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Chicagoland: Winning team interview

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Z-Line Designs Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 1st How difficult was tonight's race? "It wasn't easy. We know we shouldn't win. We had the track position when it mattered and the car got really, really ...

Published: Jul 13, 2010, 6:54 AM

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KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Z-Line Designs Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st

How difficult was tonight's race?

"It wasn't easy. We know we shouldn't win. We had the track position when it mattered and the car got really, really tight on us. But, these guys never gave up. They knew I had it in me. I didn't think I had it in me. It's fun to race in the Nationwide Series. I love it. To win as many as we won and to be successful as JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) has been, it's fun every week. It's always cool to come out here and put on a good show."

What were you thinking when you saw Brad Keselowski run out of fuel?

"I knew I couldn't spin my tires and I knew I couldn't let him force me too high because it was real dirty. That's how I lost the lead to Joey (Logano) the first time, I thought I had a right rea r flat getting into (turn) one. And it was just marbles on the tires. So, I lost it there. I was able to keep it low enough to stay out of that, and stay in front -- get to the front and get in front of Joey (Logano). Clean air and track position was a lot tonight. Got to thank the fans out there tonight. I don't know if they didn't appreciate the burn out or if there just 'anybody but Busch' fans -- but they didn't like it too much."

What did you think when Brad Keselowski pulled off the race track?

"I was unsure of where I was supposed to start, first of all. They gave it to us and we restarted on the outside next to Joey (Logano). You know you just have to get a good restart at that point and be able to get up there next to him through (turns) one and two and try to hold him down a little bit and stay alongside him. We were able to do that and we were able to clear him through (turns) three and four. Our car was fast, man. It was fast when we unloaded it. It was one of the best cars here all weekend. I got up to0 high on that one restart when Joey (Logano) got by me. Thought I had a flat so I just wanted to be easy on it, but I could never catch him. I couldn't get back to him. Clean air was really important, but it came to us right at the end and things sort of fell our way."

Was it just clean air that allowed you to get past Joey Logano?

"I was just too tight behind him. When I'm out front I have all the air and can do whatever I want. I started running him down when I moved up. And then he moved up to get in front of me and blocked my air, so I had to try to go back to the bottom and see if I couldn't get closer. I just kind of sold out five lengths behind him, I couldn't get any closer than that, but our car was fast. It's fun to come out here and race in the Nationwide Series. I love doing it, but it's also fun when you have cars this good with JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) and you can win."

What does it mean to be second on the Nationwide Series career win list with 37 wins? "It's pretty awesome. It feels great to be able to be second right now to Mark Martin. I thought we were going to be second tonight to Joey (Logano), but we've got a lot ahead of us here. We can catch Mark (Martin) and hopefully we can do it next year. I don't know. We'll see."

JASON RATCLIFF, crew chief, No. 18 Z-Line Designs Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

How was your team able to pull off tonight's win?

"We were really pleased with the car right off the truck.  It's the same car we ran at Texas.  It's a great car every time we run it.
We were just a little too free in qualifying.  We started eighth but I think because we were free, it allowed us to move to the
front really quick where most of those other guys were too tight at the start of the race.  Out front you get in clean air and
everything is beautiful.  Once you lose clean air, then you realize that you didn't keep up with the race track.  That's kind of
what happened to us.  The track got away from us a little bit.  You get such long green flag runs here that you don't have a lot of
opportunity to fix it so you're kind of stuck once you make your adjustments.  I felt like as many laps as we had on our tires, if
the caution came out later, four tires was going to be the way to go.  On a short run, three or four laps I don't think it mattered
but it worked out.  It worked and we got the track position and once we got the position the four tires prevailed."

-source: toyota motorsports

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