NASCAR at Richmond Raceway, Aug. 2022: Kyle Busch pre-race

Okay, we'll go ahead and begin our second press conference of the day. We are joined by the driver of Kyle Busch, the number 18 mm Toyota. We'll go ahead and open the door to questions. Please raise your hand. a wireless microphone for you, bob, start with bob in advance, is there anything you try to do to avoid bad luck? Is there anything you try to change routine-wise or anything just to try to change your luck? I guess in the past there are spells of bad luck and you always wonder when it will end and you will finally be able to focus on getting the results that you deserve or that you would expect to get based on your performances alone and something bad is not happening to you that will put you out of the

race

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Yes, I know Kurt has been at the 2311 tent during the

race

s and is very committed, but since he has been away for so long, obviously there are some questions like, could he come back and me? Are you curious that you don't have transportation and you know it's a Toyota ride? I mean, I guess he could, I don't know if it's necessarily been a perspective, um, so obviously I'd like him to be able to do what he wants to do and go out the way he wants, you know. I talked about that where he and I just had a conversation where you know he's like a Pocono qualifying accident that's not necessarily the best way to go out, you know, and I was like, ah, you've got 1000, you know? ?

I wish him the best so that he can continue to improve and feel better and get through the processes of what this is. It's nothing like breaking a bone and being out, you know, with an arm or leg injury, foot injury. Something like that, obviously, is the melon on the top of your head that is very important for your well-being in the future, so I just hope that all of that can go well for him and he can return as soon as possible. okay come here with nate and nate ryan nbc sports uh

kyle

david wilson did an interview yesterday with siriusxm in which he said he was still confident in keeping you in camp and you know everything was on the table to do it like If you open up As I walk through this process, it's a little comforting.

I guess not, it's not just a team that's trying to keep you, but a manufacturer in Toyota that's doing everything they seem capable of doing. Yes, absolutely, I mean, that's it. Obviously, you know, it's a strong point. I have had a relationship with this manufacturer and this team Toyota and Joe Gibbs racing for 15 years. I mean, that's nothing to bat an eye at, you know, so we've had some really strong races. and some fantastic results, we have won championships and over 50 races together and obviously to continue that, my dream was to always have the opportunity to be able to go out when I wanted and retire when I wanted.

I want to kind of do the Ivan Stewart Iron Man deal with Toyota, where he's kind of a lifer, you know what I mean, he goes to all the Toyota functions and all the Toyota stuff and he's one of those guys that they behave every time you. You're at one of those things and you see Iron Man, Ivan Stewart, walking around, you know, it's really cool to see the branded tie he has on and that was always my thought of being the Nascar guy in the Toyota kingdom and being one who has been the most successful driver for that manufacturer here in the Nascar ranks, so you know, I would love to have that opportunity.

It's just a matter of being able to put all the pieces in the right places and you know it's not that simple. like a seven year old puzzle, this is a 50 year old puzzle, just with the number of pieces and how long this thing takes, so we're still working on all of that and then my second is kind. As for the race itself in the April race, Denny wins by stopping twice in the final stage, I think Harvick did too and they both beat Byron who looked like he was going to be the winner until they got newer tires .

Do you hope more teams do it? Keep an eye on that strategy tomorrow or it will still depend on tire wear. Do you expect the tires to be the same? I know caution plays a part in this. Do you think teams will approach it differently based on what happened in April? I think if you play the same race again there will be two stops in the final stage, no doubt, I think everyone will notice that it is also 20 degrees warmer than here the first time, so the wear and tear of the tires is It's going to be worse, so based on the math, it's going to be a head-on obstacle.

You've said from the beginning with your new negotiations that you have to put your family first and I understand that, but this is the time of year when deals start to be put together with the drivers. Sponsorship is starting to come together with drivers and teams, so everything is on hold at kbm until your part of the puzzle is completed. I wouldn't say it's on hold, it's a vanguard in the discussions. You know it every week and the people you talk to, although obviously that's probably one of the second questions asked, so it's definitely at the top.

That's probably why it's taking a little more time than it should and so just working on those pieces again, the puzzle isn't as easy or as simple as it may seem from the outside, which answers a lot of other questions. questions in my opinion. career and in my entirety I'm not as simple as it may seem, uh, in any case, um, you know, being able to put all that together is, um, yeah, like I said, but it's not as easy as it seems, so we're trying again. to figure that out, um, I had another thought, but I lost it, what do you have?, it happens with age, um, I'm learning, yeah, sonoma, this, this car, now I know what it was, everything, I'm sorry, like this This is the second time I go.

