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TOYOTA NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) - Post-Race Notes & Quotes - Charlotte Motor Speedway – May 21, 2010
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Z-Line Designs Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 1st
How strong was your truck tonight?
“This team did a great job in preparing a great truck to come out here with. Unfortunately, I tried to screw it up. I guess the driver owes the owner a little bit of money tonight. That won’t go over well tomorrow. Can’t thank Z-Line Designs enough – Jim Sexton (owner, Z-Line Designs), Monica (Sexton) and all those guys there that came on board to help us out there. Maybe this means something so if you want to buy some furniture, now is the time to get some, I’m sure there’s plenty of Memorial Day sales going on. Of course, Toyota, NOS Energy Drink, Marquis Jets, Gillette, the fans and Camping World for the series and NASCAR and those guys. It was fun there tonight, we made it interesting I guess. Not wanting to do it, but did it anyway.”
How long of a day was this for you and the team?
“I made it a little longer day for them and I made it a longer week for them. We have a quick turnaround, this thing has to be the backup for JB (Johnny Benson) going to Texas so we have some work to do to turn it around. These guys can do it. They’re a great bunch of guys and can’t thank Eric (Phillips, crew chief) enough and Rick Ren (competition director) and those guys, they did a phenomenal job for me. They gave me a great race truck. We unload and we’re strong and we made some minor changes to it to try to work on it somewhat and we were able to prevail here tonight. We were able to beat those guys. They were tough to try to get by, I wasn’t sure if without a restart I was going to be able to get by them. I was just getting too loose on the long runs. That paid off tonight, but maybe we’ll have to go to work a little bit more.”
Did you knock the tow out of your truck when you hit the wall?
“Maybe a little bit, but it didn’t mess the tow up too bad, actually it made it to where I could drive it and I started coming back through there a little bit. I just knocked some tight into it. We fixed it and I got back to being a little bit loose. I don’t know what the deal was there. We’ll go to work and try to fix it. We weren’t the best truck here tonight, but I think we were really good and when you’re really good you can work your way through the traffic.”
Do you enjoy having to race from the back of the pack during a race?
“I guess it makes for a better show. To me, it’s fun to win either way. If I’m out front leading or whether I have to come through the pack and battle and race a little bit. I was worried there with 30 (laps) to go or so I got by (Todd) Bodine and it just got loose. I was trying to run down (Ron) Hornaday and I could get to within a car length of him and I would stall out. I would get too loose and then he would pull away from me. I would try to go to the top of the race track and I couldn’t get a good enough run off the corner to run any closer on him. It was going to take some smarts on my part to figure something out in order to get by him and try to build a push into the truck because I was a little bit loose. It was going to take something to work him over. The caution came out there and we had a restart to where I could race Hornaday down through (turns) one and two down the backstretch and get by him in (turns) three and four and set sail from there. The last race cautions add some drama to it of course and makes it frustrating on our part. Especially considering that last week we had an issue, this week we didn’t have an issue so that was good.”
Did the numerous restarts concern you toward the end of the race?
“I had a concern there on that last restart when they put the oil dry down. I held the inside lane lower because I didn’t want to have to run through that, that’s not fair to the outside lanes. I stayed a little bit lower so I wasn’t in the stuff, in the kitty litter, so it wouldn’t spin the tires and I could get a good launch.”
Do you focus on the fact that you have now won 70 races in NASCAR’s top-three series?
“Not really, no, not as much as some might think. I’ve been fortunate to be surrounded by great people. I’ve got Eric Phillips (crew chief) and Rick Ren (competition director) and these guys that do a great job for my race team. Jason Ratcliff (crew chief), one of the best Nationwide crew chiefs that I’ve ever worked with and of course, Dave Rogers (crew chief) who has done a phenomenal job coming on board with the Cup stuff. I can’t discredit the people that I’ve worked with before over at Hendrick Motorsports at all either. They were great people and got me wins over there, that’s where it all started. It’s really taken off since getting over with Joe Gibbs Racing and the Toyota bandwagon, those guys have really done a phenomenal job giving me what I need to win races and maybe I was winning a little too much I think back in ’08 where NASCAR made the (restrictor) plate size changes in Nationwide and Truck so that made it harder on us. Still, we’ve been able to do a good job at being able to overcome those issues and come out here like tonight and win another one.”
Do you keep track of the total number of wins as you earn them?
“When they come and you get another one, it’s just another tally. I can count probably a good 20 to 30 that I’ve given up. That’s the scary part is that I may have 70 now, but I guarantee that there’s probably 20 or 30 that I have missed out on and maybe five that I’ve stolen. The ratio is a little off, but maybe one of these days it will come back.”
ERIC PHILLIPS, crew chief, No. 18 Z-Line Designs Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
How was your team able to fix the damage on the race truck?
