TOYOTA NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS)
Kyle Busch climbs out of the No.18 NOS Charged Citrus Toyota in victory lane after winning the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway - Photo Credit: Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR
Post-Race Notes & Quotes
Charlotte Motor Speedway –May 20, 2011
- Tundra driver Kyle Busch crossed the finish line first in Friday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race
at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
- Busch led the final seven laps en route to victory lane.
- Busch picked up his 28th NCWTS victory this evening — including his 22nd win driving a Tundra. The Las Vegas-
native now has the most wins by a Tundra driver in the series, surpassing the 21 victories by Todd Bodine.
Tonight’s win was Busch’s fourth this season. He picked up first-place trophies at Phoenix, Nashville and Dover
earlier this season.
- The win was Busch’s 97th national series victory — moving him into a tie for third-place on the all-time list with
Dale Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip.
- Timothy Peters started from the pole and led 30 laps, before retiring from the race after 62 laps. He finished 32nd.
Former Formula 1 champion Kimi Raikkonen finished 15th in his NASCAR debut.
- Other Toyota drivers in the field were Travis Kvapil (11th), Justin Lofton (13th), Johanna Long (20th), Craig Goess
(22nd), Max Papis (25th), Todd Bodine (27th), David Starr (28th), Brendan Gaughan (30th) and Miguel Paludo
(35th).
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 NOS Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 1st
Are you surprised to win this race?
“Not tonight. I had an angel riding with me there on that last run of the race with Zahra Baker. (A 10-year-old disabled
North Carolina girl who was found slain last year.) We didn’t have the truck to beat tonight — the 2 (Clint Bowyer) did.
Somehow I found some more out of it and I’m going to say that I had some help tonight. It’s weird how things work.
When you believe in it and you trust in it and you have faith in it — it will repay you. I can’t say enough about NOS
Energy Drink, about this team — Kyle Busch Motorsports and all the guys. From Toyota, M&M’s, Flexco and Dollar
General — this is a great night for us. To come out here with a special name on the side of the truck — it means a lot to
Kyle Busch Motorsports and all of us — Speedway Children’s Charities and the community here around North Carolina,
around Charlotte, around Hickory. It’s fun to come out here and do this kind of stuff.”
What did it mean to have Zahra Baker on the side of your truck?
“I can’t say enough about Zahra Baker and her troubling story and what all she went through as a little girl. Unfortunately,
her life was cut very, very short and we put her on the side of the truck tonight in order to give her some remembrance and some vindication maybe. I didn’t have the truck to win tonight and I think I had an angel riding with me. If you believe in that stuff, if you trust in that stuff and you have faith in it — it can come back and repay you. It means the world to me tonight.”
How did you recover from that early spin?
“We spun out and we only lost like three or four spots and then we came to pit road, got new tires and Eric (Phillips, crew
chief) made a bunch of changes. I don’t know what he did, but he made some great calls there. Got me something that
was definitely a lot better. It was drivable. We were just able to muster our way back up through there and once we got to second, I didn’t know if I could run him down. I had help and got up there and I got to him about three lengths back and I stalled out. I’m like, ‘I have to find something, I have to move around.’ Found it and got it. Thank Triad Racing Engines, Joe Gibbs Driven Racing Oil, Butler Seats and Camping World — of course the fans. It’s enjoyable to come out here and if a Cup guy is going to win it — it might as well be me.”
Did you fight handling issues with your truck?
“I don’t know if it was the handling on my truck — I think it was the handling on everybody’s truck to be honest with you.
Goodyear didn’t bring the right tire — I’ll admit that. The Cup tire is awesome — the Truck tire is horrible. I’m hoping we
have a good tire for the Nationwide Series next week — it’s the Cup tire rather than this tire. They do a great job for us, but tonight it just wasn’t it. We did have troubles and we were really, really loose all day. We saw it with my truck in
qualifying, Kimi’s (Raikkonen) truck — we just couldn’t get the truck in the race track. Once we got it tightened up there,
it seemed like I could hold my own and hold the bottom of the race track. Then I got to Clint (Bowyer) and you couldn’t
pass. The tires were just so hard that you would stall out and lose grip so you had to move around and find your own lane. Once I did that, it seemed like I could pass him.”
