NASCAR at Darlington Raceway, May 2024: Kyle Busch pre-race

Intro good afternoon everyone we're going to go ahead and begin with today's media availabilities we're now joined by Kyle Bush who will be competing in tonight's Craftman truck series event as well as Sunday's Cup Series event we'll go ahead and open it up for questions if you have one please raise your hand and we will get a mic over to you who would like to begin we'll go to Bob Bob pakis Fox Sports if you had spun if you weren't the caution last week but the caution came out at that time are you making decisions now to win a race or do you have to play the points considering where you're at um I would I would say that we would go for the win and make the decision based off of trying to get that um so I think we were in the fourth position that man that would have been really really hard for us to choose only two tires with that many laps on the lefts so I think we would have taken four which ultimately would have put us a little too far back um because four didn't win right so um I think that would have that would have been the call but it obviously wasn't uh the one needed to win the race so um you know we we need to think about that and put ourselves in that position had us not been the caution additional questions for Kyle go in the front to Lee Lee Spencer sirusxm NASCAR radio and catch.com what do you think it is about What has taken you a while to get acclimated to this car this car that has taken you a while to get acclimated to because when you were with Gibbs the first year of the car we just assumed they were not giving you the best equipment um I guess might be the fair way to say it since you were a lame duck at that point but um you know two year you had a successful season last year with three wins and I'm just kind of curious um just from what you've told us you've seen to stumble a little bit with the the car in general um yeah I mean I think that uh you know the the better piece that you have at the racetrack you know it's going to m a lot of things it's going to make your job easier and the opportunity of going out there and and getting strong finishes or wins a lot easier so um you know some guys have done a better job of that um you know we were leading I think twice or yeah we were leading twice and had engine failures in the final races of the jgr cars and then uh last year we were good out of the gate had some good stuff and then as times have changed and and the setups have evolved and guys guys have found how to make their stuff go faster um we just hadn't been able to do that so um it looked good the last two weeks I felt like the last two weeks at do and Kansas we were respectable and and contenders and much closer and um you know that was a nice change of pace we're consistent top five Runners you know be a consistent top five Runner and get those top five finishes and then um you know that consistency will build into uh putting yourself in the right place at the right time at the end of these races to get a win is there one aspect with that car you put a finger on that you just don't have that Comfort level you've enjoyed in the past How does the new car drive um it it definitely drives different than the old car um you know what that is I'm not exactly sure I mean it seems when you lead into the corner and the right front is outside the right rear the car is much tighter when you get to the center off of the corner and the right front is inside the right rear coming downhill it's much looser and so trying to find that balance of of that uh is been difficult um trying to get that right but the old car didn't have that sensation it was easy to just make a smooth corner and have the balance stay the same the whole time where now I feel like I'm fighting many more balance issues and on top of just fighting those balance issues by yourself throw in the aerrow deficiencies that you have in traffic and now you're just confused like you you think that you're going to expect it to do one thing and it does something else and you lose a tenth of a second because you're trying to Garner that feel of what it is and that's I mean we're literally all grasping at half of a tenth of a second to be the best car on the racetrack I mean um many of our Pace studies that come out after these races 210 is is the difference between 1 and 25th you know so you're literally grasping at at very small gains to uh move yourself up that pylon is there a pylon here okay just making sure I thought that was a Hot Topic so that was that was a good pun right there perfect timing are there any other questions for Kyle we'll go to Dustin and we'll go in Is this new realm of confusion the back to Tyler uh Dustin long NBC Sports in light of what you were saying there is there I guess this confusion and and I can't relate because I don't have your experiences but is this type of confusion anything that you've gone through at any point in your career with the different types of cars or is this a new realm or experience in that sense for for you no this is all new uh new realm of confusion I think the last time we had this much confusion was when we had the uh the high down Force package on the cup cars the old the old Cup car where you didn't know if you wanted to be the downforce guy or the less drag guy at the different racetracks you know and so like I think Trux if I remember right was like they poured all the downforce on his cars and he was fast his way and they took down Force they made Denny's cars less drag and he was fast that way so it was like okay well which way is the way you know I think that was the last time I was I was confused but that's just car build stuff not even lap tolap as you're going through the turn with your balance issues and then Arrow issues that you have and I also want to ask you uh looking ahead to the Allstar race um you were the winner the one year they had the option tire and I know it didn't work as well as as what everybody hoped back then but what's your hopes and and thoughts about this this idea of going back to an option tire and trying this again and what would be signs that it's worth or even if it doesn't work it's still worth looking forward moving forward on yeah I mean I think it's Thoughts on option tires definitely something interesting um you know I feel like H the last time we all kind of put it on at the same time so there was no difference in putting it on right so this time I feel like we're probably all going to strategize the same way again like there's only there's not that very many different ways that you can skin the same cat to figure out how to win these races um you know it's no different than every Sunday right like every Sunday you're going to split the first stage you're going to split the second stage you're either going to split the third stage or you're going to two- stin the third stage like it's it's