23XI Racing drivers Bubba Wallace and Kurt Busch were made available to media after practice for to the LA Clash event today:
What is it like driving for a brand new race team this season?
KURT BUSCH, No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota Camry, 23XI Racing
“It’s perfect for me in the setting that I’m in and with my career and different teams I’ve raced for and the timeline. The timing of all this was really choreographed by Toyota. And I’m very thankful that Monster Energy wanted to make this move and create this opportunity to come to a brand new team brand new car number and to work as a veteran driver to leave something behind. My time is starting to show its age, but I’m having so much fun and to be part of the Coliseum event like this, you know, if I was not racing, I would have tried to find a ride to be here. So again, Toyota, Monster Energy and a great group of guys. We’ll be off and running here soon.”
What is it like coming to a race track this small?
BUBBA WALLACE, No. 23 DoorDash Toyota Camry, 23XI Racing
“It’s exciting. It reminds me a lot of Summer Shootout and racing Legend cars, so I’m glad I went back and ran out a couple years ago to knock the rust off. It’s cool to see it being pulled off and hats off to NASCAR and everybody here in LA to make this happen that it’s actually happening so I think we were expecting a lot different than we got on track actually this morning for some practice laps and it was like, ‘Alright, we can we can make a race out of this.”
How excited are you for Ice Cube and PitBull to perform tomorrow night?
BUBBA WALLACE, No. 23 DoorDash Toyota Camry, 23XI Racing
“I’m excited. I got to talk again with Cube last night for soundcheck, so excited to have him back out in our sport and then PitBull, being around him, with him coming on board last year with Trackhouse. Super cool and super cool for our sport, for the fan base and he brings in a different perspective too. So they’ve done a lot of exciting things for the race team, but to have him back in his element as a performer is pretty dope.”
KURT BUSCH, No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota Camry, 23XI Racing
“Just the whole atmosphere again. NASCAR built this for us to race, the entertainment value of everything that’s part of this. I mean, just walking up here and seeing this view. It’s something we’ve never done before. And so to have a concert right in the middle of the race, heck yeah. It’s all about having fun and doing something different.”
With the Netflix show coming out in two weeks, how significant was that series for you to make in order to show a glimpse into the last year of your career?
BUBBA WALLACE, No. 23 DoorDash Toyota Camry, 23XI Racing
“Yeah, I’m excited for that. So for everybody to get a get the full glimpse of what we were able to capture last year. I went to Netflix and I was motivated from the F1 ‘Drive to Survive’ stuff. Hopefully, this will be somewhat close, hopefully in the same ballpark as that, but just I wanted to show them like what it takes to be successful. I’m a very raw and real person and, and I think that you often got to be buttoned up and not really show your true side the times, that’s where I get in trouble because I don’t listen to those rules. I’m always raw and real every time, but you get to see that every day. You get to see the ups and downs and what it takes to be successful at the top level of the sport. And, you know, you’re quickly humbled each and every day. Just because everybody at this level is great. Moving forward with Kurt (Busch), he’s a champion and just seeing how tough it is to win one race. I can’t even imagine what it’s like to win a championship. So this is, you got to have each and every day, each and every minute to be successful. And then with that comes a lot of pain, a lot of pressure, a lot of emotion and I think that captures that so we’ll get to see it.”
Will there be a second season or is it all about the numbers once this one comes out?
BUBBA WALLACE, No. 23 DoorDash Toyota Camry, 23XI Racing
“I think it’s all about numbers. I don’t know. Hopefully it’s good enough to have a second season. It was fun. The process was fun. We started back in like November of 2020 and shot all of last season and so yeah, I think they got some good stuff.”
How do you feel NASCAR is progressing to expand it’s footprint with different communities, especially through this race being here in Los Angeles?
BUBBA WALLACE, No. 23 DoorDash Toyota Camry, 23XI Racing
“I think hopefully the on track success that this hopefully shows tomorrow will open up a new avenue for us because you know we’ve been going to the same tracks and same venues for numerous amounts of years. And so going somewhere different is big and changing it up for this, this is basically like a tryout for our sport just to see how much different and wild can we go, but also being in this demographic and this environment here in LA. I think the highest number we’ve seen, the 70% of all the race ticket sales are new fans coming out that have never seen a race before. And that’s massive. You can’t get that when you keep going to the same venues each and every weekend. And so venturing out, doing bigger things, diving into our communities and figuring out what it takes for them to come to a race and implementing that. It’s not going to suit everybody. But you know, the more we keep trying and learning and listening and understanding things, the better off we’ll be so it’s a never-ending process, but it’s fun to be a part of.”