How much do you watch the record books?
“You kind of keep track of it a little bit, but I hear it through stats, you guys (media) maybe sometimes, some fans that
come up to me asking me about all the wins. It’s definitely — for me, my most important thing is to go to the race track.
I’m not going to the race track thinking, ‘Oh man, it’s going to be 97 tonight or I’m going to get 98 tomorrow.’ It’s more
about concentrating on getting your cars to feel good, getting your trucks to feel good and be fast and the numbers will take care of themselves from there. For me, it’s very empowering, but it feels good to be getting close to 100 — my halfway point. It may not quite be the same numbers that some of those other guys laid out there — all in the Cup Series. Maybe one day I will be able to have a lot of Cup wins as well too.”
What does it mean to tie Dale Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip in all-time wins?
“Those are two huge names to match up with. I think Dale’s (Earnhardt) got 10 wins in Nationwide and the rest are Cup
wins, I think. That right there is just 87 Cup wins so you look at that and you think, ‘Wow.’ Then you look at (Richard)
Petty and it’s obviously it’s 200 Cup wins and you think, ‘Wow-er.’ Maybe one of these days I can get to the 200 point
and to me that is special to me.”
Do you think Kimi Raikkonen’s transition to the Nationwide Series will be easier next week?
“I don’t mean to be disrespectful to Goodyear — I’ll say this in the best way I can, but hopefully they bring the Cup tire — it will be a lot easier transition. Unfortunately, we did not have the handling the way he (Kimi Raikkonen) needed it to be today. He did a nice job from what I understand — I haven’t heard, but we might have to put a right side on it. That’s
alright — you’ll have that. Next week for the Nationwide Series race with the correct tire, it should be a better feeling car.
He should feel a little more grip and should be able to drive it a little bit harder. The engines are a little bit the same and
the cars go through the air a little bit better. Traffic will be kind of the same as what he felt tonight. Tonight was a good
learning experience and hopefully he learned enough today that will help him for next week and we’ll try to make the
transition a lot easier for him as best we can,”
ERIC PHILLIPS, crew chief, No. 18 NOS Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Has today been an up and down day for you and the team?
“It’s kind of been that way all day. We really struggled to get the truck that Kyle (Busch) needed. The tire kind of threw
us for a loop when we unloaded and we were just loose all day. It continued into the night. He spun there right before that first pit stop. We took a pretty good swing at it just to try to tighten it up. The guys did a good job getting everything done to it and Kyle was able to pull off the win here tonight.”
TRAVIS KVAPIL, No. 5 International Truck / Monaco RVs Toyota Tundra Camry, Randy Moss Motorsports
Finishing Position: 11th
JUSTIN LOFTON, No. 77 Lofton Cattle Toyota Tundra, Germain Racing
Finishing Position: 13th
KIMI RAIKKONEN, No. 15 Perky Jerky Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 15th
What did you think of tonight’s race?
“The racing was fun. Too many cautions. Every time that I would feel like the car would start to run better then you would have a caution and then it would take the track a long time before the handling comes back.”
How did it feel to hit the wall?
“I hit it on the beginning and then I hit much harder and destroyed the car a little bit. The car actually run really well there before the pit stop. Once we got to pit then the tires and the tire pressures, it was better. The handling was okay, but for sure the longer runs were a good thing. Just because the car was better and better during the longer runs.”
How did the truck handle in the race?
“It was okay once I knew the car was much better than it was this morning in practice. Then it was okay just to know how it feels in traffic and stuff like that.
Were you pleased with your performance?
“You would rather be more high up, but how it felt this morning, now I was pretty pleased with how it felt in the race. For
sure, there is still a lot to learn and improve, but I think when we have another race it will be better.”
Were the restarts difficult?
