KB:
“You know, I feel like being 22, I've got a lot of time – not a lot, but I've got some time and a lot of room to grow and become more responsible, more mature, things like that. You know, being thrown in this light has just definitely shown a different aspect of life towards me. For the past couple years, I haven't shown probably my full potential. But there's plenty of it out there. I feel like I cannot necessarily change but probably bring out more of who I am.
I've got a great marketing staff now, great agency with MMI Incorporated, Jeff Dickerson, where we're working on that – trying to bring out the real Kyle Busch, show everybody what it's all about, I guess who I'm all about. These guys here at Joe Gibbs Racing, obviously they saw a little bit of that as well as some of the other owners we were able to spend time with.
You know, I guess I'm different when the camera shines its light on me than I am when I'm behind closed doors.
JDG
For us, what you kind of see in the sport is interesting. I think, you know, ideally years ago when NASCAR put the cap at four teams, that kind of changed a little bit. I thought it was a good decision. I personally would like to see them cap it at three, but four is what it is. I think going forward, a lot of teams are trying to put themselves in the best position to be here for a long time. For us, part of the reason we made this decision is this helps us stay healthy as an organization for a long time to come. It's not really a sport where our business – where you have a lot of equity. Your equity really is you have a building, you might have some planes. The parts, the pieces downstairs, you know, there's not a whole lot of value in that from a bank standpoint. I think the value is running well week in, week out. Both the value to Interstate, the sponsors, and the value to teams that want to have investors come in, that's great for them. I think it's probably good for the sport. It makes them healthy, makes them stronger, gives them opportunity to maybe take some of those assets and use them in other areas. For us, we wanted to be a family owned business for a long time to come. There's only a handful of teams that haven't made some type of merger. For us, we just want to stay kind of the way we are and grow and continue to win races and championships for a long time. I do think in the sport, the biggest barrier you run into is it's very expensive. As time goes on, it gets harder and harder to have the resources to do what you need to do.”
Q:
Kyle, as you're going through this process, a lot of people were speculating that you might want to go somewhere where you could be the No. 1 driver. Twenty years ago there was a lot of that in the sport. As the sport has evolved, you have more and more multi car teams where the whole spectrum has to work for all of your drivers for the whole thing to be a success. Kyle, did being the No. 1 driver even enter into your mind? Is that something you had to think about as far as where you fit into a pecking order?
KB:
“It entered my mind. When I read about it actually I kind of laughed in the beginning because I didn't know where it came from. It never came from me. Jeff and I, we sat down and we were kind of tossing it back and forth. Did you want to be the No. 1 guy? Did you want to be the No. 1 guy? I never said anything. I think going to DEI, that was definitely a possibility. I think being the leader of a team or even being right there with Martin Truex Jr. at 22 years of age isn't something that I'm ready for. It isn't something that I wanted to throw myself into. I feel like I'm better and more competitive with myself being not necessarily a No. 3 guy, but I feel like I can be right there with Tony and Denny and their standards, to be able to compete at their level. Whether I'm third in the pecking order or not, I think the 18 team at Joe Gibbs Racing has always been the No. 1 team because of course they were the first team here.
NORM MILLER:
“Amen.”
KB:
“That's how I feel about it. I'm looking forward to bringing the No. 18 Interstate Batteries Chevrolet back up to the No. 1 pecking order hopefully and just being able to compete and win and beat the rest of these boys here.”
JDG
From our standpoint, here is what the drivers want to know. ‘Do I have the best equipment you have to offer? Are you surrounding me with the best people you have to give?’ I think that's the key for every team. That's our goal for each of these teams, to make sure we surround the guys. I know we're doing the best we can to communicate every piece, every part, every engine, every car, all the parts available to everybody. Obviously how much the crew chief and driver want to use those parts is kind of up to them. For us the key is making sure everything is available to all your teams. I think if you do that, that's half the battle.
Q:
Kyle, last year in Vegas you were in the car and said Tony was trying to kill you. Earlier in the year he said you were going to hurt somebody. When did you make peace with each other? What was it like talking with him?
KB:
I don't remember when we made peace. I don't know if we ever did. Tony and I, we've had an odd relationship, I guess. I kind of came into this deal looking up towards him, have been one of his fans for a few years, like I had been with Jeff Gordon. Obviously Jeff has been my hero, per se. And Tony I've been able to look up to because he's been able to drive the wheels off of anything you put him in. You know, that was a racing deal. That was on the race track. A couple of weeks later, we sat down and talked about it, put it all aside, figured that we'd be better off as friends than as enemies. To me, I think Tony and I can get along very well being teammates. I think we can talk off the race track. We can talk on the race track. Having the opportunities I've had with him to go off and race in the dirt track stuff at Eldora (Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio) and some other places, we've really got a sense to know each other. I sat and talked with him in
Daytona this year for a while, kind of joked around with him a little bit. Here recently, we've talked just a few words here or there in the garage area, but never really sat down and talked with him about the chances of me driving for Joe Gibbs. But Denny and I, we probably talked about more of that than what I did with Tony. Tony has always kind of been his own person, his own guy that goes off and does different things. I've been the same thing because I have some interests of my own that maybe some others don't like. I think that's what kind of puts us in the same frame of mind.
Q:
You talked about the real Kyle Busch. I think fans want to see the real athlete. For Kyle Busch, that's passion, anger when he doesn't win. You were talking about controlling drivers at the beginning, even the coach. J.D., can you talk about how you let your athletes be themselves, show that passion. Kyle, can you talk about that as well?
![Kyle Busch at Indianapolis. [Pic Credit IMS Media/Dana Garrett]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/252485.jpg)