Through this, the last time I went through this was 15 years ago, the landscape of the sport was completely different 15 years ago and, for me, you know I had a runway of 20 to 25 years ahead of me, you know, so probably I had a little bit more leg, more track to stand on, uh, and I understand that I understand it, um, but for me, this situation right now is very important to me, in addition to achieving motorsports, um, because wherever I be the next place, whether it's Joe Gibbs running or whoever, um. I wish I didn't have to go through this again.

I'm six, seven, maybe eight years older if I play all this perfectly. Braxton and I share a truck when he turns 16, when he's 16 and 17. then it's his when he's 18 and I'm done, I'm out, you know what I mean, that's the perfect move and if I can line everything up that, you know the catwalk exists for a bush, obviously, he's quite talented, he earns a lot, he earns more than me, I hear about it every day, so the catwalk for him, if you want to look at it that way, he has more 30 years old, so you know he can, he can continue this legacy a lot longer than I want to point out that Suárez was in a test with Kimi last week and he was talking about how aggressive the drivers are and you know, warning them about certain drivers and, you know, I'm curious what kind of wake up. call, do you think it'll be when he's out there competing with the Ross Chastains or the Kyle Bushes or the Brad Keselowskis?

I mean, you've been there at Watkins Glen, you know what it's like to hit him and that's, uh, he's not used to it. having fenders like yeah, yeah, I mean, I hope you've at least watched a couple of these road course races and see what the end turns into. um, you know, Indy is completely different than Watkins Glenn, um, you know, five wide in a two-wide lane. corner where you don't really need the gully, you don't really get up to a lot of speed before you have a break for turn one, so two three wide is the norm there, but yeah, there's always contact and stuff like that, so um, ya you know, hopefully we can all be smarter about it and more respectful about it, um, but that's probably asking too much, yeah, okay, we'll go to the front with kelly kelly crono racer.com

kyle

, you said it there a minute ago, This is It's not the first time you've been through this in terms of contract negotiations, but add the new car this year trying to learn that the recent run of bad luck that you've talked about is one of the toughest years mentally. have you had in the series when you add all that up yeah sure please wait I'm getting my data straight here so let's add some data which is the performance plus the optics which are the correct results sonoma collectively jgr . everything sucked nashville we were p2 leading the most laps could have won the race unless a strategy call was made at the end the American driver made a mistake on pit road over the wall too early the overrun penalty race speed turned green until the end atlanta good car drove from 19th in the top three in the first race we had a problem on pit road we were involved in the next accident new hampshire we spun twice we were not very good our teammates were a little better than us obviously still able to Save a 12th Pocono, one of the top three cars of the entire day, led to most laps ending in P2 before the hall of doom and then the independent circuit, obviously we were probably a 10th to 12th place car, we got into the top ten we just passed.

Um, both cars led the second to last caution of the day and both cars finished second making their way through all the chaos at the end and we didn't, so I think where I finished 11th in that one as well. I can still go from 24th to 11th on the last restart, so there's a lot of bad luck there and that's not indicative of how we've been racing, so if we can finish how we've been racing, you know, that's us. You're not far behind, I feel like we're still contenders, okay, more questions up here for Mike, right here, Mike Embr, MBC Sports, uh, Kyle, talking about road courses in general and you mentioned Indy, does it make sense to keep racing that course with the On the first turn, people will always try to place five cards where one and a half or two can go, can you change something to make it make more sense?

I mean, you can change whatever you want, we can go, we can. throw the green flag over the s if you want, um, but I don't know, um, you know, other guys have had problems. I heard it restarts in single file you know throw the green flag coming out of 13 where everyone Like speed up to 14 and then we're all a little more spread out and you have a different opportunity in turn one uh not so tight , so there's all kinds of different things you can do, I think rebooting Front Row is something the Indy Car guys do or something, so that's where that idea might come from, but um, yeah, or you could just go back to the oval and make Indy what Indy really should be and go racing on the oval. with our cars, so, yeah, I would think that from a driver's point of view, we'd all like to go see the independent oval and see what it looks like and come back to hollow ground, so to speak, but, you know, to where Action, calamity and destruction, if that's your thing, keep us where we are, don't change anything, is there a team strategy to make sure Martin makes the playoffs?

Oh man, us being in Richmond, that's a bad question. that's a bad question, I'm itchy, don't run, play as it is, you know that's all you can do, that's fine and that'll wrap it up thanks for coming Kyle, thank you so much.