Results tagged “Kyle Busch” from Haddock in the Paddock

They're not good. Neither is Kyle Busch's attitude about how the Chase started.
After winning eight races before the NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup began, Busch had two bad races to start the Chase and dropped from first to 12th in the Cup standings.
In the most recent race at Dover International Speedway, he blew an engine and finished in 43rd and last place.
Before qualifying for the Cup race at Kansas Speedway on Friday, Busch was asked about what happened in Dover.
"We blew up and now we're behind," he said.
His answers were short and sharp. He knows the possibility of catching the leaders -- Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle and Jimmie Johnson -- in the standings are not good.
"Here's how I look at it," Busch said. "You can't count on anybody else having a bad race. So, realistically, yeah we are out of it. If they do have a bad race -- then it depends on who has the bad race and how bad the race is and stuff -- for us to get back in it. Realistically, if you are not counting on those guys having a bad race -- we can't win eight races in a row and have Carl or Biffle finish fifth through 10th every single one of those and still win the deal. That ain't going to happen."
Busch was asked if he prescribed to the philosophy that drivers have to lose a championship before they can win one.
"I've been in the Chase -- this is my third year now," Busch said. "So, technically I've already lost two. I've been in this series -- I think this is my fourth year -- so I've lost it three times. So, I think I've lost enough."
He was also asked, regardless of how he finishes, about how he will reflect on his season and if it will be sour.
"I think the biggest thing we'll remember is the eight wins and the places that the came at -- being all various different race tracks," Busch said. "The overall success of the year -- being able to win 19 races overall.
"Really we weren't supposed to be in the position we've been in to win the championship. This was supposed to be the building year the learning year -- getting used to everything at Joe Gibbs Racing, and Toyota coming on board and getting a relationship going with Steve Addington (crew chief). So, you can't look at it as a sour year."

Kyle Busch won going away in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race on Saturday night at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. It prompted one reporter to ask if Busch considers himself the king of restarts.
That distinction belongs to Ron Hornaday Jr., a driver for Kevin Harvick Inc. on the Craftsman Truck Series. He developed his knack for building huge leads on restarts while racing late models at Saugus Speedway. He still has that reputation on the Truck Series. No one wants to be behind Hornaday on a restart late in a race.
Busch isn't ready to take that distinction away from Hornaday.
"I don't think anybody's really labeled me the king of restarts yet," Busch said. "That's always going to be Hornaday's. But I sort of caught up to him a little bit, I feel like anyways, as good if not right there with him."
Busch learned how to build leads on restarts racing legend cars and late models at the Bullring in Las Vegas in much the same way Hornaday learned at Saugus Speedway.
"As far as being able to learn that, it comes from my dad teaching us the ropes of restarts back in the day of racing legends cars, late models, all that stuff," Busch said. "Doing different things with gear ratios, and all that stuff. We can't really decide it here, but just having as sense of that knowledge really lays in and stays with you throughout your career."

A week after NASCAR levied severe penalties on the Nationwide Series teams for Joe Gibbs Racing, Kyle Busch had them back on top at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana.
Busch won the Nationwide Series race in Fontana on Saturday night after the his No. 18 team and the No. 20 team were penalized for attempting to alter the dyno test data the teams provide to NASCAR.
The Joe Gibbs Racing teams have dominated the Nationwide Series this year. In an effort to make the series more competitive, NASCAR submitted guidelines to the Joe Gibbs Racing teams that were intended to reduce the horsepower in their engines.
Members of the team tried to alter the tests and those crew members, including both team's crew chiefs, received suspensions from NASCAR and Joe Gibbs Racing.
Busch said after winning the Nationwide Series race that those left on his crew rose to the challenge and gave him a great car.
"These guys are pumped up, they're excited," Busch said. "It doesn't matter if you win a late model race, a Nationwide race, truck race or Cup race - you never know when your last one is going to be so this one means a lot. These crew guys have had a lot of adversity on them in the past few weeks and they don't deserve the bad rap they've got."
Busch is familiar with the NASCAR police. He was put on probation after trying to spin out Carl Edwards after the Cup race at Bristol last weekend. Both drivers are on probation for the next six races, starting with the Cup race at Fontana.
"I don't care about my bad rap but these guys here are the ones that work hard at the shop and do all the hard work so I really have to thank these guys," Busch said.

