Kyle Busch says offseason work led to 2008 parity
By Jared Turner - SceneDaily Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Jerry Markland / Getty Images for NASCAR
All four manufacturers have triumphed in the season’s first five races, four drivers have gone to victory lane, and Hendrick Motorsports, a winner of 18 of 36 points races in 2007, hasn’t won at all.
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch believes he has a good idea of why the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season has gotten off to such an unpredictable start.
“A lot of people have done their homework over the off-season,” Busch, the Cup standings leader by 30 points over Roush Fenway Racing’s Greg Biffle, said during Tuesday’s Nationwide Series test session at Richmond International Raceway. “They’ve spent a lot of work on it. The Roush stuff is definitely really good with [Carl Edwards] at the mile and a half [tracks], and our stuff has been pretty good everywhere we’ve been. The RCR stuff’s been really good. I’m not sure if Hendrick felt like they already had it up on everybody and they didn’t do a whole bunch of work or what, but it seems as though they’ve sort of fell just a little bit behind.”
After five races, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is the only one of the four Hendrick entries in the top 12 in the series standings. If NASCAR’s 10-race title Chase began today, Hendrick's two-time defending champ Jimmie Johnson and four-time series champion Jeff Gordon wouldn’t qualify.
But Busch, who drove for Hendrick from 2005 through 2007 before moving to Gibbs this season, is confident his former team will rebound.
“I won’t give them too much longer,” he said. “They’ll be right back at where they need to be.”
Leading the standings, Busch is in a position where most would like to be. Not only is he the only Cup driver to lead a lap in each of the season’s first five races, he’s been the strongest among Gibbs’ powerful three-car stable that also includes two-time Cup champ Tony Stewart and 2006 rookie-of-the-year Denny Hamlin. Busch also gave Toyota its first Cup victory at Atlanta earlier this month in the manufacturer’s 40th start. How surprised is the 22-year-old that he’s been so strong out of the box with a team that switched from Chevrolet to Toyota this season after Toyota’s dismal 2007 debut?
“I haven’t been surprised at all,” said Busch, who has three top five finishes in five races and a pole to go along with his win at Atlanta. “I’ve been excited about it actually from the off-season with the talks that I had with the Gibbs organization about how they were moving to Toyota and how they felt like their program was really going to step up and pick up. So I’d kind of been optimistic about it, looking forward to it.
“I’ve really been proud of the fact that we’ve been able to run as well as we have in the Gibbs stuff in general, but to have Toyota on board, that’s just been good as well, too. Being able to keep them things running up front and keep them running fast, it’s not a surprise whatsoever to me. It’s just pretty cool to have it happening.”
Not only has Busch been pleased by his performance on the track this season, he’s equally happy with the chemistry he’s quickly developed with his new team.
“I feel more comfortable in where I’m at and in the shoes I’m wearing and stuff at the Gibbs organization. For whatever reason it was, over at Hendrick Motorsports it didn’t pan out," he said. "But I’ve got plenty of friends over there and plenty of people that I still have a relationship with.
“I’ve got a lot of great new friends over here at the Gibbs organization, and everybody’s really stuck behind me and dug in well and have done a lot of work this year in order to make me comfortable in the cars and have really helped me become comfortable with the organization, too.”
