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NASCAR CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES: NEXTERA ENERGY RESOURCES 250

February 13, 2009

DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA

KERRY THARP: We'll roll into our post race press conference. We're pleased to be joined by tonight's race runner-up, Kyle Busch.
Kyle, tough finish there at the end. Your thoughts about how things unfolded.
KYLE BUSCH: It was a good day. It was a good race, I guess. You know, got to thank Toyota, Miccosukee, Red Top Auto Auction, all the people that have helped us get there. Billy Ballew Motorsports team gave us a good truck. They worked all the off-season building that thing.
It was a fast truck. We just kept fighting it all night, bottoming out. Not bottoming out in traffic, but bottoming out out front. Overall, I guess the last lap I screwed up once again this year. Last year I did the same thing. Can't time it right. Can't get the timing going. I keep planning the last five laps in a row to try to get it. Thought I had an idea about it. Again, screwed up this year.
So just can't get the timing right.
KERRY THARP: We'll take questions for Kyle Busch.

Q. Kyle, could you go through the sequence of events that took place on pit road when you were assessed a speeding penalty, then it was rescinded. Were you surprised, because under the new system, supposedly, it was to be a cut and dry kind of speeding or no speeding thing.
KYLE BUSCH: Yeah, it is. It's supposed to be black or white. It either comes up red on the screen or it doesn't. I don't know what happened there. I'd like to find out, get an answer so it doesn't happen the rest of the weekend for anybody else. Not just myself, but for anybody.
That mistake doesn't need to happen. Unfortunately there when we found out we had a penalty, we just lollygagged. We didn't worry about getting off pit road at all. We kept spending time working on damage. We could have gotten out, probably restarted up in the top 10. But we just kept working on our damage, working on this, working on that, sitting in the pits, just waiting, and then took off slow and didn't speed down pit road again.
Came back down the next time, sat there, worked on damage again, topped the gas tank off, topped it off again, sat there, worked on damage.
They told us we didn't have a speeding penalty, so they gave me three spots.

Q. Kyle, just curious as to how you plan to manage the pit stop choice between tires and fuel if NASCAR hadn't called that debris caution at the end of the first fuel run.
KYLE BUSCH: We were coming to pit road. We were going to put gas in it because -- debris caution, good one (laughter). Coming to pit road, you're going to have to put gas in it. You ain't going to go anywhere without gas. You can run on cords for a while, which is what I had. I had cords on the right front showing, ended up stopping that time anyway.
Fortunately we did get a NASCAR caution there. We were able to get tires and fuel without any issue.

Q. Kyle, could you tell us a few words about how it went with J.R. Fitzpatrick in front of the pack, battling, getting tires, back up front for his first Superspeedway race.
KYLE BUSCH: He was doing a fine job. When you're up front like that leading the race, it's kind of the second-, third-, fourth-place guy to sit there and ride with you, as the case was for a little bit. It got crazy. I was fine with it just kind of sitting there.
Then the 88 was bringing the topside, and then the 30 jumped out there. Everybody and their mom wanted to go to the high side, and it doesn't go anywhere. So eventually somehow it got up there. I don't remember what happened. I think we got three-wide. I went up to block the top. J.R. followed me. The 6 truck shot through on the bottom.
He did a fine job. He did exactly what he was supposed to do. I didn't see the end, so I don't know how he battled back to fourth, but that was a good job for him.

Q. Kyle, going into the last lap, did you expect to have anybody help you? If the outside wasn't going to work, what were you trying to do?
KYLE BUSCH: Well, the plan was to knock Todd out of the way. Get to turn three and get his rear tires off the ground and get him to move up the track and get him out of the way. All that did was shoot him further ahead.
I just sat there and was gathering my stuff up, trying to figure out how to plan the attack for the run down the front straightaway. Once we got back to the short chute over here, Terry pulled to my outside. If I would have had Terry push me or hit me or bump-draft me or whatever, I probably could have pulled up alongside Todd and probably gotten my nose to his nose by the start/finish line.
I still don't think I would have beat him, but I probably could have made a better finish out of it. Instead, Terry went to the outside of me, did what he was supposed to do to try to pass me. Just didn't work out.
Never will for me, I guess. I'm kind of frustrated in myself just not being able to figure this out yet. I got the cars kind of figured out, but I can't get the trucks going.

