NASCAR Cup

Watkins Glen: Kyle Busch - Friday media visit

Kyle Busch, No. 5 CARQUEST/Kellogg's Impala SS, met with members of the media and discussed the status of his plans for next year, a timeframe on when he'll announce his plans, his approach going into the next five races and racing the Impala SS at ...

Edited: Aug 11, 2007, 2:34 AM

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Kyle Busch, No. 5 CARQUEST/Kellogg's Impala SS, met with members of the media and discussed the status of his plans for next year, a timeframe on when he'll announce his plans, his approach going into the next five races and racing the Impala SS at Watkins Glen.

SO YOU MADE A DECISION? "Well I have a preference for my number one but that's about it. That's about as far as we are so there's nothing to announce. Nothing I guess past that for a couple weeks yet."

ON THE PROCESS HE WENT THROUGH NARROWING DOWN HIS OPTIONS AND IF IT WAS HARDER THAN HE EXPECTED: "Yeah, it is a lot harder than I expected. It has taken some time but for all the options that were out there I mean there's plenty of great chances, plenty of great opportunities but the one that I felt most fit for me is still not done, you know? We're trying to solidify our plans and get everything all squared away so we can have something to talk about."

DO YOU HAVE A TIMEFRAME FOR WHEN YOU'LL MAKE AN ANNOUNCEMENT? "I'd say in the next two weeks."

ON HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH DENNY HAMLIN: "Denny and I have been great friends and we've been friends on and off the race track since he came into this deal and we even raced each other three years ago in a Craftsman Truck Series race at IRP so we had fun then and it's always been great with Denny. I guess we're still kids so that's probably why we're pretty good friends."

WILL YOU BE ABLE TO CONCENTRATE MORE NOW THAT YOU HAVE MADE THIS DECISION OR WILL THE ANTICIPATION FOR NEXT YEAR HINDER ANY CONCENTRATION? "No, I don't know how you can concentrate any harder. I think we've had our worst finish of 13th at Chicago in the past eight races. Last week we really, really struggled pretty badly and the driver dug in and the team dug in and we somehow salvaged a 12th place out of last week so I don't know how we did that. But it's just been an ongoing thing where I've been concentrating on the race track as much as I can and putting forth my efforts to this year and that's what I'll continue to do until this season's over."

DID YOUR BROTHER GIVE YOU ANY ADVICE ON HOW TO HANDLE THE SITUATION OF SWITCHING TEAMS? "No, I never really talked to Kurt about the whole deal actually. We never discussed anything about how he went about his decision making process or about what I need to do in mine. It was all left to myself and that's it."

ARE YOU PLEASED WITH HOW EVERYTHING TURNED OUT? "I think so and I hope all the owners are as well too. I've sat down and discussed with them and began informing the teams of my preference this week and I want to keep on good terms with everybody and I think that we've done it the right way where we can do that. For myself it's not just to pick a team, it's to actually get to know and get closer to the rest of the team owners. Richard and I, we discussed a lot of things and we're pretty close I feel like. Ray Evernham as well too. I think some places that maybe somewhere near down the road that I might still want to work at."

ON HIS BUSCH SERIES SCHEDULE: "Bristol is our next race and I think we have eight or nine after that so Bristol's the next one."

ON HIS APPROACH GOING INTO THESE LAST FIVE RACES AND HOW MUCH HE'S WILLING TO TAKE A RISK: "You know that question was asked last week and if you can put yourself in the right situation and not try to jeopardize anything then you can try it but you have to make sure that you've got a legitimate enough chance to not jeopardize yourself and also it's just good enough to keep solidifying our chances to be in the Chase. If we were in the spot that Jeff Gordon or Denny Hamlin is we could probably do a lot more but where I feel like we're at if we got a car good enough, capable enough of winning then we'll try to win. If not then we'll just salvage a good finish."

DOES YOUR PERFORMANCE HERE LAST YEAR GIVE YOU CONFIDENCE GOING INTO THIS YEAR'S RACE? "A little bit, yeah. We ran really, really good here last year. We qualified top 10, I think. I'm not really sure. We were running third, we drove all the way up to third and we had the fastest car on the track and then we broke a track bar mount and went five laps down fixing it and then got all five lucky dogs back and came back through the field and finished ninth so I felt like we had a great car here last year so hopefully we can do it again."

ON RACING THE IMPALA SS HERE AND HOW IT WILL AFFECT THE RACING: "We ran them at Infineon and everything seemed to be alright with them. They're definitely just a different race car. You can't go through the corners as fast. I think the esses might be a little bit different than what we were used to. I think the innerloop will be a lot different probably. We won't be able to use as much curb. I could be wrong but this is going to be a different race and everybody's going to have to be conscious in practice here knowing what they got and trying to figure it all out."

WHAT WAS THE ULTIMATE FACTOR FOR YOU IN MAKING YOUR DECISION? "I said money from the beginning wasn't it. I said it's competition. I guess the way the rumor has it where I'm going you look at their competition compared to Hendrick Motorsports and they're right there."

HOW WOULD YOU FEEL IF THEY MOVED TO ANOTHER MANUFACTURER? "I think they're going to do everything in their best interest that they feel is right and if they feel like Chevrolet is their manufacturer of choice then more power to 'em. If they feel like Ford, Toyota or Dodge are their best interests then more power to 'em. They've got their own engine program, they've got a lot of great resources but I think that they're still in that decision making process but they're looking at all the cards and laying 'em out just as I would to pick a team, they're doing it for a manufacturer."

DO YOU FEEL IT'S IMPORTANT WHERE YOU PIT ON THIS TRACK? "No, there's no preference where you pit here. I think the pit stops are big enough. There's a little bit of a hill down in turn one so you might want to get on a place where it's a little big flatter so you don't have to worry about holding the brake during the pit stop but you always hold the brake during the pit stop anyway so there's no real big preference in where you're at, just on who's around you sometimes so you can get a clean in or a clean out."

-credit: gm racing

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