NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Samsung 500

Topics:  Samsung 500

Kyle Busch
April 6, 2008

FORT WORTH, TEXAS

Q. Talk about your run today.
KYLE BUSCH: It was terrible, had a good race car, good enough that we could run in the top five and we were battling it all over the place. Fighting on one side or the other we couldn't get it exactly right.
So a frustrating day in that part; when you get behind last car and you can't pass them because the damage at that time racetrack and the car, that's frustrating. We were just lucky to get a third place today. And we have good race cars, the guys do a good job of putting them together and we had one run there and felt like we had a winning race car there and the track changed and the tires changed and we could never get that feel back.

Q. No microphone.
KYLE BUSCH: Well, we didn't wreck, so that's okay. We battled the car all day long and couldn't really ever get it right. Was it fun to drive? No. Did it survive the day? Yes. So was it a good day . . .

Q. Talk do you feel like you were stronger than the 99 on the restart, and how did that translate over the course of the entire race?
KYLE BUSCH: He just didn't have any forward bite on restart, might be just whatever they were doing. Their car was sideways through all the corners, and that's not just loose, that's just how their car is, when you get it going down the straightaways and that's probably the product of a bad restart.
I got into it about every restart, I squeaked by the outside but just kept pushing and didn't want to wreck them and get the car messed up.
As far as him going on into my run, the car was just turning. It would go from tight to loose to loose to everything.
I knew the 99 was holding back and not showing everything he had, he probably could have led 344 or however many laps there were today; he didn't show his full hand and he knew he was good. The 48 was pretty good, but you know, I figured during the race that the 99 was holding back

Q. Given the way the car was running today and given the handling problems you were having, at some point during the race did you have a mind-set that, hey, I'm going to try to finish as high as I can, even if it's third place and that's what you have to live with?
KYLE BUSCH: That's what I drove for in the race. If there's a shot to go for second, then we would have taken it, but there at the end it was just survival and holding guys off behind. It wasn't going to be going forward at all because we were so tight and if we had a different race car, probably would have tried a little bit harder. It wasn't working today.

Q. (No microphone).
KYLE BUSCH: It went good. Obviously got a win and a third place finish, my best place finish in a Cup car, and so I have to evaluate the weekend as a positive
And now going into Phoenix, a place where I tend to run well and I'm pretty excited about that and decided to take a couple days off.

Q. Is this the kind of racing that we're stuck with seeing
KYLE BUSCH: I am not answering that question. Go to NASCAR to answer that question..

Q. I think you said on Thursday or Friday that you expected Carl Edwards to be a huge favorite coming in, and because he's been so dominant on mile-and-a-half tracks; obviously you said he could have led 34 laps today, any crack in that invincibility right now, and is he just far and away the best mile-and-a-half car?
KYLE BUSCH: I think Jimmie was a lot better today than we had seen him all year long. So he had a good car, but nothing was good as the 99. And at the beginning part of the race, we were racing as good as we were up front; and we were leading some; he was leading had some, and the 99 was just kind of hanging out back there. I still think he obviously had the best car. So go back to our shop and try to make ourselves a little bit better and now we don't have to just catch the 99, now we have to catch the 48.