Q. Did you get a lot of damage in the one big wreck going into turn one?
KYLE BUSCH: I got a little bit. I think the most damage I got was to the right rear quarter panel, the right bumper there. There was pieces of debris and everything flying. I had a piece of bumper up on my cab, hit my windshield. A big melee there. It was a hard hit from the 1 truck into the 4 truck, I believe.
From there, it was just trying to figure out what else to miss, you know, who else was coming through behind you that was still on the throttle.

Q. Kyle, I don't want to put words in J.R.'s mouth, but he said on pit road that he's kind of a fan of yours. He was like, Wow, Kyle Busch behind me. Kind of cool. Does that make you feel old that now you're in a position?
KYLE BUSCH: I feel old when Joey Logano came in at 18. That was me a few years ago. Like I said before, J.R. was doing a fine job, leading the pack, doing exactly what he needed to do. When stuff went crazy, I pulled up to block the outside lane, and J.R. pulled up to stay with me. I figured that was probably the smart thing to do.
There went the 6 truck along the bottom. We kind of had to hang him back out there a little bit. Fortunately he worked his way pack up. Did a nice job apparently; finished fourth.

Q. Kyle, would it be possible to put a safety barrier on that outside wall, or would it just take away too much racing room?
KYLE BUSCH: It's gonna take a little racing room, but I don't think that three feet is a big deal as far as would you rather have safety or would you rather have racing room. I think I'd rather have safety there.
I don't know why it ends in turn two and then picks back up. The funny thing is, it picks back up right there getting down past the gate going into turn three down the back straightaway. You're always leaving that room there anyway, because you know the wall is going to pop up at you.
If you're right up next to the concrete wall, you're gonna plow right into the Safer Barrier. It's kind of dumb that you have to leave yourself that room there. If the wall was just flat all the way down, you would know where it was, you would know how to handle it.
I don't even know if they still use that crossover with the tunnel in place. It's kind of pointless. I think we need to look at that here.
KERRY THARP: Kyle, thanks a lot. Good luck tomorrow.
KYLE BUSCH: Thank you.
KERRY THARP: We're pleased to be joined by Terry Cook. Outstanding run out there tonight, finishing third. And our top-finishing Raybestos rookie of the year candidate, really put on a great show for us tonight, J.R. Fitzpatrick.
Terry, your thoughts about how the race unfolded tonight.
TERRY COOK: Well, it was pretty obvious right from the start that our team felt like we had a really strong truck, something we thought we could win with. Made some chassis adjustments halfway through the race. Backed off on them on the last pit stop, halfway between the first adjustment and the last adjustment.
Got what I could call a Days of Thunder set of tires at the end. That truck was rolling, that Toyota was so stout at the end of this race, that I truly felt like when we took the white flag that we were going to be in Victory Lane. I felt Kyle was going to make the move off of turn four. When they went double wide, I felt like we were going to have a supercharger hooked up to that Tundra engine, because that thing would suck up so well. Felt like we were going to make a three-wide photo finish.
Kyle I think pushed the issue a little bit too hard going into three, in my opinion. But he's driving his truck. I think he was trying to get Todd a little loose getting into the corner. He did, but Kyle had to check up a little bit, and we lost momentum coming to the start/finish line.
KERRY THARP: J.R., your thoughts?
J.R. FITZPATRICK: I mean, we knew we had a great truck all weekend. But, man, I'll tell you, that thing was hooked right up in the race. It sucked up really well. Didn't run very well by itself. I was out there biding my time, trying not to get in the way of anyone. I learned so much out there tonight. I mean, I was going to be happy with a top 10. A fourth, that's very unexpected.
But the whole TRG Group did an awesome job. My Mammoet Chevy did an awesome job. My PME motor pulled great. I just had a lot of fun.
KERRY THARP: We'll take questions for Terry or J.R.

