Kyle Busch is ”Looking forward to coming back with a fast Camry,” to Michigan which has been a “hit-or-miss” track for the No:18 team
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Kyle Busch
NASCAR Cup Series will hit the track running at Brooklyn in the Michigan International Speedway for the 23ed round of cup racing. With just four more races reaming this season it is high time for the cup series drivers to level up their game and the Michigan race might be the last chance for a major group of drivers to secure a place in the playoff as the remaining races in Richmond, Daytona at Watkins Glen are usually dominated by the big teams.
Though it isn’t among the track that Toyota usually dominates the field just like every other track, “maybe not Daytona”, Kyle Busch the two times cup champion of Joe Gibbs Racing is among the sure contenders to win the race. The veteran’s chance at the two-mile course seems to be high considering the fact that though he had only secured one win so far at the track it came back in 2011 when he topped 7 times cup champion Jimmie Johnson for the win.
The No:18 Toyota driver sure isn’t in the best of his form as so far his only win came in Bristol, where he got lucky towards the end as the front two, Tyler Reddick and Chase Briscoe, crashed out so a convincing win before the playoff begins can do a world of good for him. The upcoming cup races at Michigan and then the next week at Richmond is the best places where he can look for a win as the other two road course races offer fewer chances for him when his road course form is factored in.
Find out what Kyle Busch had to say about his Michigan outing
Talking about what he expects at the track Kyle Busch acknowledged that Michigan has been a hit-or-miss track. He added that just after his supercool win at the old pavement at the track he started struggling thereafter in the new track but was able to get back to good finishes when the track returned to more side-by-side racing.
“Michigan has been a hit-or-miss place for us. I remember winning in the final race on the old pavement, which was super cool. Right after the repave, it was stuck up in lane number two, where everyone wanted to run. But after a few years, we got to put on more side-by-side racing and I ended up stringing together some solid finishes,” Kyle Busch said.
He acknowledged that he is looking forward to making it to the race and acknowledged that the Ford teams dominance on the track might be in for a challenge with the Next-Gen car saying “Looking forward to coming back there with a fast Interstate Batteries Camry. The Fords have been strong there in recent years, but you don’t know who is going to be this year with this new NextGen car,”.
Kyle Busch when asked about what makes Michigan special compared to the rest of the tracks pointed out that, unlike Daytona or Talledega, Michigan is all about speed with its medium banking which demands drivers to be fast though out the track. He suggested that the speed drivers can get into in the straightaways will depend on how fast they make the corner exit.
“Michigan just being a 2-mile speedway, it’s not like a Daytona and Talladega, where it has the banking as those tracks do, but it is medium banking, so it’s all about speed. You just have to be fast and willing to go through the corner fast. The faster you can get through the corner, the better you are going to be down the straightaways,” Kyle Busch added.
Kyle Busch indicated that this change is the aftermath of the change in cup series philosophy that took place where the straightway speed and corer speed were given similar preferences saying “That’s just a product that we all understand. A couple of years ago, we tried to get the better straightaway speed and it made us not as good in the corners, so we re-did our philosophy a bit for both getting off the corner and down the straightaway,”.
Kyle Busch went on to add that the No:18 will e continuing to figure out what they can do to evolve this season and though the Michigan track setup offers nothing towards the playoff it’s more of a track that requires the best for the team. He pointed out that they have been investing their focus to the track for the last several years and have made some improvements there.
“We just try to figure out what we can continue to do to evolve and get better there. The setup there equates nothing to anything that we race throughout the playoffs, so really it’s just a track that we have to go to and do the best we can…We’ve put a focus on that track for the last several years and we’ve gained. We’ve certainly made improvements,” Kyle Busch explained.
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