Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Daytona 500: Last Thing For Kyle Busch To Conquer

Transcript

Daytona 500: Last Thing For Kyle Busch To Conquer · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:00
  Rexton won today and and it was really cool.
• 0:03
  What what's it like when to see your son win as opposed to the
• 0:06
  feeling when you win? Is it better?
• 0:09
  Different. I don't know.
• 0:16
  They both mean a lot. I would say.
• 0:18
  I'm probably more nervous not being behind the wheel watching
• 0:25
  him do it just with his inexperience of where he's at in
• 0:30
  his career so far and racing against.
• 0:32
  He's 8 years old, he's racing against ten 1112 year olds.
• 0:35
  So you know, just trying to work with him and develop him and
• 0:40
  make him in the best that he can be against those older kids is
• 0:42
  always really fun. But you always know that they
• 0:46
  might have more racing experience than he has on track
• 0:50
  with laps. But Brex might have the the
• 0:53
  brains of a teacher who has gotten him further along than
• 0:57
  than some experiences of of how the other kids would learn over
• 1:01
  time. So it's cool though.
• 1:02
  It's, it's, it's a lot of fun. I was, I was able to be there
• 1:05
  yesterday for his win yesterday, I wasn't able to be there today.
• 1:09
  But yeah, he did a great job, executed well, did a good job.
• 1:13
  We did not execute well on Wednesday, so got hard on him a
• 1:17
  little bit and then he backed it up.
• 1:18
  So he listens. Well, when he listens.
• 1:21
  And and it must be a cool feeling to to have him at that
• 1:24
  age. And I I I get you know
• 1:26
  sponsorship pitches for you guys and I'm getting ones for Braxton
• 1:30
  signing sponsors. That must be pretty cool to to
• 1:33
  be able to to have that at that age and and and know that he's
• 1:36
  getting those kind of sponsorship opportunities that
• 1:39
  that, I don't know, maybe you didn't get at that age.
• 1:41
  Yeah, no, definitely. It's it's obviously a huge piece
• 1:44
  of our program and we're very grateful to serve pro for kind
• 1:48
  of jumping on board the way they did now three years ago and now
• 1:51
  for the next three years going into the future.
• 1:53
  So it's really exciting for us. It's a, it's a great piece to
• 1:56
  have the Bush family having, you know, sponsorship, having
• 2:00
  Braxton. It's not like we couldn't do it,
• 2:02
  but it's a brand that could be there with Braxton through his
• 2:05
  entirety, carrying him all the way to the top of NASCAR if
• 2:08
  possible. So we'll see how all that goes.
• 2:10
  We're we're eight years old right now, so we got a long road
• 2:12
  ahead of us, but we're we're certainly grateful to them for
• 2:15
  that. We've also haven't announced it
• 2:17
  yet but we've got cheddar's coming on board with us as well
• 2:20
  too for Braxton's program, which is cool.
• 2:22
  Sports Clips is coming back, which is cool.
• 2:24
  Lucas Oil joined me on my program for the micro sprints,
• 2:27
  which is also going to be on Braxton stuff.
• 2:29
  So Billy Blue helps us and supports us.
• 2:31
  So we we've got a lot of great things going with with Rex and
• 2:34
  his program and then of course for me as well too with RCR.
• 2:37
  Hey man we're we're I think we're sold out so you know great
• 2:40
  news all around for for the Bush group and and everything going
• 2:44
  on with RCR and being on the cup side with with Zone having them
• 2:48
  as a new partner to our sport as well as to to RCR we're excited
• 2:51
  to carry their their colors was hoping for a better night last
• 2:55
  night. Definitely got him some TV time.
• 2:57
  Not quite the the glamorous way of Victory Lane, but hopefully
• 3:00
  that's Sunday. Right.
• 3:02
  We'll go next to Jeff Glock and then to Jacob Sealman.
• 3:06
  Kyle, I think you've done. I mean, I'm probably between 50
• 3:10
  and 100 dirt races at this point.
• 3:11
  I mean, what, what? Maybe 100?
• 3:13
  Me. Yeah.
• 3:15
  No. In like in my entirety or just
• 3:18
  like last year? No in like your.
• 3:20
  Entirety. She started getting into this.
• 3:22
  Oh, the micro thing. No, I'm probably only around 30.
• 3:25
  OK, so you've done these races, you're obviously learning.
• 3:29
  You're not, it's not like you're going out and winning all these
• 3:31
  races, you're you're you're trying to figure it out
• 3:33
  yourself. So what are you gaining like
• 3:36
  skill wise? Are you just doing it for fun or
• 3:38
  is there actual things where you're like this is practice for
• 3:41
  you, you're you're being able to take some stuff to cup, how does
• 3:44
  that? Work.
• 3:44
  No, it's just practice. It's just staying in the car.
• 3:46
  It's just staying sharp. It's just kind of doing all
• 3:48
  those things. I used to do that always with
• 3:51
  the, you know, the unlimited truck starts, the unlimited
• 3:54
  Xfinity starts. Did that for a long time and
• 3:56
  NASCAR got limited on all that. So then I started doing some
• 3:59
  super late model stuff and kind of doing that a little bit more,
• 4:02
  more and more. But years have kind of gone on
• 4:04
  where that stuff's just crazy crazy expensive, you know, So
• 4:07
  the micro thing with Braxton going to the races that he's
• 4:10
  going to this, I can run on the same track as he can.
