER LAST WEEK. CAN YOU TRANSFER SOME OF THAT INFORMATION OVER TO THE BUSCH CAR? “Yeah, Dover’s one of the tracks where you can transfer some of the info (from Cup cars to Busch cars). We sent up some shocks we used on the No. 57 (Kyle Busch drove the No. 57 Chevrolet in the Dover Busch race in June) for them to try, since we ran real well there in June. You can kind of transfer the setups and at least get a sense of what direction you need to go in.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF DOVER (INT’L. SPEEDWAY)? “I love Dover for a couple of reasons. You have two grooves, so you can do a lot of passing, and I just think it’s some of the best racing you’ll see. You know, you’ve got to have good down force, your car has to handle right, and you have to have good pit stops since pit road is so narrow. It’s really one of those tracks where you have to have everything just right to be successful. I remember when the place was asphalt, back when I first got into the sport. It’s just a neat ‘old school’ racetrack.”

WHAT’S THE BIGGEST LESSON A DRIVER HAS TO LEARN AT DOVER? “A driver learns very quickly that it’s not a very forgiving race track. I used to hear Phil Rizzuto (long time announcer for the New York Yankees) describe (Yankees player) Randy Velardi as having ‘patient hustle,’ and that’s a great way of describing what you need at Dover. I’ve also heard ‘cautiously aggressive,’ and that’s a good way to describe it, too. You have to get after it and make the passes when you can, but you also have to use your head so you don’t get caught up in something.”

KYLE BUSCH’S HISTORY AT DOVER INT’L SPEEDWAY: Driving the No. 87 Chevrolet, Kyle Busch finished 15th in the Sept., 2003, Busch Series event at Dover International Speedway. One year ago, Busch drove the No. 5 Lowe’s Chevy to a fifth-place finish in the June, 2004, Busch race, and finished ninth in this race one year ago.

In the June Craftsman Truck Series race at Dover, Busch drove the No. 15 Billy Ballew Motorsports Chevy Silverado to his second victory in as many starts (having also won the May 20 truck race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway). The following day, Busch was running in the top-five in the Dover Busch race (in the No. 57 Shop Vac Chevrolet) when he and Kevin Harvick made contact. Busch’s car was too damaged to continue, and he was credited with a 36th-place finish.

In his first NEXTEL Cup start at Dover, Busch impressed fans and drivers alike, driving his Kellogg’s Chevrolet to a runner-up finish at “The Monster Mile” on Sunday, June 5.

TEAM NO. 5’s HISTORY AT DOVER INT’L. SPEEDWAY: Five seems to be the magic number for the No. 5 team at Dover, as the team has finished fifth in three of the past five Dover Busch races. Brian Vickers finished fifth in May, 2003, and won the Sept. Busch race, while Kyle Busch scored a fifth-place finish in June, 2004, and finished ninth here one year ago. Most recently, Jimmie Johnson drove the No. 5 to a fifth-place finish here in the June Busch race.

CHASSIS INFORMATION- Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 229 – Chassis No. 229 is the same chassis Kyle Busch drove to a third-place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway in March, 2004. The chassis is mostly used as a backup car.

MULTI-DRIVER TEAM: The No. 5 Team Lowe’s Racing crew is competing for the 2005 NASCAR Busch Series owners’ points championship with seven different drivers.

Kyle Busch has driven the No. 5 in eight races, including a win at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in May. Boston Reid and Blake Feese have six starts apiece in the Lowe’s entry, with Reid’s best finish being a 17th-place result at Nashville Superspeedway in June, and Feese’s best finish being a 23rd-place result at Atlanta Motor Speedway in March.

Jimmie Johnson drove the No. 5 in three races, scoring the team’s first pole position of 2005 at Darlington Raceway in May, and qualifying eighth the following weekend at Richmond International Raceway. Johnson’s best finish was a fifth-place result at Dover International Speedway in June.

Kyle Krisiloff made his Busch Series debut in the No. 5 at The Milwaukee Mile in June, and finished 40th in the Lowe’s Chevy at Michigan International Speedway in August. Krisiloff’s next start in the No. 5 is scheduled to come at Memphis Motorsports Park in October.

In his NASCAR debut, open-wheel star Adrian Fernandez finished 10th in the Mexico City Busch Series race, and drove the No. 5 to a 28th-place finish at California Speedway in Sept. Fernandez is also slated to drive the No. 5 in Busch races at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway, Phoenix International Raceway and Homestead-Miami Speedway this season.

Brian Vickers’ only scheduled start in the No. 5 this season came at Watkins Glen International earlier, where he finished third.

POINTS STANDING: Rick Hendrick, owner of the No. 5 Lowe’s / Sta-Green entry, is 25th in the NASCAR Busch Series owners’ points standings after 28 events of the 35-race season.

STATS AND FACTS