Kyle Busch

No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry

Allstate 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

M&M’s Team Notes of Interest

· Kyle Busch arrives at the Brickyard with a 262-point lead over second-place Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and a series-high seven wins.

· Kyle is also the series lap leader with a total of 1,065 laps led. That is 18.71 percent of the 5,692 laps raced this season. His teammate Denny Hamlin is second in that category, having led a total of 670 laps this season.

· Kyle has three career Cup starts at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. All three resulted in top-10 finishes, with his best finish of fourth coming in 2007.

· Kyle Busch will be running a special red, white and blue M&M’s paint scheme this weekend at IMS.

· Kyle will be running all three NASCAR races in Indianapolis this weekend – the Craftsman Truck Series race at ORP Friday night, the Nationwide Series race at ORP Saturday night and the Sprint Cup Series race at IMS Sunday afternoon.

Busch Quotes for week leading up to the Allstate 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

How important is the race this weekend at the Brickyard for you?

“It’s important. It’s a big race, that’s for sure. It’s probably one of the top three races that you would like to win in your career as a driver. If you look at it, you’ve got the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 and the Coke 600. Those are some of the biggest races of the year. They’re like the majors in golf or something like that. (Indianapolis) is a special place to race at with the different traditions there. But it’s a tough place too. Coming down the frontstretch there with the fans on both sides of you. You almost feel like you’re in a tunnel as you get to Turn One. You’re carrying so much speed right before you have to hit your marks. It’s very line-sensitive. Like I said, it’s a great place with a lot of tradition. It would mean a lot to be able to kiss the bricks.”

How do you explain that almost half of the previous Brickyard winners went on to win the championship that same year?

“That’s a good question. In some ways it’s just a number and doesn’t mean anything at all. The Brickyard is a very important race, but it also pays the same amount of points as any other race. So it could be just a coincidence. But really, if you look at it, the Brickyard is a tough place. A lot goes in to winning there, just like winning a championship. It’s takes a lot to prepare for. So I guess that’s why you’ve seen some of the best drivers in the sport win at Indy and then go on to win the championship. It’d be pretty cool to do the same thing.”