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NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES: COCA-COLA 600May 24, 2015Kyle BuschCHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA KERRY THARP: Let's roll into our post‑race media availability for tonight's 56th‑annual Coca‑Cola 600 here at Charlotte Motor Speedway and putting in a strong performance in his first points race back since February is Kyle Busch. Kyle is the driver of the No.18 Skittles Toyota that came in 11th tonight, but most of that race there, particularly the second half, he was running top 5. Kyle, just talk about how you feel from a physical standpoint, your thoughts about how you thought you performed over 600 miles here this evening. KYLE BUSCH: Yeah, I feel pretty good. All in all, I felt like that was a great race for us. We ran really strong. We ran up front, and we showed we had some speed. You know, it certainly is frustrating to finish where we did. That's disappointing. But sometimes you do win these things by fuel‑mileage races, so congratulations to our teammates, Carl and Matt. They finished up front there. But all in all, I can't say enough about everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing, everyone pulling for me and cheering for me and helping me get back into this race car, and to get out there and have a strong run means a lot. Real proud of my guys. Adam Stevens made some great calls tonight and got ourselves in some really good spots and up towards the front. We raced up towards the front. We battled side by side, door to door with guys for a little while. Felt good. I feel good, and I admit I've probably got a little left foot soreness, but other than that, everything is pretty hunky‑dory. Q. How much does running a 600‑mile race prepare you for next week's Dover race, which is one of the most physically demanding events of the season? KYLE BUSCH: Yeah, I think this race here is actually quite relative to Dover next week. You know, this one is an endurance race for as long as it is I think sets you up for that Dover race. The Dover race is more taxing on your body I feel like it beats you up a bit more, but it being 400 laps, it's a tough stretch. It's maybe not 600 miles, but 400 laps there is certainly a long time at Dover. This was a good night to come out here. I feel good, really. I didn't get tired or nothing like that, so I probably could go a little longer. I wish it would go a little longer right now, about 10 more laps would have been really, really nice for us. But it is what it is. Q. Does it matter at all that all the other three Gibbs guys are now in the Chase? I don't know whether you can increase focus on you and trying to get you in? KYLE BUSCH: I don't think so. I think it's against the rules last time I checked for a teammate to pull over for you to win a race, so we don't want to do any of that stuff. But I think that‑‑ Q. Maybe try some things‑‑ KYLE BUSCH: Yeah, certainly they can all kind of test around and try some stuff and try to find some things. I think we found some speed the last couple weeks. Actually this year the mile‑and‑a‑halfs have been a little bit better but this week I feel like they found a little bit of speed with our cars. The 20 was really fast in practice, obviously the 19 won tonight, the 11 won last night. But all in all, it's good to be back in a race car for myself, and hopefully we can get some strong runs and get ourselves in position to win and put all four JGR cars in the Chase. Q. I know you worked really hard to get back to this tonight, but did you kind of surprise yourself in the fact that you made it all the way, and also you were a contender? KYLE BUSCH: I'm a little surprised that I feel as good as I do, you know. I was expecting to be a little bit more beat up and tired, but honestly, I'm not. I don't know if that's‑‑ there could be two sides to that. If you go week to week to week you could grind yourself out and you get tired, whereas I just took a three‑month vacation so my body feels pretty good and it's only been beat up in the gym. Other than that, you know, I feel like this was a good night and a great accomplishment. I feel like coming back this quick, you know, was a huge task, but I can't thank everyone enough, everyone at OrthoCarolina. I think those guys did a fantastic job helping me and pushing me and getting me to with a I needed to be. Without them, I wouldn't be here probably. Q. What kind of therapy are you doing, and how is the baby doing? KYLE BUSCH: Therapy is everything. It's almost just like a workout basically when I go in there. It's a bunch of leg machines, some extensions, some curls, leg presses, and also some squats, some lungs, all that stuff, just a normal kind of gym workout thing. And then the therapy kind of stuff is just doing some other stuff, some coordination type things, walking on balance‑‑ I don't know, they're like styrofoam and they wobble for you so you've got to walk on those and try to keep balance and everything, doing that forwards, backwards and everything, so a lot goes on in the therapy, and my trainer or my therapist, he tells me, we're seeing some effort today, when I start sweating a little bit. He's a nice one, I'll tell you. But baby Brexton, he's doing awesome. He's doing really good. He was here tonight, Samantha was here tonight, so looking forward to going home to them and getting them in bed. I'm sure tonight is my night. She's been with him all day. Q. Tonight was 600 miles but next week is a tough track, as well. How are you preparing for Dover, and what do you expect out of that race? KYLE BUSCH: Preparation for next week is tomorrow just relax, try to, you know, get some fluids back in me, everything, and just kind of chill out and not do anything, take a day off. And then Tuesday it's going to be JGR meetings, all that stuff, I've got a doctor appointment and then back to therapy. So Tuesday I'll hit it pretty hard. Might go Wednesday maybe and do some of the less weight stuff, just the kind of walking on the beams and stuff to work on balance, and Thursday I'll hit it again before heading on my way to Dover. So thinking every day this week.  Try not to get behind and keep building it up, keep getting it better, and every time I get in the race car, every time I get in the gym, everything seems to come along a little bit better and make life and daily walking and stairs and everything easier, so you might as well not quit. Q. After obviously looking like you've made a pretty strong recovery, can you talk about this week, there's been a lot of talk about comparing the IndyCar safety team to NASCAR's, and from what you've told us prior to this but not really going into a lot of depth, how instrumental was NASCAR's safety program to getting you in the right position to where you could get to Halifax and start the recovery process? KYLE BUSCH: Yeah, I would agree with your statement there that NASCAR has a safety program and they go around and they teach each racetrack, the safety personnel and everything like that, and they help direct what needs to happen in a crash situation. I think that's really good. I however do agree more probably with IndyCar that they have a specific team that goes each and every week, but you know, we do still have our NASCAR liaisons, the nurses that go every week and come to the racetrack, so they're always up to speed with our medications and the things that we're doing and taking and making sure that they're always there and helping with protocol within the care center. Again, you know, there's kind of a double‑edged sword to each of those things, and having the correct doctors in the care center is always a good thing, too, having some smart people in there, that's very appreciative. I think it was awesome what they did. Obviously it helped me a ton to be able to get out of that race car in Daytona and to tell them what was going on and to get me in the ambulance on a stretcher and off to the hospital in order to get fixed up. I can't say enough throughout the whole process that everybody did, from the time of hitting that wall to taking the checkered flag tonight. KERRY THARP: Kyle, thank you very much. Certainly impressed to have you back, and congratulations on a good couple weeks, and we'll see you at Dover. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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