What was it like to be a part of the Super Bowl commercial filming last night?
BUBBA WALLACE, No. 23 DoorDash Toyota Camry, 23XI Racing
“Yeah, that was cool. The competition wasn’t happy, they had to handicap us. They gave us some older tires. Six laps guys, six laps. They didn’t want any leg up so I told my guys I was like, we can’t really look into the last night because it was so different. And jumping on track. It was night and day different from what we had, but super cool. A big deal for our sport, you know, Super Bowl is massive and so anytime you’re on there and getting our sport representation, it’s big. It’s getting those people that watch the Super Bowl that are huge NFL fans to be like, hey, you know I’m going to go out to a race this year. See what they’re doing out in LA, see what they’re doing as a whole as a sport and growing and becoming more diverse and inclusive is big. And so but it was fun. It was good.”
For Kurt Busch, how was your off-season and can we expect any more cryptic videos about retirement?
KURT BUSCH, No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota Camry, 23XI Racing
“It was actually a great off-season with all the testing we were able to do. I was with NASCAR down in Atlanta. I went to Daytona. Charlotte twice, and then finished up in Phoenix where Bubba (Wallace) ran one day, I ran the other day and is again building the team. And I couldn’t have done this without Billy Scott (crew chief), a guy that I have won races with before he made 23XI Racing feel like home for the 45 car. And the group of guys that we have assembled from all different teams gave us this like rebel attitude. When I told them there was the video. I didn’t know I’d have arrived. I didn’t know I’d have a contract when I filmed that video down in Key West. I mean, doesn’t everybody drive down to Key West a party and say that it’s the end. So that’s what I did. And then the pieces all together. Again, it’s all timing. Great group of people with Toyota and Monster and with this team. We’ve been busy this off-season. And now it’s time to go and it’s time to build up towards being competitive every week and having shots to win for Denny (Hamlin) and for MJ (Michael Jordan) and to be part of the JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) group. Thee way I see this, there’s six cars that are as identical as I’ve ever seen, and it’s up to us to find little differences to get a car in victory lane.”
What’s it been like building this relationship with Kurt (Busch) over this offseason as and as you head into this weekend?
BUBBA WALLACE, No. 23 DoorDash Toyota Camry, 23XI Racing
“It’s been spent a lot of fun getting to know Kurt and hopefully he’s forgotten about Darlington last year. I haven’t so I know he hasn’t. When we started having these talks of getting Kurt (Busch) on board, the dynamic really changed, and he’s been he’s been there to help me out through a lot and talk about racing and talk about culture at the shop. It’s conversations like that show why he is who he is. He’s fun to be around. He knows how to have a good time. At the racetrack he’s over after practice trying to help us get better and what we need to work on and just implementing those things and just being indirectly a part of his conversations. He wants little things that are different that I’ve never thought about, like having the DVR on, so you go back and watch practices. I’m like I’ve never thought about that and he’s like, I’m gonna fix that and I’m like, alright, you do that. You got more authority than me. But just little things like that is cool to figure out who Kurt Busch really is so proud to be a teammate with him.”
Do you feel like the sport would be as willing to make such a bold move to try this without the technology that’s available like for example, they can put it and model it on iRacing and see what it looks like firsthand?
BUBBA WALLACE, No. 23 DoorDash Toyota Camry, 23XI Racing
“I think they’re willing to do anything that can. We just threw I don’t know how many tons of asphalt on top of a perfectly good football field to make a racetrack out of. They’re up for trying new things and they’re hearing the fans, they’re hearing the drivers, they’re hearing a lot of industry people talking about how we needed something new. Who knows what they have up their sleeve? You know, the whole sandbox story. It’s their sandbox. We’re playing on it. We’re here racing, so we’re having a good time.”
How important is being now a Jordan Brand athlete to you – having that associated with your brand and on your racecar?
