Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Kyle Busch Wins Trucks at Atlanta | Full Press Conference
Transcript
- 0:00Yeah, it was, you know, pretty dicey there towards the end and
- 0:03good show for the fans and was was great to be able to finish a
- 0:07superspeedway race without a slew of cautions and crashes.
- 0:11You know, so good race in there. You know, that inside lane
- 0:14materialized. I don't know where it came from
- 0:16or how, but those guys kept working and getting each one of
- 0:20them that kind of led that line got cycled to the lead, got up
- 0:23to the front. And then I was able to kind of
- 0:24do a move from 2nd to 1st to to cut them off and get back up to
- 0:28the to the front each time. And you know, there at the end,
- 0:31I chose the I chose the wrong line off of 2 coming to the
- 0:36white flag. I should have stayed low in
- 0:37front of freezing, I believe it was.
- 0:40And you know, I went to the top because I thought the top would
- 0:44have the run off of 2 and that's how freezing got by me.
- 0:47And then I was kind of nervous that I wasn't getting enough
- 0:49energy from behind. Those next couple trucks from
- 0:51behind me were getting kind of slidy and fading back and
- 0:55getting gaps and wasn't able to push me forward.
- 0:57But got enough there down the backstretch and a good push from
- 0:59the 44 truck to to get myself into three far enough alongside
- 1:04of 52. And then, you know, it's just a
- 1:07drag race on on who was where and and what was going to happen
- 1:10on the way back to the line. So, you know, great day for us
- 1:13in our Gain Bridge Chevrolet. Proud to win a race for Spire
- 1:17Motorsports in the Truck Series. And we got four more to go.
- 1:20So hopefully we can do it again. Jerry Jordan kick of the tire
- 1:22sun net. So when you're out there from
- 1:24the driver seat, are you like, as you took us through this,
- 1:27it's easy to look back, but are you thinking about how to do
- 1:30this in the split second? Because it looked like you were
- 1:32toying with these guys and letting them get ahead and then
- 1:35running them down and pass. And it's like, oh, there comes
- 1:37Kyle again. So how are you?
- 1:39How are you manipulating the truck on the track to get those
- 1:42moves? No, I was trying to hold that
- 1:44inside lane back each time. I kept crawling forward, I kept
- 1:47trying to pull it back and then get the outside lane to push
- 1:49forward. And really the outside just
- 1:51didn't stay organized enough. It was really dirty up there.
- 1:55You know, we weren't clean and, and close and keeping the gaps
- 1:58and being able to push down a straightaway and get the big
- 2:00speed that we needed. So, you know, that what that's
- 2:04what kept the inside, the inside was better organized and they
- 2:07just kept being able to get up there.
- 2:08So I kept trying to slow it down, just couldn't do it.
- 2:10So I was just kind of like, OK, each time one of those guys gets
- 2:13up in front of me, then I need to make sure that I get back in
- 2:15front of them and, and to get back into control of of, you
- 2:19know, eventually thinking that the bottom lane was going to
- 2:21deteriorate and fall off, which it never did.
- 2:25We're going to go to John over here, then we're going to come
- 2:27back in the middle of Bob. John will be Savage Ventures.
- 2:31So Ingram said after the race that this is kind of the closest
- 2:34thing that they have right now to an old school superspeedway
- 2:37race. Obviously you've seen it all,
- 2:40all the different areas. I mean, how does it compare in
- 2:42your mind? Yeah, I just said that in
- 2:44Victory Lane. I actually somebody asked me a
- 2:46question similar to that and I was like, yeah, it kind of
- 2:48reminded me of being able to race in the late 2000s, early
- 2:51twenty 10s and actually Speedway race, you know.
- 2:53So that was that was pretty fun. You know, it kind of let it let
- 2:57itself a little bit that way. The gaps aren't quite as big.
- 3:00You know, you always want to try to keep the gaps close.
- 3:02So you know, leapfrog strategy back in early 2000s or mid
- 3:072000s, I should say, was you could you could get enough of a
- 3:10gap where you could catch a guy and then slide back up in front
- 3:13of him and just kind of keep keep working your way forward
- 3:15with the gaps that were happening.
- 3:16But here the gaps were so tight. There really wasn't that that
- 3:20way, that that ability of being able to make that type of move.
- 3:24Bob and then Dustin. Bob Parker's Fox Sports, your
- 3:26first win in any NASCAR event since last April at Texas.
