“I feel like last year’s race will lend itself into a little bit of this year,” Kyle Busch speaks about take-outs from his last outing at Nashville
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Kyle Busch
Kyle Busch who drives the No.18 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing as a full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver and competes as a part-time driver in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driving the No.51 Toyota Tundra for his own team, Kyle Busch Motorsports is all set to return to Nashville Superspeedway to run in the Ally 400 which had a decade-long hiatus and started hosting races last year where he finished in 11th place.
The two-time NASCAR Cup Series Champion Kyle Busch had won the Ally 400 at Nashville back in 2009 where he was awarded his guitar trophy worth $25,000 and he ended up smashing it on the podium as a sign of his celebration but that wasn’t taken lightly and neither did he mean any disrespect to anyone, he later donated replicas of the trophies to many people and also raised a huge amount of money for the concerts at Nashville.
“Hopefully, the same thing will happen this time around,” Kyle Busch anticipates a better finish at Nashville this year
Kyle Busch was questioned about the major takeaways from the last time he was at Nashville just a while ahead of this year’s practice session and he answered by saying that he doesn’t expect much difference in how the race will turn out to be and he also added that the track has become wider and with the Next-Gen car having to accumulate a lot of dirty air making drafting riskier seems to be a major difference and he hopes it’ll turn out much like the previous year.
“I feel like last year’s race will lend itself to a little bit of this year. I say that because the track really widened out nicely and this car does not like to trail another car and follow so you’re going to need options you’re going need different groups that you can go run in so with last year’s race really widening the track. Hopefully, the same thing will happen this time around,” said Kyle Busch.
He was later questioned about his handling on the track last year to which responded by saying that it was pretty 50-50 and with the progress and speed the team has been showing at the one-and-a-half-mile tracks this season and at flatter tracks, they have not been quick enough and he further added by saying that it all depends on the race this season which he will get to a while later in practice.
“Yes and no. You know with this car and with the mile-and-a-halves that we’ve been to this year, the Gibbs guys, us, we’ve been fast and we’ve shown good speed. But at some of the flatter shorter tracks, we haven’t shown great speed, but I would say besides Gateway was a good offset for us so it just kind of depends on what this place ends up racing like — a mile-and-a-half or a short track. We’ll find out in about an hour,” added Kyle Busch.
When his turn later came to talk about the Next-Gen car’s performance as a whole of an organization he said that he agrees to it and said that Team Penske performed exceptionally at shorter tracks like Martinsville Speedway and Phoenix Raceway and as well as in the inaugural race at the World Wide Technology Raceway, so he concluded by adding that he hopes to understand and work towards getting the most out of the new car.
“A little bit. I would argue that the Penske guys weren’t great at Kansas. But like you said, they’ve been super strong at the flatter tracks. They’re really fast at Martinsville, Phoenix. They’ve been good. They were good at Gateway as well too. So, I think as we all continue to learn and grow the good teams will be the good teams everywhere. But you know, it is kind of patchy, right now with just getting an understanding built around this car,” concluded Kyle Busch.
With a win at Bristol and six top 5s this season, Kyle Busch has a guaranteed spot in the playoffs, but what’s more exciting is to watch if he will take home his third Cup Series Championship.
Also read: “Put Kyle and Harvick. above Jeff,” NASCAR Twitter reacts to Denny Hamlin’s top 10 Cup Series drivers since 2000
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