NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
TOYOTA OWNER’S 400
RICHMOND INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
APRIL 22, 2016
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 MONSTER ENERGY/HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Richmond International Raceway and discussed Tony Stewart’s return to competition, racing in the day at Richmond versus racing under the lights, his thoughts on the lugnut rule and many other topics. Full Transcript:
WHY DO YOU LIKE RICHMOND SO MUCH AND WHY DO YOU THINK YOUR DRIVING STYLE IS A GOOD FIT HERE?
“The short track part of our schedule is a lot of fun. You have Martinsville, Bristol, Richmond, all are uniquely different, but they all share the same quality and that is a short track. There are things you have to do on a short track to work on conserving the tires also, making sure you are good on the short run, making sure you are good on the long run, because restarts have become so much more important over the last couple of years. You don’t know if you are going to have a long run to finish the race or if you are going to have short run. You’ve just got to be ready for everything and it seems like at the short tracks the preferred lane on restarts is becoming more and more important. You hope you are on the inside lane when it comes down to one of the final few restarts and that way you are able to gain positions instead of having to be on the defense. Richmond is a fun track. They used to call it the action track, that was when the groove would widen out and get to two, three lanes wide. We always hope to get back to that and it’s a matter of finding the right tire and the right downforce combination to allow the cars to race competitively side-by-side in safe situations. That is what we want to do is put on a good show. We are looking to back-up what we did here last spring with the Monster Energy/Haas Automation Chevrolet.”
AS A TEAMMATE AND CAR OWNER HOW EXCITING IS IT FOR YOU GUYS TO HAVE TONY STEWART BACK IN THE CAR? HOW GOOD IS IT FOR NASCAR TO HAVE HIM BACK BEHIND THE WHEEL?
“Well, it’s great to have our team owner and our lead driver back in the car. To have an injury outside of racing it is always tough to go through, especially with (Tony) Stewart in a retirement type of mentality the way that his emotions were going into this season. It’s great to see him recover as quickly as he did, to push through the rehab side of it to get back to the car. This is his retirement year. He is supposed to enjoy it. He wants to go out there and do well. I think Richmond is a perfect track for the body to come back to a race, because of the lower demands physically on the body, because there is not a lot of banking here. There is not a lot of G-Force and you have to get up on the wheel and turn the wheel, but he will be able to settle in. He has had good history here at Richmond. He has had multiple wins and it’s just nice to see him jump back in the car so soon. Then to have a solid game plan for Talladega and then once we get to Kansas and Charlotte then he is off and running again. We just want him back in the car to work the bugs out of it to be as competitive as soon as possible.”
HOW MUCH OF THE RACE LAST YEAR THAT YOU RAN IN THE DAY CAN YOU USE THIS TIME AROUND TO GET READY FOR SUNDAY?
“We feel real confident on the No. 41 team with winning the race here during the daytime. All the practices though were on normal sequences then and that was late afternoon headed into the evening where it’s cooler. We’ve noticed we have run well on some of the warmer days and the hotter tracks and the slicker tracks. Evident last weekend at Bristol, I think that was the warmest Bristol race on record because of the way that is came in April and it was during the daytime. Usually, we race there in March during the day and it’s a lot cooler out. Then we race there in August, yeah it’s warm, but then the track temp drops when we race into the evening. Tracks are very different, especially, with this downforce and rear-end camber package that all the teams are running now-a-days track temp is very sensitive. We are hopeful that our daytime set-up that we won the race with will be good again here this spring. We used the same set-up in the fall and finished 15th with it.”
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ALL THE CHANGES RICHMOND IS DOING TO GET MORE FANS IN THE SEATS?
“Richmond has… the atmosphere here is more like a county fair with the set-up and the fairgrounds and the way it feels around the track. There are different sponsor incentives they are employing and the way that you see all of our racing. I still think it’s exciting. I still think it is fun to watch and there is still a lot to gain from it. That is where we need to stay focused on restarts and who is on what tire strategy and who is out there putting on a good show. That will help the fans want to come and see it live in person and feel that energy at the track.”
IT IS MY UNDERSTAND THAT YOU ARE NOT A MEMBER OF THE DRIVER COUNCIL IS THAT CORRECT?
“You are supposed to be voted in on that.”
I’M JUST CONFIRMING THAT YOU ARE NOT A MEMBER:
“But I would gladly be part of it if the voting all went the way that it could. Sure, it’s not like I chose not to be in it. Let’s not misconstrue that.”
AS A NON-COUNCIL MEMBER ARE YOU COMFORTABLE WITH THE VOICE THE DRIVER’S HAVE WHEN IT COMES TO IMPORTANT MATTERS SUCH AS SAFETY OR MARKETING?
“Absolutely.”
DOES NASCAR NEED TO GO BACK TO REQUIRING FIVE TIGHT LUGNUTS ON EVERY WHEEL ON EVERY STOP?
