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NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES: COKE ZERO 400 POWERED BY COCA-COLA

July 2, 2016

Daytona Beach, Florida

THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by our second‑place finisher, Kyle Busch, the driver of the No.18 Interstate Batteries Toyota. Kyle, why don't you take us through that final restart there.
KYLE BUSCH: I don't remember a whole lot. It gets kind of crazy. I do remember the 6 car just being really, really helpful to us and being able to give us a really big push there down the front stretch and then again down the backstretch. I thought we had enough speed and enough momentum to have a good enough run to try to get alongside the 2 car getting into Turn 3, but once the 6 kind of lost my rear bumper a little bit, then the 41 really had momentum on the inside and a run going that then we kind of lost the ability to get back to the 2, and from there it was just trying to finish second and trying to figure out what all was happening on the inside of us with the 41 and the 22 kind of getting together, I guess.
But overall, good day for us. With a backup car that certainly is a good finish, solid day going into the next one.
THE MODERATOR: We are also joined by our third‑place finisher, the driver of the No. 6 AdvoCare Ford, Trevor Bayne. This is a great run for you, third place, you and Roush Fenway Racing. Talk a little bit about that race out there.
TREVOR BAYNE: Yeah, that last restart was wild. I had a lot of help from the 3 car when we went to the top. We restarted 12th and made a huge run, and then I got to Kyle's rear bumper, and it was either hit him with all I had or try to not wreck him, and I was like, well, I'll try to do both here, and we nailed him pretty good down the backstretch, and we pushed him off into Turn 3, and they got three wide behind me, the 42 and 3 car on the last lap, and it kind of drug me down, so we weren't able to continue pushing there down the front stretch.
But to have a top‑three finish today, it's really a great day for us and a great day for Roush Fenway Racing and Ford. For our organization to be on the pole this weekend, to have three cars in the top eight, two in the top five, I think that's kind of a landmark for us as an organization with the struggles we've had to get all three teams running strong on a weekend like this.
Obviously a lot of it is just getting through the day. You know, my spotter did a great job today keeping me calm. A few times I dropped to the back where these guys were riding at, Kyle and Carl and a few other guys were kind of hanging out while it was wild, and we did that and missed the big one and barely missed the other wreck in Turn 1 and 2, so I'm thankful for that, but overall just a really solid points day for us. It's not a win that we need to get in the Chase, but it's a great step in the right direction for making it in on points.

Q. Kyle, how confident were you at the start of the day given that you only had a couple of laps in this car?
KYLE BUSCH: It was fine. You know, Joe Gibbs Racing has been around for a long time, and they do a really good job of being able to prepare some cars. We had a mishap there in practice unfortunately with having the‑‑ cutting the tire down and getting ourselves in the fence, but they came back strong and got us a good car. When it qualified, it felt fine, and then there the first couple runs that we had with pack racing, I seemed to learn a little bit about it and being able to make my moves and what moves I could or could not make, and from there it was just the rest of the day was pretty normal I'd say.

Q. Kyle, when Keselowski took the lead from you with about 15 to go, how did you see that? Was there anything you could have done to prevent him from getting to the bottom?
KYLE BUSCH: He definitely just had way more maneuverability it seemed like than anybody, but especially than I did. I don't know how he got the kind of run that he got, but when he got that run down the front stretch getting into Turn 1 and was able to turn to the bottom, my car would be kind of loose doing that, it would just over‑rotate on me a little bit, and I just never really had that opportunity from behind me besides Trevor, and I never was in the right position when I had that big of a run in order to get the lead back.
You know, I could have turned down a little bit quicker, but you know, I probably would have got turned, and it wouldn't have been good for anybody.
You know, you just tried to play it as safe as you could but as smart as you could, and being as aggressive as you could without trying to tear up any cars.

Q. Was it the sort of track position race that you knew that could decide it?
KYLE BUSCH: Yeah, no doubt that it was definitely a track position race for sure. I mean, it seemed if we could have got the 2 car out of there, it probably would have been a decent race, but that thing was just so strong that there wasn't much passing him.
Really it took a lot of guys ganging up and getting together in order to make a move on him. He was pretty smart about where he positioned his car on the racetrack, and I could see that, and I tried to do some of those same things, but man, it just never really worked for me as good as he could handle it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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