O'Reilly Challenge - Kyle Busch Notes

KYLE BUSCH
NO. 57 LOWE’S/ KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET
TEXAS PREVIEW

Kyle Busch will compete in all three of NASCAR’s top series this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. In addition to competing full-time in the NEXTEL Cup Series in the No. 5 Kellogg’s Chevrolet, Busch will drive the No. 15 Silverado for Billy Ballew Motorsports in the Craftsman Truck Series event, and the No. 57 Lowe’s / Kobalt Tools Chevy for Hendrick Motorsports in the Busch Series race.

The No. 57 entry Busch will drive is one of two entries Hendrick Motorsports will field for this weekend’s Busch Series event. Adrian Fernandez will make the fourth start of his NASCAR career in Saturday’s Busch race, driving the No. 5 Lowe’s / Spectracide Chevrolet.

KYLE BUSCH’S HISTORY AT TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY: Kyle Busch has competed at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS) in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, the NASCAR Busch Series and the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series.

Busch qualified fifth and finished 25th in the October, 2001, truck event at TMS. Busch qualified on the pole for the Busch Series race at Texas in April, 2004, and led the most laps in that event before finishing second to Matt Kenseth. Earlier this season, Busch qualified 35th and finished 21st in his first Cup start at Texas.

The track has been less than kind to Busch on a couple of occasions. Last year, Busch crashed his No. 84 Chevrolet late in NEXTEL Cup practice and failed to make the field in his backup car. In April of this year, Busch crashed his No. 57 Chevy during Busch Series qualifying and did not make the race.

SUITS HIS STYLE: Kyle Busch traditionally does well in Busch events at 1.5-mile tracks. Three of his six Busch Series wins have come at 1.5-milers (two at Lowe’s Motor Speedway and one at Kentucky Speedway), and he’s finished in the top-five in seven of the 10 Busch races he’s competed in on 1.5-mile tracks.

GOING HOME: Kyle Busch will head to his hometown of Las Vegas for a couple of days this week prior to arriving in Texas for this weekend’s races. The trip marks the first time Busch has been in Vegas since he competed in the NASCAR races there in March. This trip is far from a vacation for Busch, who will be making appearances on behalf of several of his sponsors.

IMPRESSIVE STATS: In 54 Busch Series starts, Kyle Busch has:
Six wins (16% of his starts)
19 top-five finishes (35% of his starts)
27 top-10 finishes (50% of his starts)
Six pole positions (16% of his starts)
Led 1,306 of the 9,664 laps he’s completed (13.5%)
Average start- 8.5
Average finish- 14.5
36 lead lap finishes (66% of his starts)

TEMPORARY CREW CHIEF SWAP: With Hendrick Motorsports fielding two cars in this weekend’s event, Chad Walter, the crew chief of the No. 5 Lowe’s Chevrolet, will work with Kyle Busch and the No. 57 team this weekend at Texas. Long-time Hendrick crew chief, Jim Long, will work with driver Adrian Fernandez and the No. 5 team. Long has served as Fernandez’ crew chief in all three of his previous NASCAR starts.

Q&A WITH DRIVER KYLE BUSCH:

SO, YOU’RE IN YOUR HOMETOWN (LAS VEGAS) FOR A COUPLE OF DAYS PRIOR TO THE TEXAS RACES? “Yeah, this is my first time back since we raced here in March, so it’s pretty cool. I’m going to try to squeeze in some time to catch up with some friends, like my buddy Alex Haase (15 year-old Legends car racer from Las Vegas). We’ll try to get out to one of the go-kart tracks while I’m out here. My schedule’s pretty full with sponsor stuff, so it’s not like this is a vacation. I’ll probably try to get back out here during the off-season, when I can spend a few days with nothing to do. We’ve been so busy this year, it’s hard to find time.”

YOU’VE DONE WELL AT A LOT OF THE OTHER 1.5-MILE TRACKS, BUT TEXAS HAS BEEN A HIT OR MISS TRACK FOR YOU, HASN’T IT? “Yeah, I wish I knew why that was. I don’t think it’s just me that has a hard time here. It seems like a lot of people do. We tested here in the Cup car and we were pretty good, but there’s room for improvement.

“In the Busch car, we were really going to be good here earlier this year, but the driver got a little greedy during qualifying. I tried to sit on the pole like we did in 2004, and ended up putting it in the wall and missing the race. That’s a qualifying run I wish I could do over. This time around, I plan on just laying down a good, solid time on my first qualifying lap and get the car in the show, then we’ll go after the pole on the second lap, if it looks like we have a shot at it.

“If we can just have a day like we did in the Busch car last year, I’ll be happy. We led a lot of laps and really had a dominant car, but (Matt) Kenseth got by us there at the end and we finished second. I’d be very pleased if we could do that in all three series this time around.”

THIS IS YOUR LAST SCHEDULED BUSCH SERIES RACE FOR THIS SEASON. ARE YOU PLEASED WITH HOW THE SEASON’S GONE? “Well, we won a pole and won a race, but we should have finished better in a lot of the other races. It was a real rollercoaster ride this year in the Busch Series for us.”

“I always remember the ones that got away. I think we had a shot at Bristol (Motor Speedway), but that penalty put us back in the field and we got wrecked. We were really strong at Lowe’s (Motor Speedway) last month, but lost our transmission. The first Dover (International Speedway) race, we had a shot at the win and wrecked out. It’s frustrating to play the ‘woulda-coulda-shoulda’ game, but it’s hard not to. Maybe we can end the year on a high note with a good run this weekend.”

Q&A WITH CREW CHIEF CHAD WALTER

ADRIAN FERNANDEZ AND THE NO. 5 TEAM TESTED AT TEXAS. HOW DID THE TEST GO? “It went fine. Adrian’s ‘feel’ of the stock cars is still somewhat limited, but we gathered a lot of good information on springs, shocks and sway bars that we’ll be able to apply to both Busch cars this weekend. Adrian does know the Texas track pretty well from racing here in the Indy cars, so he has a comfort level with the track that helped us shorten his learning curve a little during the test.”

YOU NOW HAVE A COUPLE OF MONTHS UNDER YOUR BELT AS A CREW CHIEF. HAS THE PROMOTION CHANGED THE WAY YOU APPROACH THINGS AT THE SHOP OR THE TRACK? “Well, I don’t approach the racing stuff any different. I have had to approach the personnel side of it a little different. I mean, I headed up a group of about 10 guys when I was over at DEI (Dale Earnhardt, Inc.), so that part of it’s not new to me. The main difference is now I’m over 30 guys. You know, you talk to them every morning and give them some direction and make sure everybody’s happy and everything’s OK, but otherwise, racing’s racing.

“It’s really been a blur these past couple of months. We haven’t stopped digging from the day I moved up. It’s non-stop grinding all the time. Ask me this question again around January, after I’ve had a few weeks where we didn’t have a race, and I might be able to give you a better answer.”

CHASSIS INFORMATION- Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 275 – Chassis No. 275 is the same car Kyle Busch drove to a pole position and a runner-up finish at Texas Motor Speedway in April, 2004. Busch also drove this chassis to a dominant win at Michigan International Speedway last season.

STATS AND FACTS