- 3:31I'm just curious like do you feel relief especially winning
- 3:34by inches, which you've been kind of bit by a couple of times
- 3:38since then? No, no relief.
- 3:40Just, you know, here to here to race here to do a job and to go
- 3:44out there and, and do a good enough job.
- 3:47You know, thought that we had a really fast truck each time I
- 3:50was out front leading the race. And, you know, it seemed like I
- 3:52could tow the lane pretty fast around the racetrack.
- 3:54So that's a that's a kudos to the Spire guys and just the the
- 3:58equipment that they brought for me to be able to to race in.
- 4:00So just trying to do what I know how to do and that's to race as
- 4:06best as I can with with all these guys that we got out there
- 4:09and and to go out there and try to win.
- 4:10So glad to be able to do that. OK.
- 4:13Dustin. Justin Long, NBC Sports There
- 4:16has been a good bit of talk this week about Daytona type of
- 4:21racing with luck or how much a driver has in their hands.
- 4:24And obviously it's been a conversations happened for
- 4:26years. And also this is also, you know,
- 4:29so there's that discussion and maybe there's some momentum
- 4:32building to something. This is also a year where NASCAR
- 4:35is looking at how the playoff champion will be crowned.
- 4:39How significant are these two things that are kind of, I guess
- 4:43underlying everything in the sport is, is maybe how how
- 4:46Daytona could be braced and how the playoffs could look next
- 4:50year. I'm, I feel like we're talking
- 4:57about way, two different way completely different things.
- 5:01The Speedway racing on the cup side is the way it is.
- 5:05You know, it's, it's three wide fuel save until it's time to go
- 5:08and try to push. And when it's time to go and try
- 5:10to push, it becomes too wide because a lot of times the
- 5:13outside row can't keep up. But it's just bumper cars.
- 5:16It's 200 mile an hour bumper cars.
- 5:18And the guy fourth in line doesn't want to be fourth in
- 5:20line. He wants to be the front, front
- 5:22in line. So anybody's trying to move the
- 5:23lines to go forward to get to get towards the front because
- 5:26that's your chance to win the race.
- 5:27First one in the finish line wins so but a lot of times we
- 5:31end up crashed and and we do it quite frequently and as far as
- 5:36crowning the regular season. I guess it's just for the
- 5:37entertainment aspect though. There's so many the, the, the
- 5:40viewpoint is there's so much with the entertainment with the
- 5:42Daytona type of racing as opposed to what allowing maybe
- 5:45what you guys can do is there as much of that that you know,
- 5:48there's the focus on entertainment and how the
- 5:51champion is crowned, I guess is how I look at that.
- 5:54Well, I think, I think last year, I think the the argument,
- 5:58the point is last year Joey was a 15th place car and he won the
- 6:03championship based off of having some good races at the right
- 6:06time. But they capitalized on that.
- 6:08They did it. So yeah, I mean, it, it it
- 6:13wasn't a a skilled team that played throughout the whole year
- 6:17perfectly. Like I would say Larson was
- 6:19probably a better team. I would have said the 45 was
- 6:21probably the best team. They're late in the going, you
- 6:23know, so they were more deserving champions when you
- 6:25look at the competition aspect of our sport.
- 6:28But when you look at how the rules are and everybody plays by
- 6:31the same rules, Logano got it. So it kind of is what it is.
- 6:36I don't know that the average viewer that tunes in for the
- 6:41Daytona 500 is going to pick up much difference in how you win a
- 6:44championship. They haven't been around the
- 6:45whole year and haven't watched how everything's materialized
- 6:48each week. Do you feel like, I mean, I
- 6:51think back to your, your, your second championship and, and
- 6:54look, you know, I think you even said that you were the, the 4th
- 6:57best of those four that day, but you were, you won the
- 7:01championship and you know, history is going to remember you
- 7:04as a champion, not as the 4th best.
- 7:06So I guess you don't even worry about that or, or how do you
- 7:11look at that? Because you're a two time
- 7:13champion. And again, maybe there was
- 7:15another year you felt like you could have been the champion and
- 7:17didn't get it. Yeah, 2017 I could have been the
- 7:19champion. Truex was the best car all year,
- 7:21but we had him beat it at Homestead.
- 7:24You know, strategy came into play and they jumped us on a
- 7:26strategy call. And then the next year, 2018, I
- 7:29was the worst of the four cars and we ran 4th in the race.