KURT BUSCH, No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota Camry, 23XI Racing
“It’s an incredible opportunity and to be in the fraternity of the athletes and to be chosen as one that’s going to represent the brand in NASCAR. It makes me drive in a different way. It really does. You feel it when you watch different athletes that are part of the Jordan Brand play, and you see that they play, and they race from their heart. That was what MJ (Michael Jordan) spoke to me when I first met him because he said your talent isn’t questioned. It’s your heart that I see in myself and that’s why I want you to be part of this team. It just blew me away – that’s the way I’ve always driven – and now to be part of that brand. It fits with Monster Energy’s lifestyle and Toyota on how we’re going places. I haven’t ventured out very much because of the brands that I’m with have been such incredible family style partners over the years. And that’s where it’s like I’m just gonna keep things as simple as I can. We’re blue-chip groups and it’s what has led me to 23 years here on the circuit.”
What were you struggling with on track adn do you think that your lack of track time this offseason recovering from your surgery had any impact to the struggles that you were dealing with?
BUBBA WALLACE, No. 23 DoorDash Toyota Camry, 23XI Racing
“We are all figuring out this Next Gen car, and changes are very time consuming. So, when you’re only offered five minutes in the garage to debrief and figure out what you want to do – the change that we had in mind that we wanted to do – we would have missed the next practices. We were doing changes to figure out what the car needs, and it was crutching it, but we didn’t really get over the hump. I’m competitive and when you’re out there getting run over in practice, it’s not good, but we all share that same frustration across our board, and we’ve already made the changes we’re ready to go now. Qualifying will be interesting. Shoulder is no issue. Wish I had something to fall back onto, but I can’t.”
What are your first impressions in the car?
KURT BUSCH, No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota Camry, 23XI Racing
“The Next Gen car fits in an arena like this. I don’t know if the old car would have done this and been able to put on as good a show. It’s just working on the car. Yes, things are a little bit different, and it takes a little longer to make changes but that’s where crews will find a rhythm. We’ll know what we need as we go into practices to have a better game plan. But this is first weekend out. My engineer said we put four slats of front bar in it. That’s a whole different style of lingo and that’s what this Next Gen car is going to teach everybody is new things to think about. There’s anti-dive, there’s anti-squat, pro-dive, pro-squat. We now have a sequential gearbox that I would have loved to have had gear choice on, but all the gears will be locked in, once we get to other road courses and things like that. The brakes – there’s so much to learn there because of how big they are. You have to be liquid and fluid with adapting to all new things as a driver. This car is no different than me jumping in a rally car or challenging myself to do Pro Stock a few years back. I was telling Bubba (Wallace) – what’s the slowest, meanest, nastiest track you’ve ever been to? Just put your mindset there. That’s what this Coliseum is going to challenge us with. It’s out of the box, but it’s a fun challenge. Look at this environment. It’s 77 and sunny and NASCAR built this for us to go and put on a show. Now it’s up to the drivers.”
What kind of confidence do you have knowing that you one of the guys that you report to has that level of confidence in you?
KURT BUSCH, No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota Camry, 23XI Racing
“It’s humbling. Denny’s a three-time Daytona 500 champion. He has plenty of opportunities for more championships in this sport. To be racing with MJ (Michael Jordan), Bubba (Wallace), the whole group at Toyota. Let’s face it, I was a different person when I came into this sport as a blue-collar kid from Vegas that had to scrap and throw fits and to run up front to keep my ride. Then my years at Penske, I was trying to learn professionalism and that wasn’t going as smooth as I was hoping for. I raced for James Finch, who was one of the biggest partiers. That was the first time I’ve ever seen a bar inside the lounge of a hauler. Racing with Barney Visser, racing with him was a whole different life lesson with Barney and how much Christianity he had within him and his family. Gene Haas, everywhere I’ve been, there’s so many good growth stories. I’m in the right spot now with being able to give back to young crew members and different people that have helped me over the years. So, racing with Denny, it’s been fun already just telling stories of how Tony Stewart was a team owner and a driver. I’m like, I got you buddy. I’ve raced with Kyle (Busch) as well at KBM (Kyle Busch Motorsports) as an owner driver. So, this is the right spot for me to be and I’m happy to be here.”
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