TOYOTA NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS)
Daytona Testing – Afternoon Session Notes & Quotes
Daytona International Speedway – January 11, 2013
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing What happened to cause the accident on the race track? “I have no idea. I didn’t see anything happening in front of me. Just saw the smoke and then a car sideways and I started trying to check up. I feel like I did a pretty good job checking up. The guy behind me got into me a little bit so I knew I couldn’t slow down more so I just had to try to find a lane to get through and I saw the 43 (Aric Almirola) come across the race track so I turned left to miss it and I shot the gap and when I did somebody was on my inside and just hit me in the left rear a little bit. That’s just the major damage right there on the left rear. Everything else is fine. It’s all cosmetic so I don’t think it’s that bad.”
How was the drafting on the race track with a larger pack? “It’s okay. The first time we went out we had a pretty good pack side-by-side and everything. There was some mixing around and some moving and passing. And then the next time we went out it seemed like there was a strong lane on the top and just four or five cars on the bottom and the bottom wasn’t moving anywhere. It was actually going backwards and so everybody was working their way high and I think some guys just got checked up and that’s what caused the wreck.”
What are your impressions of the new car? “It’s just like anything else, there’s going to be an adapting period and having to get used to what the cars feel like and how they drive and what not. I’m good with it. I think our car’s pretty good. The M&M’s car was fast and felt stable and better than some other guys.”
What has it been like having Matt Kenseth as a teammate? “Matt’s (Kenseth) been good. He’s got a lot of experience and a lot of leadership and been around for a while and won a championship. So, it’s good to lean on a guy like that and talk to a guy like that and have somebody in your corner like that. We had it with (Tony) Stewart when he was at JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) and he was really, really good and then he moved on to his own deal. Now that Matt is there I think that kind of replaces Stewart a little bit. Matt’s a little bit more low key about his business than Stewart may be.”
MARK MARTIN, No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing What happened to cause the accident on the race track? “I was very close to being in it. I was the first car back from (Dale Earnhardt) Junior when it all started out in the front of Junior’s car. It’s a Daytona thing. That’s Daytona. That doesn’t have nothing to do with the new cars or anything else. That’s just normal Daytona stuff.”
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing What happened to cause the accident on the race track? “Carnage. I don’t know. The 88 (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) and the 9 (Marcos Ambrose) kind of got together a little bit and the 9 got turned into the wall on the back stretch. I missed the 9 by about an eighth of an inch so I was pretty happy.”
Were you afraid to go back out on the race track after the big wreck? “Well, no, but our car is kind of bent up a little bit so they want to take it back up to the shop and fix it. It’s not bad (on the rear quarter panel), but we kind of got done with everything we wanted to and the car is in good shape. I was happy with it. It has great speed and it’s going to be our Shootout car, so they figured they would go home to fix it and I think everybody has pretty much had enough anyway.”
Did you expect to have an accident while drafting? “You never really expect it to happen, but you always know in the back of your mind that there’s potential for it. At Daytona and Talladega that’s just kind of the way that it is. But, I will tell you that I was really happy with the way the drafting was out there. I really enjoyed it. It took me back to when I was running Nationwide and the way those cars drafted and early in my Cup career when we had the older cars. I thought it was really good. It didn’t really help me to push a guy, but you could get right up to them, give them some momentum and you get runs on the leader. I passed the leader a few times, which has been difficult to do the past few years. I thought the drafting was great. Getting the bumpers lined up and figuring out how hard you can hit someone when you kind of get jammed up in the middle of the pack there, that’s all stuff that’s going to be learned and figured out as we go. But, I was really happy with the way the drafting went — the speeds and the way the cars drove. My car drove phenomenal. I had good speed, so I’m happy and ready to come back and do some racing.”
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing (continued) What was the biggest thing you learned from drafting in the big pack? “The biggest thing was just how the draft was working kind of more like it used to be. There were no two-car tandems. It was somewhat difficult to get on a guy’s bumper and push him, but again you get that little air bubble between you and you could get a guy rolling and get a guy moving in front of you and give him some good momentum and make some passes. It was cool being able to back up off the leader and get runs and take the lead and do things like you used to do. It was a little bit more strategy involved than just holding it wide open and hitting the guy in front of you as hard as you could, so I thought it was cool. It was a lot of fun and I think it’s going to put on a great show when we come back down here.”