spelled out there's no thinking at all anymore to strategy so like I've made the suggestion years ago and they've skipped right over it in in one ear out the other of find or make a defined number at some of these racet tracks if it's 75 laps green you want to go 75 laps green when the green flag Falls we're going 75 laps green and if no caution comes you throw a caution okay then the clock resets we go 75 again but then there's no caution in the last 50 or 25 or whatever laps so that throws some strategy into things and that would give the crew chiefs if we had option tires at all these other races like hey do we want to run the option tire for 75 laps here will it make it 75 laps that's another question um you know and and how all of that would look and that would definitely throw some more option into these races where right now it's it's all the same man it's so cookie cutter that it's all the same how I'm sorry the 75 laps M you're going to have potentially natural cautions and that just throw that out Cautions you start over Okay the clock starts over right it's kind of like the caution clock except it's just laps it's defined by laps so you start the green you start the race green you go 75 laps if there's no natural caution you throw one right and then if if there's a caution lap 50 once it goes green again you're going 75 green again you know but at least there's not a set and defined pitch strategy at that point in my opinion all right we'll go in the back Hybrid engines to Tyler and then down here to Bob yeah Tyler head 1075 The Game cul media a lot of talk going on here recently about the future of the engine in the cup series abandoning push rod V8s bringing in some kind of hybrid technology is there optimism that maybe that could get the horsepower back up like a lot of drivers including yourself have advocated for a lot of the over the past few years uh sure uh just depends on what they build it to you know I mean there's plenty of engine opportunities that are out there there's superchargers there's you know the the the electrification piece that could be used I have heard that ours would only be under caution not used under green so that you know what is the horsepower that we would utilize under green could it happen that um overhead cam engines come to the cup series and they're less than 650 horsepower boy that would be detriment um so uh definitely um we would all advocate for more uh it's just a matter of who's going to listen we'll go to Spin Bob uh Bob pakis Fox Sports and when you spun at there at the end of the race last week was it just pushing too hard did something happen just what occurred uh yeah so I I'd smoked the tires and I had gotten really loose about six laps prior to that and I was running the top and I was just barely hanging on and then I went to the bottom and I found a little bit of pace around the bottom and that's when I got by Kyle uh Larsson and then I don't know if it was a lap or two later uh just kept trying to maximize my speed knowing that we were falling off and I didn't want to lose any more positions to anybody behind me and just over pushed it and I came in and they said the whole right rear was just feathered um and Kyle's right front was corded and splitting and and unraveling so um we both just smoked our tires I think it's a little bit weird that he smoked a right front and I smoked a right rear so you'd think opposite of that right yeah I mean is that just Styles you think or running it could be just the balance that you had at that particular time of the race like we had been trying to free up the second half of the race um and I felt really neutral and honestly that whole run like I felt like I was trying to stay under the tire and not over push cuz it was going to be one of our longest runs to end the race and when the 11 and the 17 were racing really hard for the lead and I was in third I was just like you guys burn your stuff up you guys do what you got to do like this is fun I'm going to watch for a second you're going to come right back to me and so I was just hanging out like I didn't even want to get in The Fray and then um I don't know it's about 15 laps later and I wasn't getting any closer to them and I started slipping in different ways and I'm like all right I'm not going to get a payoff for trying to take care of my tires here we'll take one final question from Pete over here to your right Kyle um a Interview couple quick questions today R running the truck race is that fun for you you like doing that kind of stuff when you can these days can it help with what you do on Sunday here and you know this year the throwback they're celebrating Roots racing and things like that how important is that still to get that path to get from when you're running around as a 10 11y old to you know making it to the big series when if you're good enough to do that yeah um what was the first part the truck race truck race yeah uh I enjoy the truck stuff it's a lot of fun for me you know um still the same group of people on my truck that I worked with last year at kbm so um thanks to the Spire guys for giving me the five Races they did this year to get out there and get get some track time and for here at Darlington I think it's I wouldn't say you need it but it is helpful to just kind of get out there and just learn and build an um a comfort with the fence and where you're at and how close and the speed and just getting the feel for that um so being able to do all of that tonight with a truck and then get into a cup car tomorrow I think you'll you'll fire off a little bit faster you know but um besides that I don't know that you learn much much more than that just the the comfort of where the wall is and then um you know the Grassroots effect and and all of that you know that's that's what what's drives our sport really I mean it could be driven from the top down of course you know with with the series of the cup series and everything that it is um but there's obviously a dream that these younger guys and gals have to make it to the top and they want to get there one day and they come from the Grassroots levels and so uh for support that certain companies put into the Grassroots levels I'm I'm grateful of that it's really neat that brexton has the the companies that he has that's helping him and then of course too with others across the country I know that the uh Toyota dirt program's been very instrumental and a lot of those drivers coming up into here and getting here so uh you see a little bit more Chevrolet on some of the stuff as well too with with Grassroots racing and the dirt stuff so that's been fun to see um but yeah it's always cool to have throwback weekend in Darlington so excited about seeing some of the the schemes out there all right Kyle thanks for your time today and good luck this weekend thanks [Music] all right there's the Checker FL great job driver