Total Kyle Busch–Ricky Stenhouse Jr.. story from a few weeks ago was likely the result of Busch’s disappointing season. This weekend will be a vivid reminder of that disappointment.
As the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Global Technology Raceway, commonly known as the Gates, it marks one year since Busch’s last Cup win. When he won at Gateway last year, it was his third of the season in what was supposed to be a rejuvenation of his career at Richard Childress Racing.
In the 36 events since that race, Busch has eight top-fives (two this year) and 14 top-10s (five this year). He ranks 14th in the National Cup rankings, only 12 points ahead of the current playoff round.
The day before the Stenhouse game, Busch spoke with FOX Sports about his season and his path to being winless in the Cup all year, whether he was stressing about a playoff spot or not. no, would it be without Kyle Busch Motorsports (sold to Spire after the last game). season) is good or bad, his 9-year-old son Brexton’s development as a race car driver and whether he will be able to see his 2-year-old daughter Lennix racing.
Here’s his chat with some questions from the media on pit road last Saturday as he responded to the circumstances surrounding the fight and the $75,000 fine imposed on Stenhouse as well as three suspensions for JTG Daugherty Racing team members (Busch and his team were suspended). no penalty).
Do you agree with the punishments they gave the JTG boys?
It doesn’t matter whether I agree or not – NASCAR will issue the penalty.
Do you feel any different after watching the replay as to whether you were wrong on the track?
Are not. I gave more room and while I was pulling the fence, he broke my door.
Gateway is good and bad to talk about because you can talk about your wins. But that was also the last time. First of all, what do you remember about the race a year ago, specifically how well it went?
Just have a great car. We were really quick. We were able to qualify first. We were able to race forward all day. We kept our track position with the hole choice we had. There were a few times where a few guys cycled towards the front, but we were quick to get on new tires, we were able to get back to the lead quite quickly and control the race. It was a really good day for us, overall good and we would have loved to get back to the front to control the race like that. I felt good about that at Dover (earlier this month). I feel good about that in Kansas. We need to work to get there again.
If I told you after Gateway last year that you weren’t going to win a season, you probably would have said, “Dude, you’re crazy with the way things are going.”
It’s difficult, isn’t it? There have been 36 races between now and then. And there have been a lot of different winners and the fact that we weren’t among them is definitely something we need to get better at. We definitely know that we need to go further and be able to position ourselves to win these races. When you are running up front and in the right position, you will have more chances to win and you will eventually get into victory lane.
It seems like the error rate in Next Gen cars is very small. Can you compare it to any other time or any other series or anything else you’ve run where it takes place like this?
No, no, I can’t. It’s really crazy. The things we did last year at Darlington, we came third. And then this year, we went a different route and we ran well at Dover with it, we ran well at Kansas with it. So we said, “Okay, let’s go to Darlington with it.” And completely missed. Would we be better off just running what we ran last year? But honestly, things change so much in the space of six or nine months that something you ran 12 months ago probably wouldn’t have done. must also run forward.
Do you like this challenge? Is there a part of you that sees all your history like this as bad but has some fun trying to get back to it?
I can say that I enjoy those moments of light at the end of the tunnel. When you can win, you enjoy it so much more, it’s so much sweeter knowing that you finally got there and you were able to do it. However, I will say that when you go through specific moments of the weekend and you think you’re going to be okay, and you’re not okay, it’s like, “How the hell did we quit? miss this time? Where is it? And what did we find to not get that?
Kyle Busch wants to win but isn’t too stressed about making the playoffs
Have you been able to figure out what this is or where we’ve been?
A little bit. Darlington, I can say we did it. We ran the rear bar, and we usually don’t run the rear bar, so that might have something to do with it.
I know in the past you’d say, “I saw this on someone else’s car, remind me after the race,” but this year I haven’t heard you say that as much. Is it harder to see what other teams can do to get up to speed?
Really hard. The only time you really get a chance to look under someone’s skirt, if you will, is when they’re using technology when a car tire comes off. That’s pretty much the only time you have to see anything. So with limited time [with cars] on pit road and the cars are on pit road and are on jacks and tires back on the ground, you don’t really have a good chance of looking under someone’s stuff.
Are you stressed about making it to the playoffs right now?
Maybe I’m not as stressed about the playoffs as I am about the 20-year winning streak. That’s the bigger goal. You win the race because of that, you’re in the playoffs. That’s the bigger one.
And that could last all year as something to aim for?
Exactly.
What do you think it says about you having that achievement?
It says a lot. There were so many different cars that I raced during that time, there were so many different crew chiefs that I worked with, the engineers, the race teams, the people, the pit crew and all that. It just shows you how tough this sport is and what it can become. And what it all boils down to is the ability to match fast, front-running cars – we’ve had that some weeks, we haven’t had that other weeks.
‘It’s been tough’ – Kyle Busch on not winning in more than a year
Do you wish you had Kyle Busch Motorsports to entertain you?
No no.
Are you glad that didn’t happen and are you satisfied? Isn’t it a bit strange?
It’s true that it’s a bit strange. I still go there every once in a while to go into the store and buy a truck or something like that. But go ahead [my son] Brexton’s store – now KBM. It was working through his race content and my microphone [sprint] program and whatever we do with that. So it’s nice to have something different to focus on a little bit — and not really worry about too many big things with 70 employees versus just three now.
What don’t you miss?
Just dealing with people. It’s fun, it’s cool, and it’s great to have relationships with people. But to be honest, sometimes I have a headache and am very stressed. You want to keep everyone happy. You want to keep people employed and sometimes that weighs heavily on you. And it’s good that there’s not much to deal with.
Fewer fires to put out?
That too. My water bill has decreased significantly.
And how is Brexit going? I know some of his races heat up over the summer.
Brexton did a great job. He is having fun. He likes it. There have been some frustrating moments in the last month or two when it comes close to winning – he starts on the front row and tries to take the lead but messes up and falls to third and has to come back second. We are perfecting a lot of the above [top-three] pulpit. We haven’t had too many wins yet, so it would be nice to start collecting some trophies and some checkered flags again.
Kyle Busch on how his 9-year-old son Brexton is doing with his racing
And what does it feel like to be a girl’s father?
Lennix is amazing. She is really good. She’s so smart. And she’s really learned a lot with what she’s been doing with words and learning to swim, jumping in the pool, just doing kid things. This morning we were playing – Brexton got some new race cars for his birthday. She wanted to play with that. She really doesn’t look like a Barbie girl.
So can you see her in a race car?
Most likely, I don’t want her to do that – but whatever she wants to do.
But whether [your wife] Samantha wants her?
Anyway, Samantha was nice, but she agreed with me – she didn’t want to… but she didn’t think we could keep her.
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He spent decades covering motorsports, including more than 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal . Follow him on Twitter @Clover.
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