• 4:13
  I can just get out there and have fun and run around and just
• 4:16
  get laps and and just you know, do it for fun mostly.
• 4:19
  I have won a few shows. I've won I think 2 non wing
• 4:22
  shows, two wing shows at just different tracks across the
• 4:26
  country, which has been fun. None of the big ones I haven't.
• 4:28
  I'm not that good. Wrong, Kyle.
• 4:31
  But the the point is to just go out there and get some track
• 4:37
  time. I get a chance to kind of help
• 4:38
  out with Braxton stuff when I can feel and see what the
• 4:40
  track's doing than just being a spectator or crew chief on his
• 4:44
  car. Any interest in midgets or wing
• 4:49
  sprints? I mean, I not midgets.
• 4:53
  No, I don't fit. I don't fit in the Midget.
• 4:55
  I I can fit fine in a Sprint car.
• 4:58
  So no one's ever called. I did call out Larson on it,
• 5:01
  though, so I'll put this out there.
• 5:03
  I told him. I says if you get with Silva and
• 5:06
  get me a ride in one of your cars at one of the races that
• 5:08
  you're at, we'll either figure out if Silva's really good or if
• 5:11
  you're really good. Let's go to Jacob and then to.
• 5:16
  Dustin Jacob, Silman Race Face Digital 2 for you Kyle first
• 5:20
  obviously referenced last night for you as a driver.
• 5:24
  What are you looking for now that we actually have two rounds
• 5:28
  of practice between now and the 500?
• 5:30
  What are you looking for, feel wise, car wise, out of the
• 5:34
  backup to make sure that you're as comfortable as you can be for
• 5:38
  Sunday? You know, I thought Media Day
• 5:40
  was Groundhog's Day and then I had yesterday running the Duel.
• 5:43
  Is Groundhog's Day from last year getting tore up and crashed
• 5:47
  and having to go to a backup card and starting all over?
• 5:49
  So I don't know if we saw our shadow today or not, but we'll
• 5:54
  we'll get out there and just kind of work on the things that
• 5:56
  we know we need in our car, which is the drivability of it.
• 5:59
  We'll get out there and probably make a single car lap or two
• 6:02
  just to kind of make sure the heights are all right.
• 6:03
  Everything's good. Nothing's bottoming out.
• 6:05
  Nothing's nothing's not how we expect it to be.
• 6:07
  And then we'll get in a packed draft with our Chevy key partner
• 6:10
  teams and go out there and make some laps and trade some
• 6:13
  positions and see what it's like out front, see what it's like in
• 6:15
  the back. And that's kind of all you can
• 6:17
  really learn. As far as actually with the
• 6:21
  trucks being on track for qualifying right now, you worked
• 6:23
  last year with Jeff and TJ obviously selling off KBM and
• 6:28
  now that being Spire, what's it meant to you to see them, you
• 6:32
  know, even just in a couple sessions this week having
• 6:35
  success and and really trying to keep, you know, in a way what
• 6:39
  you started going strong with a lot of those people.
• 6:42
  Yeah. I told him don't screw it up.
• 6:45
  I left it in a pretty good spot. So you know I'm I'm excited
• 6:49
  about the opportunity of hopefully being able to to to
• 6:51
  get some races over there. We haven't finalized all of that
• 6:54
  yet. But you know they've they've got
• 6:57
  a great organization. They've got really good people.
• 7:00
  A lot of them stayed some of them left you know.
• 7:03
  So it does look a lot different. That shop is entirely different
• 7:07
  than what it was for the past 12 or 13 years, however many I was
• 7:12
  in it, you know but they're doing a good job with what
• 7:14
  they've got. I'm supposed to go over there
• 7:18
  and have our, you know, I'm a consultant, so I'm supposed to
• 7:21
  be over there next week and do some consulting and and talk to
• 7:25
  them about some of their race stuff that they go through
• 7:27
  tonight and and work on that. So excited to see the progress
• 7:30
  and and sit down with the guys and drivers and stuff like that
• 7:33
  to continue that leadership role.
• 7:36
  Connects to Dustin Long and then to Danielle.
• 7:41
  Dustin Long, NBC Sports. Kyle, you've expressed over and
• 7:45
  over what what winning the Daytona 500 could mean and and
• 7:49
  just what? That's the one thing I left on
• 7:51
  on the bucket of of missing things, other stuff you're just
• 7:55
  like I say piling on. I'm curious as from an athlete
• 8:00
  when there's one thing you're striving for, can it get too big
• 8:07
  or how do you manage it? I mean I understand in the
• 8:11
  frustration we see the emotion and that's I understand some of
• 8:14
  that. But I'm just curious how you how
• 8:17
  you kind of manage it because every year it's you get asked
• 8:19
  it, every year you've talked about it and it's just I don't
• 8:23
  know if it comes as a self fulfilling.
