Kyle Busch - New England Fans: Jump on the Bandwagon
HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. (June 24, 2008) – Dear New England Sports Fans:
As the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Loudon, N.H., for Sunday’s Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, it would be entirely appropriate for you to jump on the Kyle Busch bandwagon.
Why, you ask? Much like your Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics and even your Bruins, Busch has been winning, and he’s been winning big. In fact, he’s notched 11 wins in all so far this season between NASCAR’s top three series – Sprint Cup, NASCAR Nationwide Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
We know your appetite for winning doesn’t stop with pro sports, either. You’re quite proud of recent winning seasons by Boston College football, Boston University hockey, and let’s not forget Boston College’s 2008 NCAA hockey championship.
If winning isn’t reason enough for you New Englanders to back Busch, the 23-year old will sport the familiar green-and-black colors of longtime Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) sponsor Interstate Batteries on his No. 18 Toyota Camry this weekend at New Hampshire, as well as next weekend at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. Can you say “Celtics Green?”
Busch hopes to continue his winning ways at a track that sits about 70 miles outside of Boston. What might be comforting to you New England fans: Busch hasn’t had to endure years of suffering like you have prior to your teams’ recent title deluge. The only suffering for this Las Vegas native has come during a recent two-race skid, when victory lane eluded him at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway and Michigan International Speedway.
We’re betting Busch’s most recent triumph last Sunday at the 12-turn, 1.99-mile road course in Sonoma, Calif, caught your attention. It sure impressed us as he proved he can win on any type of race track in capturing his series-high fifth win of the season. And how about his wins earlier this season at the tricky egg shaped oval of Darlington, S.C., the high-banked Monster Mile of Dover, Del., the lightning-fast Atlanta Motor Speedway, and his first-ever restrictor plate-race win at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
While Busch has won seemingly everything but the lottery this season, our guy has led an impressive 869 of the 4,979 total laps (17.45 percent) run in Sprint Cup races. And now he’s now headed back to your “Magic Mile,” where he captured his second Sprint Cup victory in July 2006 and has led 176 laps in six career starts. Moreover, all of Busch’s nine career Sprint Cup victories have come at different venues, so he’d like nothing better than to make New Hampshire his first multiple-win track.
How about nicknames? We know you love chanting “Big Papi” and “KG.” Our guy goes by “Rowdy.” We can just hear it now – “Row-Dee, Row-Dee, Row-Dee.” Doesn’t that have a nice ring to it?
Still not convinced? Let’s talk championships, since your beloved Patriots, Red Sox and Celtics have six since 2002. “Rowdy” Busch currently leads the Sprint Cup title chase by a wide margin. And not only can you root for him in the green Interstate Batteries Toyota at New Hampshire this weekend, Busch will be back in September to begin the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup.
So, New England fans, it’s time to jump on the Kyle Busch bandwagon. We know you love a winner.
Sincerely,
Your friends at Interstate Batteries
KYLE BUSCH: Driver, No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry
Going into the season, did you believe that the chemistry between yourself and the team would come together this quickly, with this many wins so early in the season?
“It doesn’t surprise me that we’ve gelled this quickly, but it does surprise me that we already have five wins. When you switch teams and come to a new organization, and working with a new crew chief, it can be challenging. When Steve (Addington, crew chief) and I first started working together, I was really descriptive about telling him what the car was doing. I was telling him what the right-front was doing and all, getting into a lot of detail. Now, I’ve toned back and just tell him it’s tight and he fixes it. He gets what I mean, so we’ve come a long way as far as chemistry. I’ve come a long way with everyone at JGR, for that matter. Also, Toyota and JGR have come a long way together this year with their engines and development and our cars. It’s not just one factor that has made us successful. It’s just a combination of all the hard work from the guys at the shop and all the guys on the 18 Interstate Batteries team at the race track each weekend.”
As well as you and the team have run together this year, is there still room for improvement?
“There’s room for anyone to get better. I’ve learned in this sport that if you become complacent, it just gives everyone else an opportunity to catch back up with you. There’s room for a football player to get better. Tom Brady could still get better even though he’s certainly seems to be at the top of his game. There are so many things you can learn each race, each game, each week that can help you later in the season and even later on in your career. I’m still learning those things every time I set foot at the race track. For me, it’s been all about taking what I learn each week and putting it to good use. It’s part of what has made us successful as a team this year.”
You seem to be comfortable at tracks that are short and flat, like New Hampshire. Why is that?
“For some reason, I’m always fast on the flat tracks. I just have fun at those types of places. It’s fun for me to be able to get the car hung out and loose all the time. But at a flat track like New Hampshire, you can’t necessarily do that because you lose your forward bite so much and you can’t drive up off the corner as well. I just seem to be comfortable at the one-mile flat tracks for some reason. It probably has to do with running some of those types of tracks growing up, and also with my Late Model team.”
What’s different about New Hampshire that you enjoy, as opposed to another flat track like Phoenix?
“New Hampshire is a fun track for me as a driver. It’s flat like Phoenix and Milwaukee, but it’s a little bit tricky. In order to do well there, you need a car that works on all the different kinds of asphalt the tracks seem to be putting down. You need a car that has a lot of side bite in the rear and front grip to turn easier. At New Hampshire, it seems like I’ve always been loose into the corner and tight in the center, which is hard to fix, sometimes. I think the team that can fix that the best will have the best car.”
Is there anything different about you this year that is making you better?
“I just feel a lot more at ease and comfortable in my own skin this year. I’ve just gelled with everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing so much quicker than I expected. Obviously, running well hasn’t hurt, either, since it’s made it even more fun to be at the race track with these guys on the 18 Interstate Batteries team. I can be a pretty miserable person if I’m not running well. I think the communication between all three crew chiefs and drivers has really been important, too. When you can have three guys and teams that work together with somewhat similar set-ups, it shows on the race track.”
You’ve certainly carried a lot of momentum with you throughout the first part of the season. How big of a factor is momentum in this sport?
“Momentum is a crazy thing sometimes. It can either keep going, or suddenly you lose it without any warning. It’s just something that we live with each week. We just try to go out there and be the best the next week. We’re going to do whatever we can to keep it going. Fortunately for us, we’ve kept that momentum for the majority of the first half of the season. New Hampshire is a race track that I’ve also run well at in the Cup Series, so it gives me a lot of confidence in our chances to run well and keep the momentum up this weekend.”