“I think it’s a safety issue that we should look to address before there is a negative outcome with it. To me it makes sense to have five lugnuts. You want five of them tight. You go to your Goodyear Tire store and get your tires rotated they put on three lugnuts you are not going to feel so comfortable about that.”
THERE HAS BEEN SOME CONVERSATION THAT MAYBE IF THE OWNERS GOT TOGETHER AND SAID TO TIGHTEN UP ALL FIVE LUGNUTS THAT WOULD BE ONE WAY TO DO IT. ARE THERE OTHER WAYS TO DO IT OTHER THAN HAVING NASCAR MANDATE SOMETHING?
“This is such a juicy topic that any word can be placed in the wrong position and it ends up with a negative side effect. I ran the Indy 500 a few years ago and it was really neat to see them take one lugnut off and then put the same lugnut right back on. There is a hub that I’m sure we could design in the NASCAR Sprint Cup garage area even for Xfinity or even for the Truck Series. But I was told that is not part of the show. The show is to watch those guys, the athletes, jump over the wall, hit their air guns and have them blazing and hit five lugnuts and put five back on. Just have that energy and the show part of it. I agree, it’s a unique aspect that our athletes who jump over the wall can perform and the fans can get into it. But when it’s starting to cross the threshold of safety on speed versus the ability just to have that wheel hang on and try to get a win that is what has happened here. We are all out there trying to get that one win and try to get locked into the Chase. I would say that now most of the Gibbs guys have their win and they are probably going to go back into a conservative mode for their pit stops to make sure they are getting them all tight. So, we shouldn’t have qualifying type pit stops to try to win the end of the race.”
IN TERMS OF YOUR PRACTICE TODAY DOES THE THREAT OF RAIN THIS AFTERNOON IF AT ALL ALTER WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO DO IN PRACTICE?
“As far as the track, rain, qualifying and practice one thing I’ve noticed this year is a lot of tracks we are the first cars on track now. The Sprint Cup series is out there grooming up the track, getting rid of the loose gravel or the different material that has been drawn up from the Air Titian. They are using that Air Titian way more now this year to blow the track clean to start, but that only creates a greener race track that is further from where we are going to end up at the end of Happy Hour. So, the tires, cars, set-ups are going through much more extremes in the practice sessions now, so it doesn’t make sense really to unload in race trim anymore. You want to unload in qualifying trim and go after it because the track is nowhere near rubbered in like it’s going to be for the race. With rain that only throws more of a wild card into it, like Texas, we had all that rain over night and went into the race on Saturday night and it took three sets of tires. It took until about lap 100 for the track to finally settle and to finally give the car a read on what set-up’s we needed to adjust or what air pressures we needed to look at.”
WHAT KINDS OF THINGS DID TONY STEWART DO BEHIND THE SCENES TO KIND OF PULL EVERYBODY TOGETHER WHILE HE WAS SIDELINED?
“It was neat to have Tony’s involvement on the radio at some of the races, as well as, right next to the car during Happy Hour. He was doing it for two reasons. One, as an owner you could see him putting that owner hat on and how to keep the spirits up on guys that were struggling in practice. Or two, as a driver, to learn what a good trend was as far as adjustments to the car and what he needed to think about as a driver when he was going to get back in. He has always done a tremendous amount behind the scenes. It was neat to see him there jumping into the owners’ role as well as just what it takes to stay involved as a driver so that the transition to come back isn’t going to be as steep for when he gets back in the car. It’s amazing when you have five or six races that go by some of those trends. You look back on what we did at Atlanta, the first 1.5-mile of the year is not what we are going to be doing at Kansas when we get there in a couple of weeks.”
WINNING HERE LAST SPRING WAS YOUR FIRST WIN WITH CREW CHIEF TONY GIBSON; DID YOU GUYS JUST HIT IT OFF REALLY WELL REALLY QUICKLY?
“It was amazing to jump in his car for a few races at the end of 2014 and for himself and all of those crew guys that have been with Gibson for so long they were excited to see their cars validated on where are we in the ranking, so to speak, on quality of car that we are providing. I think we hit top 10’s right off the bat. Just bang, bang, bang, just sliding around a little bit, but we didn’t quite finesse that maybe hit that exactly right, but we were cranking out top 10’s. So we knew we only had a short way to go to find those rhythms for a win. It was great to win here at a short track. I think that is where him and I have really had most of our success is at the short tracks. The personal relationship is somebody that I look up to as a mentor, as a coach and he gives me the ball though when I’m out on the field, when I’m out on the track he Is giving me the ability to make the calls out there. That is what it takes. It takes that head couch, quarterback, it takes crew chief/driver combo to be able to see it all in this day and age and to know what to do on pit stops, two tires, four tires. The restarts, he leaves those up to me, and yet we go back on watch tape together on what we can do better. It’s great to have the ability to have an old school guy like him continue to want to learn and to be the best in this garage.”