There are varying degrees of probation in NASCAR. Jimmie Johnson, who's been placed on probation by NASCAR in the past, said it can be as severe as being grabbed by your shirt or as gentle as the proverbial slap on the wrist.
In the case of Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch, who were placed on probation by NASCAR for the next six races after crashing into each other at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday night, the severity of their probation is unknown.
Busch was asked what kind of probation NASCAR gave him and he said, "Couldn't tell you."
Then he was asked if he could explain what happened in the NASCAR hauler after the race at Bristol, where NASCAR officials apparently talked to both Busch and Edwards, and Busch said, "Have you ever heard anyone explain what happens inside the hauler."
Busch was definitely testy and was not going to detail how severely he was punished by NASCAR.
Edwards has won the past two races and is catching Busch in the Sprint Cup Series standings. Entering this weekend's race at Auto Club Speedway, Busch has eight Cup wins, Edwards has six.
"He has a little bit better race cars than us," Busch said. "He caught up to us."
But Busch was quick to point out that in both races that Edwards won, he was second.
And Edwards is not the only driver Busch considers a threat, especially once the Chase starts in a couple weeks.
"I've always been worried about Jimmie Johnson," Busch said. "You never know about (Dale Earnhardt) Junior. Ultimately, he's been consistent all year long. The 31 car (Jeff Burton), those guys had a strong run at the beginning of the year."
Finally, Busch was asked if he has talked to Edwards since the Bristol race and he said, "No I haven't."
More from Edwards later.

It might be an off weekend of racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, but Kyle Busch will be on the race track Saturday night.
The leader in the Cup standings will be in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Kentucky Speedway. He has missed the past two Truck Series races and has the No. 51 truck for Billy Ballew Motorsports in fifth place in the owners standings.
"It's been great to be able to have the success that we've had this year," said Busch. "In the Truck Series, we ran second at Daytona, we won at California and Atlanta back-to-back, and haven't really had much since. We've had fast trucks just haven't had the opportunities to win races in them."
In addition to leading the Cup standings, Busch is the series leader in wins with seven. He also has five Nationwide Series this year, but hasn't won a Truck Series race since March in Atlanta.
"We have to try and get back on task," Busch said. "Try to get back on what we were doing earlier this year and get our trucks back going again. We tried some different things and they weren't working to well for us, so we feel like we are back on track here this weekend in Kentucky. We had a good truck in practice there and made some gains on it. Hopefully, we can go back out here in the second practice -- a little bit closer to night time -- and have a good solid run."

Kyle Busch won a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series best seventh race at Chicagoland Speedway on Saturday. He has won two straight Cup races and three of the past four.
Here is a look at the races he's won this year:
March 9: Atlanta Motor Speedway (first Cup win for Toyota)
April 27: Talladega Superspeedway
May 10: Darlington Raceway
June 1: Dover International Speedway
June 22: Infineon Raceway (first road course win for Busch)
July 5: Daytona International Speedway
July 12: Chicagoland Speedway
"This is just an unbelievable year and something to be really proud of and really fortunate to be involved with," said Busch, driver of the No. 18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. "To have a ll these guys on my side with Joe Gibbs and J.D. (Gibbs) and Steve (Addington, crew chief) and everybody, it's just unbelievable. You cherish them when you can get them, and definitely this year is one to cherish."
Denny Hamlin, Busch's teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing, has one win, giving Toyota eight Cup wins in its second season in the Cup Series.
Hamlin won the race at Martinsville Speedway on March 30.
But Busch has been the story of the year so far.
"This doesn't come along very often -- I never dreamed of this for myself," Busch said. "You always see it happen with somebody else and you feel good about them being able to do that. Now, that that feeling has come upon me, I know you have to stay humble and yet stay hungry, go out there and do what you can in order to survive in these races, and to survive up front and try to win. Somehow, it's paying off and it's working out. I'm just so proud of the effort."

