O'Reilly 300 - Kyle Busch Notes

KYLE BUSCH
NO. 57 SPECTRACIDE® FIRE ANT KILLER CHEVROLET
TEXAS PREVIEW

KYLE BUSCH’S HISTORY AT TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY: Kyle Busch has competed at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS) in both the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and the NASCAR Busch Series. Busch qualified on the pole for last year’s Busch Series race and led the most laps in that event, but finished second to Matt Kenseth. Busch qualified fifth and finished 25th in the October, 2001, truck event at TMS.

Q&A WITH DRIVER KYLE BUSCH:

You’re back in the Busch Series for a few races with the No. 57 car. This weekend, your car has fire ants on it. What do you think about being back in the Busch Series, and about the paint design?: “I had such a good time running in the Busch Series last year. The competition level is awesome and the cars are really fun to drive. So when I was offered the opportunity to come back and run these races in the No. 57 for Lowe’s and its vendor partners, I jumped at the chance.

“The Fire Ant Killer paint scheme is kind of unique. I think I might be the first driver with an insect on his car. If you’ve ever been bitten by one, you know fire ants are a major pain, literally. We didn’t have to deal with them in Nevada, but since I’ve moved to North Carolina, I’ve learned more about them than I ever cared to know. We have a lot of land near Mooresville, so I’ll probably go pick up some bags at Lowe’s for my house. Maybe I can get a new nickname. Just call me ‘The Exterminator.’”

You didn’t test at Texas in either your NEXTEL Cup car (the No. 5 Kellogg’s Chevrolet) or in a Busch Series car. Will that make it harder to be successful in the Busch race?”: “No, I don’t really think so. We had planned on testing Texas, but we just weren’t able to make the scheduling work. Terry (Labonte) tested, so we’ll kind of go off of his notes and then we’ll also kind of do our own thing. With how well we ran here last year in the Lowe’s Chevy, we’ll definitely go back and refer to those notes as well. We need to just make a tweak or two and see if we can’t finish one position higher than we did last year.

“I think we’ll be alright. We’ve got the guys from the No. 84 team that were my Cup crew last year when we did the partial schedule helping us on this No. 57. They’re a good group of guys, and I think we won’t have any problem getting the Spectracide Fire Ant Killer car up to the front.”

Some people say a lot of NEXTEL Cup Series drivers race in the Busch Series as a way to gain information they can transfer over to their Cup efforts. Is that a valid argument?: “Before I started racing in the Cup series full-time, I might have thought so, but the cars are really a lot different. For example, there’s a lot more you can do with the shocks on a cup car than you can on a Busch car. Also, the Aero(dynamics) package is very different between the two series.

“As far as a race situation, everything is different. You’re on a totally different tire strategy in the Cup series, because you can use as many sets as you want. There are certainly a few things you can learn about how the weather is affecting the track and how the tire compounds are holding up on that particular race surface, but it really is like comparing Apples to Oranges when you compare a Cup car to a Busch car.

“Probably the biggest help running in the Busch race will be for me is just getting more seat time at Texas (Motor Speedway). I’ve tested here twice and raced here twice, so I still don’t have a ton of laps around this place like some drivers do. Fortunately, it’s a track that suits my driving style, so I’ve found it to be a good track for me, but it never hurts to get more experience at any track we visit.”

CHASSIS INFORMATION- Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 312 – Kyle Busch qualified second with this chassis at Kentucky Speedway last June, but a crash during final practice caused his No. 5 team to bring out a backup car for the race. Busch also drove this chassis to a 14th-place finish at Memphis Motorsports Park last October. Most recently, Boston Reid drove this chassis to a 22nd-place finish at California Speedway in February.

STATS AND FACTS