• 8:24
  I mean obviously you nearly won last year didn't matter, but
• 8:27
  just how you handle it and how you don't let it bother you or
• 8:29
  how how you have to work at it. So it doesn't.
• 8:32
  Bother you? Yeah.
• 8:33
  So I would say for me, the biggest thing that helped me
• 8:36
  through that was 2015 and being in the championship race at
• 8:39
  Homestead and letting that race play out and letting everything
• 8:43
  kind of happen. Because we went into that race
• 8:45
  playing with house money. You know, nobody thought we
• 8:47
  should be there, all the stuff, whatever.
• 8:49
  And we're like, OK, well then we're not going to be expected
• 8:53
  to win the championship. So let's just go see what we can
• 8:54
  do and lo and behold, we win the race and we win the
• 8:57
  championship. And so that kind of taught me
• 8:59
  right there where you can't force things always, you know,
• 9:03
  and and even last year I tried to force situations and I end up
• 9:06
  spun out backed in the fence, backing up down the racetrack to
• 9:09
  get to my pit box. So you know it.
• 9:12
  It's it's stuff like that where you a lot of people try to force
• 9:16
  a lot of things in this race and they get themselves in trouble
• 9:18
  and and some of them it it it pays off for them.
• 9:21
  You know there's guys that have made good moves, aggressive
• 9:23
  moves that that have won this race as well too.
• 9:25
  So you just have to kind of play it out as it comes to you and be
• 9:29
  ready for the unexpected, I guess.
• 9:32
  And for fans or for other people, as you get closer to the
• 9:36
  Daytona 500, there's the anticipation to build up the
• 9:39
  excitement. As somebody who is a competitor,
• 9:41
  somebody's gone through this and and had the the ups and and and
• 9:45
  downs. What is it like getting closer
• 9:47
  to this event? What is it like day of event or
• 9:51
  hey, this is your job and it's it's more of a job set.
• 9:54
  It's not butterflies, it's you know, I've done this 6000 times
• 9:57
  since 6001 Or or is it truly different?
• 10:01
  It's 680 something, but God 6000?
• 10:05
  That'd be a lot. No, the SO coming here for the
• 10:11
  first year, first 2-3. So I was here three years with
• 10:15
  Hendrick and then my first year with Gibbs, even the second year
• 10:18
  with Gibbs, so probably five years in, it was kind of like
• 10:21
  it's a big deal, like this is a big race, this is a big moment,
• 10:24
  this is butterflies, all that sort of stuff, those feelings,
• 10:26
  especially when you get down towards the end.
• 10:28
  But since I got comfortable at at JGR it was kind of like yeah
• 10:34
  it's just another race you know don't don't let it get to you.
• 10:37
  Don't like don't let the meaning of this race counter react the
• 10:43
  events of you trying to win it. You know I, I did Vegas for
• 10:47
  instance, right. Like I went to to Las Vegas my
• 10:50
  home track. I watched that place be built
• 10:51
  all that. I put so much pressure on
• 10:53
  winning an Xfinity race there that I crashed every year, did
• 10:58
  stupid stuff and was spinning out at the checkered flag and
• 11:01
  whatever, you know, And finally we won that thing and and it was
• 11:05
  like a relief. And it was like, wow, you really
• 11:07
  didn't have to do as much, you know, You just have to have.
• 11:10
  You have to put all the right pieces in the right places.
• 11:12
  You have to have a good car. You have to have good pit stops.
• 11:13
  You got to do your job. And if we can all execute and do
• 11:17
  our job as our team with this number 8 zone Camaro on Sunday,
• 11:21
  then if it's meant to be and it's our cards, it's our day,
• 11:24
  then by all means, we're going to celebrate like crazy.
• 11:29
  And I think we have time for one more question.
• 11:31
  Danielle, go ahead. Danielle Trotta Series XM Hi
• 11:33
  Kyle, You mentioned 2015 and ultimately winning the
• 11:36
  championship. The perspective though, of where
• 11:39
  you were for the Great American Race after the injury the day
• 11:43
  before and missing it. Not many drivers can, you know,
• 11:47
  obviously not the way you wanted it to unfold, but do you
• 11:49
  remember where you were watching that Daytona 500 and did you
• 11:52
  gain perspective after having to sit out one?
• 11:56
  Yeah, it's when I was watching it in Halifax Hospital.
• 12:01
  Don't recall the room number or floor number, but I was laying
• 12:05
  in a hospital bed and wondering if I was ever going to walk
• 12:09
  again. You know, just being a little
• 12:12
  dramatic after the day's prior event.
• 12:16
  But the, yeah, watch the start. Remember seeing it, you know,
• 12:21
  shed a few tears, you know, crying.
• 12:23
  Just if I was going to get back or if I was going to get back, I
• 12:28
  had determination to get back. But you just don't know at that
• 12:31
  point. And then I passed out for a good
• 12:34
  while, the drugs were good, so I don't remember a whole lot of
• 12:38
  the race. But then somehow I think I did
• 12:41
  wake up towards the end and I think Logano won that year.
• 12:44
  So I did see that. That didn't make me feel any
• 12:46
  better.