Kyle Busch is up for two ESPYs and Jimmie Johnson is up for one.
Busch is nominated for Best Breakthrough Athlete and Best Driver. Johnson is up for Best Driver as well.
Dario Franchitti, who recently lost his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series ride with Chip Ganassi, is also nominated for Best Driver. He did win the Indianapolis 500 and the IRL IndyCar Series championship last year.
The other drivers nominated for Best Driver are:
Lewis Hamilton, Formula One
Scott Dixon, IRL
Tony Schumacher, NHRA

The others nominated for Best Breakthrough Athlete are:
Adrian Peterson, Minnesota Vikings
Stephen Curry, Davidson Basketball
Ana Ivanovic, Tennis

Kyle Busch is planning on doing something no other NASCAR driver has done: race in three different states on three different tracks in all three of the national divisions of NASCAR on the same weekend.
He will be entered in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania.
He is in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Nashville Speedway in Tennessee.
And he is in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.
That's Friday night in Texas, Saturday in Nashville and Sunday in Pocono.
And for good measure, he will be racing in Ohio at Tony Stewart's Eldora Speedway in the Prelude to a Dream dirt track race on Wednesday.
Busch commented on how he felt he should have won all three NASCAR races at Dover Intenrational Speedway last weekend. He was leading all three at some point, but only won the Cup race.
Imagine if he can pull off the quadruple: Eldora, Texas, Nashville and Pocono. That would be something.

Kyle Busch wants to race Formula One. There hasn't been a successful American Formula One driver for decades. Could Busch be that driver?
He would definitely attract attention. His anctics would be unrivaled in a series that prides itself on keeping its drivers anonymous.
His curiousity, and it is no more than an experiment at this point, does make some sense in a number of ways.
He drives for Toyota and could bring the car manufacturer a level of respectability in Formula One.
He is polarizing, meaning there would probably be as many American race fans rooting for him to succeed and against him to make a fool of himself.
And he might be talented enough, certainly aggressive enough, to give some of the top F1 drivers a run for their money.
Would his equipment give him a chance... That might take some time to develop.
Busch is already racing everything he can. He's in every NASCAR series that will pay him to race. He owns a team in the Camping World Series. There's no doubt he has a passion for racing that few have.
But will race fans have a passion to wake up at 4 in the morning to watch him race in Turkey? Will racing in Monaco have the same appeal as racing in North Carolina on Memorial Day weekend?
Probably not. But it sure would be fun to see if he can ruffle some F1 feathers like he does in NASCAR.

After Hendrick Motorsports all but destroyed the Cup competition last year, it left many wondering who can rise to challenge them.
Kyle Busch says Joe Gibbs Racing can.
Busch, who drove for Hendrick Motorsports last year and was part of the juggernaut that won 18 of the 36 Cup races, is at Joe Gibbs Racing and will be racing the No. 18 Toyota for the team in 2008.
No Toyota driver won a race last and none of them qualified for the Chase. But Busch said Joe Gibbs Racing, even with Toyota, will be good enough to challenge Hendrick for NASCAR Sprint Cup Series supremacy.

Las Vegas native Kyle Busch was third-fastest on Tuesday morning after turning the fastest lap of Monday afternoon's test session at Las Vegas Motor Speedway during NASCAR testing.
Todd Warshaw / Getty Images for NASCAR

"I think we all kind of pictured this last year when all the announcements were made of where everybody was going," Busch said. "But it's probably going to be the Joe Gibbs versus Hendrick Motorsports arena here."
No one has a better perspective of how both teams operate. Busch said while he thinks Gibbs and Hendrick will be at the top of the Cup heirachy, other teams will be competitive too.
"But there's still great race teams out there, like Evernham, Childress, Roush, those guys," Busch said. "They're going to be right there, too. They're going to be fast. They're going to be wanting to take the spotlight away from us, too."
One big difference Busch has noticed at Joe Gibbs Racing is how well the team's three crews work together. At Hendrick, there was a definite divide. The No. 5 and No. 25 cars were in one building, while the No. 24 of Jeff Gordon and No. 48 of Jimmie Johnson were in another.
At Joe Gibbs Racing, all three drivers -- Busch, Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin -- are working in the same place. Plus, Toyota is a wild card. No one really knows what to expect out of them.
"I think the biggest thing that Joe Gibbs has on our side is the Toyota factor," Busch said. "Everybody is worried about Toyota, how well Toyota is going to do. Everybody knows how well Hendrick Motorsports has done and will probably still do this year with Jeff, Jimmie, even Dale (Earnhardt Jr.) and Casey (Mears). We'll see how all that plays out. All I can do is go out there, worry about myself, worry about my No. 18 M&M Toyota team, and try to kick some butt."