“They did an awesome job. He (Kyle Busch) got in the fence there, knocked the splitter down. They took a little extra time on that pit stop to get it fixed, but they did a really good job for what they had to work with there and got Kyle to where he could run up front there at the end. They’ve done a tremendous job all year and what is this six races now that these guys have been together, none of them had really ever worked together and they just get better and better every week when we go to the race track.”
What happened with the loose lug nuts before the race?
“I don’t have a good answer there. We’re 99 percent sure they were tight. As loose as the wheel was, there was no way he (Kyle Busch) would have qualified. What happened? I don’t know. We fixed it, addressed it and it didn’t hinder us on what we did tonight so that’s the important part. We’ll just do a better job to make sure our guys are around our vehicles and keep an eye on things when they’re sitting outside of the garage area.”
TODD BODINE, No. 30 Germain.com Toyota Tundra, Germain Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd
How was your race tonight?
“We had a good run. We were too tight in practice and we fought it all practice. We were still too tight in the race on exit and that’s what just couldn’t quite carry the momentum that Kyle (Busch) could. In typical Kyle fashion, their truck was really loose and he just drives through it. I don’t know how he doesn’t burn the right rear off. Our Tundra was good. For us as a team, it was a great night because we’ve struggled all season with this new generation tire that Goodyear’s got and the way our trucks are driving with it. The team worked hard looking through notes and looking through data trying to figure out how to get this truck to where I could drive it and they did, they got it fixed. Tonight we ran with them where we haven’t been able to really do that all season. We could finish third or fourth, but we just couldn’t get up there to race them and tonight we did and that was a big step in the right direction for our team and our Tundra.”
How do you feel about regaining the points lead tonight over Aric Almirola?
“I don’t know what happened to Aric (Almirola), they were running pretty good in practice. It’s still a long way to go. We were in the points lead and we came out of Martinsville with a 30th and lost the points lead. We are working hard. Like Dover last week, we didn’t have a truck to win the race. I was really not good at all, but we still got a fifth. That’s how you win points championships is to take a bad truck and a bad run and finish fifth and tonight we had a good truck and finished second. It was a good night.”
Did you think you had anything for Kyle Busch on the final restart?
“One of the things with the double file restart is that everybody makes such a big deal if you’re on the outside or inside and if the leader takes the outside or the inside. It’s a big deal, but it’s not as big of a deal as you make out. The leader has the advantage of when he’s going to go and it’s so hard to time it and go when he goes. Just to stay with him and stay on the inside of him was a plus and we didn’t. Luckily he beat me enough on the start that I pulled in behind him, which broke the draft off of Ron (Hornaday) so we were able to keep with him.”
MIKE SKINNER, No. 5 Exide Toyota Tundra, Randy Moss Motorsports
Finishing Position: 6th
How did your truck handle tonight?
“Our truck was really on the fence. It was a little loose, a little tight – I just can’t get my arms around these packages that we’re trying to run. We just have to keep on working. Our TRT (Triad Racing Technologies) motor ran great, our Toyota was awesome, down force was good. We just have to work on the handling a little bit and get this thing a little closer to the front. This ain’t our style riding around trying to get top-10s, we want to win races.”
ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 51 Graceway Pharmaceuticals/AKAwareness.com Toyota Tundra, Billy Ballew Motorsports
Finishing Position: 7th
How was your race truck tonight?
“Our truck was okay at points. On the long run we were probably one of the best trucks, but that didn’t do us any good. The race came down to short runs there at the end and our truck just was not good on the short run. It wasn’t good on the short runs in practice and it wasn’t good on the short run in the race. We were just off a little there tonight. I guess you can’t win them all. Happy, we’ll take a seventh, but we wanted to run top-five.”
DAVID STARR, No. 81 Zachry Toyota Tundra, Randy Moss Motorsports
Finishing Position: 9th
TIMOTHY PETERS, No. 17 Strutmasters.com/Red Horse Racing/Crescent Tools Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing
Finishing Position: 10th
TAYLER MALSAM, No. 56 One-Eighty Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 13th
How was your race tonight?
“It wasn’t the run we were hoping for, we had much higher hopes coming in here. I’m glad we finished – we haven’t been able to do that in a long time. We just have some stuff we have to work on in the shop. We have to get our trucks right. I know we can do it, but we just need to get away from what Kyle (Busch) is doing and do our own thing I think is the answer.”
JUSTIN LOFTON, No. 7 VisitPit.com Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing
Finishing Position: 15th
NELSON PIQUET JR., No. 15 Qualcomm Toyota Tundra, Billy Ballew Motorsports
Finishing Position: 16th
BRAD SWEET, No. 90 Great Clips Toyota Tundra, Stringer Motorsports
Finishing Position: 21st
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