- 7:32It was all four championship cars, 1234, you know, so and
- 7:37then 2019, you know, arguably we were just as good as the other
- 7:42Gibbs cars. The, the four car was, was fine
- 7:45too. But yeah, I mean, championships
- 7:47come in certain different ways. It's, it's not always the same
- 7:50script each and every time. There's not a perfect way to be
- 7:52able to to to write the book, but you just have to go out
- 7:55there and let the book be written.
- 7:57Come on back to Daniel. At the only fadden thefrench.com
- 8:00Kyle were were you impressed that this race was able to just
- 8:03go to the distance of just one major caution for an incident?
- 8:07Yeah, yeah, relatively speaking, yeah.
- 8:09I don't know what happened with Raja.
- 8:11I think he was on older tires and maybe got loose or or got
- 8:14side drafted, sucked around whatever.
- 8:16But yeah, that seemed to be the only incident for the day.
- 8:19But overall, good racing. It kind of seemed a little bit
- 8:25like the outside was more powerful than the inside.
- 8:28I think I remember there being a few more times last year where
- 8:30the inside can make some runs up through there with eight or 10
- 8:33trucks. This year just kind of seemed
- 8:35like it was 3 or 4 trucks at a time and that was about it.
- 8:37So it really kind of singled out quicker this year, I felt like.
- 8:42Steven, Toronto, CBS Sports Kyle, last week at Daytona 500
- 8:45media day, we actually talked about and you kind of alluded to
- 8:48this a little earlier, the way old Daytona raced and how you
- 8:50could slide into the corner kind of beyond the limit of the tire
- 8:53and then slide up, find a hole in line and race that way.
- 8:58Do you think in those last 20 laps or so that it maybe gave
- 9:01you a bit of an advantage over the rest of the field,
- 9:03especially considering that a lot of the younger drivers here
- 9:06have only experienced kind of that, you know, put to the
- 9:10floorboard, just run flat out Speedway style racing.
- 9:13Maybe a little bit. I don't know, would say that
- 9:18experience can certainly be more beneficial than not.
- 9:21Anytime you're out there on the racetrack, whether you're at
- 9:24Martinsville or Atlanta or Daytona or California, I miss
- 9:29that place. Where else?
- 9:31Kansas, who cares? You know, experience is
- 9:34experience. It's going to prevail more times
- 9:36than not. And in the context of the Truck
- 9:39Series, you were part of another pretty exciting finisher 20
- 9:43years ago. I know that your preference will
- 9:46always be for the old Atlanta, especially given the way that
- 9:49you could slide around there. But how did the intensity of
- 9:53those last 20 laps compared to the intensity of those last
- 9:56three years ago where you were on new tires and trying to get
- 9:59to the front and a limited amount of time?
- 10:02Yeah, I mean, each race has a different character to it.
- 10:04So, you know, this one was was fun in its own way, the Speedway
- 10:08aspect of it, of everybody in a line and you're trying to
- 10:11protect yourself of staying as far forward in the line as much
- 10:13as you can. And then that inside kept coming
- 10:15through and kind of that that leapfrog deal that was happening
- 10:19there with the front cars. But you know, they're they're
- 10:22just vastly different. I mean, it just is what it is.
- 10:24You know, old Atlanta was fun for its certain particular ways
- 10:28and you know, one of those cooler finishes was when I
- 10:31didn't have third gear in the transmission and was able to
- 10:34come back up through the field and blast by some guys on the
- 10:36outside with some new tires and then take the checkered.
- 10:39So but this way was entirely different from that.
- 10:42But I feel like both have their own cool factor and put on a
- 10:46good show for the fans. Reid Spencer with the NASCAR
- 10:48wire, you got a good push from Curry there at the end, but
- 10:52prior to that it looked like you were able to retake the lead on
- 10:56your own. The 99 also seemed at one point
- 11:00in the race that he was able to do that, pass a car without
- 11:04help. Is that something that would
- 11:07have been possible here three years ago, right after the?
- 11:10Repave, No. Well, after the repave, yeah, I
- 11:16think that sort of stuff would have happened.
- 11:18I think again, situations just how the race kind of played out
- 11:28was you were able to kind of make those moves of getting
- 11:30those runs and knowing that you were clear of the inside that
- 11:33you could side draft that outside row back a spot and get
- 11:36yourself back in front of it. Those were just the the move
- 11:39that I thought of to just kind of keep putting myself towards
- 11:41that leader on the outside spot so I could try to try to control
- 11:44that lane better and give me the best shot to win the race.