Where the Raybestos Rookies finished at Indy:
K. Busch, 10th
T. Kvapil, 37th
RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER QUOTES FOR THE ALLSTATE 400 AT THE BRICKYARD NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES RACE AT INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY, AUGUST 7, 2005.
TRAVIS KVAPIL, No. 77 KODAK/JASPER ENGINES AND TRANSMISSIONS DODGE: “We were terrible to start the race off but, shoot, we changed springs and moved the track bar, everything. We got it to where we were running some pretty decent lap times, not great but decent. About that time we made a pit stop and broke a gear or an axle leaving pit road. It’s disappointing to start making headway and then it all kind of fell apart.” YOU WORKED YOUR WAY BACK ONTO THE LEAD LAP AT ONE POINT. “We were so bad in the beginning that we were lapped in 30 or so laps. We got the lucky dog and actually before the last pit stop we were times that were in the top-10, top-15. We just had that problem and it just took us too many laps to get it fixed.” THIS WAS A BIG DAY FOR TONY STEWART. “That’s cool. He’s an Indiana native and good for him. He’s been on a roll.”
KYLE BUSCH IN THE No. 5 KELLOGG’S/DELPHI CHEVROLET WAS THE RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE OF THE RACE AT INDY. Notes: Busch finished 10th, his eighth top-10 in 27 career NEXTEL Cup Series starts.
A Raybestos® Rookie has now posted a top-10 finish in each of the last seven consecutive Allstate 400 races. The others:
1999: Tony Stewart, seventh
2000: Scott Pruett, 10th
2001: Kurt Busch, fifth
2002: Ryan Newman, fourth
2002: Jimmie Johnson, ninth
2003: Jamie McMurray, third
2004: Kasey Kahne, fourth
Busch has logged two top-10 finishes in his last three starts. Busch took top rookie honors for the 14th time this season.
KYLE BUSCH: “It would have been a really good run except we changed three tires instead of four so that kind of hurt us. We got three tires instead of two or four and that just doesn’t work. I was hanging on there at the end. It got real, real loose so I tried knocking the valence in under caution on the rumble strips and after that we got a little bit tight and I about knocked the wall down every corner and then I kept losing spots. That’s all I had. WERE YOU ABLE TO PASS CARS TODAY? “Usually, the only way to pass is when somebody gets real tight or real out of the groove. If nobody gets out of the groove you can’t pass. The only way I passed was when people got out of the groove on me.”
ALAN GUSTAFSON, CREW CHIEF, No. 5 KELLOGG’S/DELPHI CHEVROLET: WHAT HAPPENED ON THAT LAST STOP? “It was a combination of things. We were stopped there and the 0 really chopped our box there and clipped the jackman so he was late getting to that right rear tire. And then the tire changer set his gun down and got out of his rhythm and knocked some lug nuts off there. At that time I saw that we were getting ready to get eat up by 20 spots so I was calling for two and the front guy had a good stop going so he already had that left front tire off. We got that back on and dropped the jack. We took a top-four car there and made a 10th-place car but we’ll fix it and get it right.” YOU RAN IN THE TOP-10 SO THAT MUST BE ENCOURAGING. “I am encouraged. I’m encouraged with the performance of the cars and with the team. We’ve got 90 percent of it. I guess that’s the frustrating part. Maybe it would be a little more frustrating if you didn’t have 90 percent. I don’t think we could beat Tony or the 9. We probably could have ran with the 25 and the 19 but you never know how they’re going to shake out. You could have been there. If it had went green, they might not have been able to make it on gas. Overall, it was a good day for the Delphi Chevrolet and we’re going to go get ‘em in Watkins Glen.” DID YOU HAVE TIRE PROBLEMS? “Our tires were great. We’ve worked hard ever since Pocono and places where they’ve had tire problems we’ve worked hard on not using the tire to turn those things too much, not using too much camber and air pressure and just use other things to turn them and I think that’s paying off now. We don’t want to see any tire problems at all.” DOES THIS GOOD RUN AT INDY GIVE YOUR TEAM SOME MOMENTUM? “We’re pleased with the way we ran, we’re just disappointed with the way we finished. We’ve got to cross our T’s and dot our I’s and we know that. That’s all we’re lacking. We know that. We’ve got to focus on the small things.”
BUSCH PRESS CONFERENCE: “It’s too bad because we didn’t finish nowhere near where we should have. We came in there on that last pit stop and guys were already
coming down pit road. I don’t know if they changed two or four and I don’t know if our pit crew was slow or what but Alan called for two tires and the left front tire was already off. The left rear guy just stood there because he called for two so we got three tires on it instead of four. I got really, really loose off the corners because that left rear wasn’t there to give me the grip that I needed off the corner. After that we were just trying to hang on and try to gain some spots. I was catching Mark a little bit and then once I’d get to him I’d get tight behind him and then I knocked the left front valence in and then got real tight again. I knocked the wall down every lap and got tight even more. I was trying to survive and hang on there in the last few laps.”