Q. Terry, what would you have done if you were Kyle? Were you thinking about trying to help him at all?
TERRY COOK: It was all about me, baby (laughter). That last lap, I was only thinking about me. Looking back on it, being selfish, I felt like Kyle maybe went a little too early. Maybe that was his only option. Maybe there was no way without some help he was going to go by Todd.
Honestly, if he would have went right, I would have went left, tried to stick him three-wide. Being selfish, I would have rather he waited off of turn four and tried to do it there. Like I said, I felt at that point my Tundra would have felt like it had a supercharger on it. I ended up finishing third.

Q. J.R., you're in Daytona, in the top five, best rookie, best Chevy.
J.R. FITZPATRICK: I mean, it's been a long time. I mean, last year we ran NASCAR Canada Tire series with the 84 Chevy. Then we did a test with TRG at Iowa Speedway. Had a lot of fun there. We ended up doing three races last year. They went pretty good.
I mean, I still am trying to bite the nervousness running with these guys. Tonight all I was doing was trying to go out and learn as much as I possibly could, gain a little bit of respect, not get in anybody's way. We come out with a top five; that's just unbelievable.
When I first came here, the biggest track I raced on before I came to Daytona was a three-eighths of a mile. It's just unbelievable. It's like racer's heaven right here. It's a lot of fun. I still got lots to learn. I'm going to talk to who I can and learn what I can and go from there.
TERRY COOK: Todd, don't help him anymore (laughter).

Q. J.R., you led 15 or so laps there towards the end of the race. You had Kyle Busch on your bumper that whole time. What was going through your head?
J.R. FITZPATRICK: I was going down the straightaway saying, This is so cool (smiling). I mean, I watch Kyle Busch, you know, all these guys every weekend. Knowing that I was leading the Camping World Truck Series my first time in Daytona, having Kyle Busch chase me down.
I was really nervous on the first restart. We had a couple smooth starts. Never really lost anything. Really nervous. But then I said, if I'm going to keep being nervous, I'm probably going to end up screwing up. I calmed myself down, focused on keeping it at the bottom.

Q. Terry, how come Todd has won four straight restrictor plate truck races?
TERRY COOK: Uhm, their truck. I mean, honestly, not to take anything away from Todd. Todd is doing a hell of a job. But that truck, that Toyota Tundra, they've got this thing, as you saw again tonight, phenomenal. I think they take it home, mothball it, put covers over it, put it to bed. The crew chief is shaking his head yes, of course. That truck is just phenomenal.
Todd, obviously you've got to be a wheel man to get around here. He knows when to hold him, when to fold them, so you put that package together. They're unbelievable at these superspeedways.
We had a drive-through penalty. I went below the yellow line. They said that Todd was back there. When I went back on the track, they said he was probably half a straightaway behind. They said, Start trail breaking and let him catch up to you.
Todd pushing me, the two of us were running together. We were running in the 4890s. That time, they said the lead pack was running in the 4940s, 4950s. The two of us together were running half a second faster than the race lead pack.
At that point, I wasn't worried about going a lap down. To answer your question, it's the truck and the driver combination is just stout right now.

Q. J.R., you had a grand total of three truck races before tonight. How does a guy who comes from a Canadian series, how did you learn the politics of drafting down here so well?
J.R. FITZPATRICK: I mean, the video games obviously helped quite a bit. I went to a buddy's house. We got the ARCA SIM. Played with that a bit. Just talking to a bunch of people. I was going to ask Jeff, but I never got there in time. I talk to anybody I can. That's obviously a privilege to be able to go ask anybody I want and get advice.
But really the ARCA test and the ARCA race with TRG was one of the best things we could have did. We had a - test at ARCA, learned so much there. I'm really thankful of that. If I would have came here in just the trucks, didn't do the ARCA, it probably wouldn't have turned out so great.
Obviously I have a lot of support from the crew, and I learned this weekend I have a lot of support any time I want from the fellow drivers. I'm really privileged to have that.
KERRY THARP: Gentlemen, thank you.

End of FastScripts

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