Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kyle Busch was made available to media prior to the Charlotte race weekend earlier today:
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Red, White & Blue Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
How did you feel about today and getting some practice?
“Yeah, I mean it was good, we felt like we had a pretty good practice overall, just tried a couple different adjustments and changes in order to work on our balance and just trying to get right for tomorrow. Kind of a typical practice I guess you know, back to having one at least. So, you know, good to see what we could learn and pick up on and work on.”
What’s the best prank somebody pulled on you and what’s the best one that you got on somebody?
“I don’t know I wish a few of the scenarios that went down over time, were pranks, but they weren’t. I can’t really recall. I don’t know that there’s really been a very good one.”
How important though was the timing of this practice knowing that every year in the 600 the transition from day to night is so critical?
“This practice was perfect. You couldn’t have picked a better time to do it. We’re always used to coming in on Friday and practicing at 12 to two o’clock exactly when you don’t want to be on the race track and then we qualify at night. This was perfect for us anyways and you know we unloaded, we were close but, we definitely made some adjustments on it just to kind of pick at the car a little bit and try to work on it. We’ve got a few more things that we need to be able to do to the car in order to get a race ready for 400 laps.”
Do you have a different strategy for this race compared to shorter races?
“This race is very cut and dry on pit strategy and that sort of thing, with just your pit halfway between each stage and you pit at the stage. It’s pretty simple besides cautions flying and other things kind of happening that might disrupt that but, over the past few years, that’s kind of how it’s looked.”
How do you feel about practice being back from an owner’s perspective on the truck side?
“It was expensive today, that sucked today. I wish that the track knew how to put PJ1 down the same every single time, but they don’t and cost us a little bit there early on and hopefully it’s good for the start of the race. We didn’t really get in it much because we were kind of tiptoeing through what we saw earlier today and not trying to mess with it too much, waiting on those guys to groom it in.”
How do you feel about fans being back in the stands and does that matter to the drivers?
“Yeah, absolutely, it’s definitely good to have fans back in the stands. When we first got back to some of these races that fans were at and we had driver intros, the boos were back and everything felt like it was getting back to normal, you know. So that’s certainly just a part of it and part of our sport and nice having them and they enjoy coming out, and being on the big screen and waving and supporting their favorite driver.”