“It’s just more to know what to do on the restarts and where to put the car. Sometimes you push a bit too hard and you run wide and you lose a lot of places. It is hard to get back to places. Really knowing where you want to be in the right position, but not really anything surprisingly difficult.”
Have you ever tested a NASCAR stock car?
“No I have not — I have only tested the Truck two times before today.”
RICK REN, crew chief, No. 15 Perky Jerky Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports (general manager, KBM)
What did you think of Kimi Raikkonen’s performance in the race?
“I was really pleased with his (Kimi Raikkonen) performance during the race. It took about five laps for our truck to start
coming in. He would lose quite a few positions in that first five laps. Then as soon as he got the tire temperature up — and I told him as soon as the tire temperature would come up that we would be better off and keep getting better. Actually, if we could have ran a really long green flag run at the end, our truck actually could get better the longer it went. It’s one of those things where we just kind of did some guess work looking at the notes and anticipated on what the track would do at night. I actually felt like I had to treat him like he’s a young guy who had never raced here before. A young guy can drive a tight race car, but can’t drive a loose one. I tightened her up pretty good to start the race.”
JOHANNA LONG, No. 20 Panhandle Grading Toyota Tundra, Panhandle Motorsports
Finishing Position: 20th
CRAIG GOESS JR., No. 46 Greenville Toyota Toyota Tundra, Eddie Sharp Racing
Finishing Position: 22nd
How was your race tonight?
“It was really hard to get a good feel for how the truck was handling because of all of the caution laps. It’s hard to work on the truck when you can’t feel out exactly what it’s doing. Just a really long night but I’m glad we survived and we’re
taking the truck home in one piece.”
MAX PAPIS, No. 9 GEICO Toyota Tundra, Germain Racing
Finishing Position: 25th
TODD BODINE, No. 30 Germain.com Toyota Tundra, Germain Racing
Finishing Position: 27th
DAVID STARR, No. 81 Zachry Toyota Tundra, SS Green Light Racing
Finishing Position: 28th
BRENDAN GAUGHAN, No. 62 South Point Hotel & Casino Toyota Tundra, Germain Racing
Finishing Position: 30th
What happened between you and Max Papis during the race?
“Rough night as a whole for the Germain Racing team. Todd (Bodine) looked fast and I don’t know what happened to him.
It looked like he just got loose or I don’t know if somebody hit him. We were terribly fast tonight. Our Toyota was real
quick. I think we drove ourselves to like 13th the first run and then drove ourselves to the top-10 in the second run. We were going to have a strong night. We were saving some tires — we got to lead. In the end, I think we lost a gear is what it looks like.
I knew — my instinct was that something was broke and it was still running. It was broke and I kept saying it was broke and I knew to trust my instinct, I didn’t and in the end it broke in the middle of the corner, went up and tried to just stay out of the way and I think Max (Papis) was an innocent victim there. I guess he was trying to get underneath me and somebody pushed him into me. That’s just been the luck for the Germain Racing team this year is two of the teammates have nothing to do with each other and one is going to have a good night and we bang into each other. Our Tundra, from what I understood, was real dang fast.”
TIMOTHY PETERS, No. 17 Red Horse Racing Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing
Finishing Position: 32nd
What happened that took you out of the race?
“We were going for position on the 13 (Johnny Sauter) and we just kind of ran out of room. I thought the 2 (Clint Bowyer)
got into me, but he didn’t after looking back at it. It just came around on me pretty quick. I just hate it for all these guys
on this Gearwrench Toyota Tundra. It’s a shame — we were a force to be reckoned with tonight. I’ll take the blame on
that one.”
MIGUEL PALUDO, No. 7 STEMCO-Duroline Toyota Tundra, Red Horse Racing
Finishing Position: 35th
What happened that took you out of the race?
“I put it in third gear and I heard something. Then there was smoke. It’s a shame for us. A lot of bad luck and a lot of bad luck today. The good part is that we were running up front. Hopefully, we can head to Kansas and start over again.”
- Toyota Motorsports Press Release
