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Kyle Busch will be featured Saturday on SPEED's Raceday. (Photo Courtesy of Toyota Motorsports) ยป More Photos
Having turned all of 23 years old last weekend at Richmond, Kyle Busch is off to one of the most amazing starts in NASCAR history. Busch, who will be a featured interview Saturday on SPEED’s RaceDay, leads the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points after 10 races.
He’s won twice already this year in Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry Cup cars, three times in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and twice in the NASCAR Craftsman Series as well.
Busch’s hard-charging style of driving has polarized NASCAR fans: Some think he drives the same way the late Dale Earnhardt did, while others find his method of racing and his personality distasteful and immature.
During this week’s two-day test at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Busch talked about his season and his successes and controversy. Excerpts follow.
How do you feel about taking the lead in the NSCS point standings following the Richmond race?
It’s great to be back on top of the point standings. We were there earlier this year and kind of fell back a little bit. We’ve had some great runs. We’ve had some strong runs. We’ve had some good cars. And so, fortunately we were able to capitalize on those most of this year and hopefully we can keep doing that throughout the year.
Do you need to discuss anything with Dale Earnhardt, Jr. after the race Saturday night at Richmond?
I think as far as (Dale) Earnhardt and myself, we race each other at the top level of NASCAR racing and we know that it was a racing incident and racing hard — both of us and not really giving each other much room. That’s a product of Richmond, that’s a product of the COT (Car of Tomorrow) and the hard racing it provides for us.
What was the reaction you received from fans at Richmond after the race?
It wasn’t too bad. We were going back from the infield to the motorhome and there wasn’t anything. And then going from the motorhome to the helipad, there were just a couple fans yelling derogatory comments and things like that. It’s nothing new to me anyway. I’m used to it. I pretty much told them, “Grow-up, that’s racing.” We’re racing hard and I feel like there’s a lot more worst cases in this world than someone getting spun out in a race.
Is it easier to handle the booing because other great drivers have been booed by the fans?
I think it’s been a lot of great race car drivers over the years. I don’t know about Richard or Lee Petty having it over the years, but I know of recent memory that (Dale) Earnhardt, Sr. was one of those guys, Rusty Wallace was one of those guys, Darrell Waltrip was one of those guys - to me, and it’s nothing new to this sport. Jeff Gordon, for instance, is one of those guys who gets booed an awful lot and Jimmie Johnson does as well, too. It’s nothing new in the sport, it’s been here and it’s been around.
Would you consider running the whole Nationwide Series season with the success you’ve had?
I don’t know. We’ll see. Still we haven’t filled some of those races that have voids for sponsorships and stuff like that. For me, I’d like to, but there’s still a lot of things we need to work on in order to keep going and make ourselves more competitive. Even though we finished well, the Braun (Racing) stuff we are going to test here next week. Hopefully, we’ll have a good car for when we come back here to Lowe’s and when we race it this weekend at Darlington, too.
Have you wondered why the fans didn’t react more when you were taken out of title contention at Kansas last year?
Not really. I know what my status is in the garage area with the drivers. I know what my status is with the fans. Obviously, it’s a lot worse with the fans than it is in the garage area. For me, it was a tough scenario for me to go through last year. I hate it for my guys that I had with me working on the team last year - we were doing so well and I think we finished in the top-five in every race up to that point. We were running sixth or seventh when we got wrecked, but that had nothing to do with this past weekend’s incident. That was just a product of hard racing on Saturday night and last year is last year, that’s in the past and that’s behind me. I’m focused more on what’s going on this year with my new team at Joe Gibbs Racing. From what I remember, they signed me on to go out there and win races and that’s what I was trying to do.
Kyle Busch will be appear live on SPEED’s RaceDay, Saturday at 5 p.m. from Darlington Raceway.
Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the President of the National Motorsports Press Association. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to
SPEED will televise the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race XXIV and the NASCAR Sprint Showdown live on May 17, as well as provide more than 90 hours of support programming prior to the event. Stay tuned to SPEEDtv.com for frequent updates on the history of the event and all the details about this year’s action.
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