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MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES: TICKETGUARDIAN 500

March 11, 2018

Avondale, Arizona

THE MODERATOR: We are going to get started with our post‑race media availabilities. We are joined by our third‑place finisher Chase Elliott, driver of the No.9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet.
Really put a shows on for the fans. Talk about what it was like to race out there, especially the last stint.
CHASE ELLIOTT: Had to be fun to watch there I guess towards the end. It was a good battle between Kevin and Kyle and Denny, then eventually us there as it went along.
We had a solid afternoon. Just needed a little bit more to get to where Kevin was, try to hold him off. The guys had a great pit stop there at the end, Alan made a good call pitting when we did, was able to get the lead. Just wasn't able to hold him off long enough.
THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up to questions for Chase. Chase, thanks for joining us today. No questions for you.
CHASE ELLIOTT: That's the way I like it. Thank you.
THE MODERATOR: We are joined by our second‑place finisher, Kyle Busch, driver of the No.18 Skittles Sweet Heat Toyota.
Kyle, a lot of fun watching you battle for the lead in the final stage. Take us through that.
KYLE BUSCH: Yeah, the 11 got out there, got out front. He was doing a really good job of pacing the field there. Then the 4 kind of got to him. The 11 was holding up the 4 for a little bit. It was to our advantage actually, just being able to kind of save my tires a little bit.
Slowly but surely kind of worked my way in there, closed the gap to those guys. Once I got in there, I tried to pounce as quick as I could to get through there, which helped and got us the lead.
Coming into the green flag stops, had a couple guys pit a little bit before us. I don't think that hurt us too bad, but the jack dropping certainly did. We lost the race on pit road today. There's been races where I've won it on pit road, too. We'll just have to go into next week and see what we can do there.
THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up to questions for Kyle.

Q. I think all four JGR cars, plus Truex, all four Stewart‑Haas cars, were in the top 10. Does that mean you guys are the best two teams right now?
KYLE BUSCH: Statistically. By the stats of today, I guess so. I don't know. I think you look at the top five, shoot, the top five was pretty close to what the top five was last year.
All in all, I think the guys at Stewart‑Haas have done a fantastic job late last year of finding some speed, even though they felt like they were behind. They didn't, but somebody else did. But they went to work and did a really good job and were fast. The 4 car made it to the final race. He was fast in the final race.
They've just kind of picked up where they left off. With some of the rule changes that happened over the off‑season, we felt like that slowed our stuff down a little bit. Didn't slow theirs down near as much.
Playing a little bit of a catch‑up game to see where we needed improvements to get our stuff going better. It's pretty good to know we're a little bit off now but we're finishing second each week.

Q. Do you feel you're one of the few guys who has something for Harvick at this time right now?
KYLE BUSCH: I don't think anybody's got anything for Harvick, considering we got our butt beat so bad last week, then we just got beat a little bit this week.
But we were just kind of missing it a little bit there. We were really tight in the long runs. I got by the 4 there that one run, he was being held up by the 11 just because of the chaos of being held up, kind of burning his stuff up probably.
I was hoping that the 9 was going to do that there, the same thing, last run hold him up a little bit more so I could get there. Didn't quite work out.
Our cars were pretty evenly matched today. If roles were reversed, maybe we would have won. I don't know.

Q. It feels like through your demeanor and whatnot, you sound like a guy who has seen the course of his season change. Do you feel like it kick‑started today, that's something you're going to take to Fontana?
KYLE BUSCH: Our season started today?

Q. Do you feel like you really with the second‑place finish found your groove today?
KYLE BUSCH: No. It's a long year. You go week by week. You got to be ready for Daytona, that's where the season starts. The real season, everybody says, starts at Atlanta. I wouldn't say our season started today. We ran second last week, so...
We've been doing what we do. That's just to go to the racetrack each week and focus on how we can make ourselves better. Yesterday we were not, absolutely we were not a second‑place car, but our guys went to work and did a fantastic job of getting us there. We actually had a shot for the win today.
We go into next week focused on the same thing, try to do the same thing, and run a good, smooth, clean race out there and try to win.

Q. Radio said you were on the ground after the race. Did you have issues getting out of the car? Was it heat?
KYLE BUSCH: I got out of the car and bent over to stretch my legs out, then squatted down in order to stretch my back out. I'm just sore, overworked.

Q. If you had to battle two people for the lead, would you rather be battling Denny, you know the equipment, or would you rather battle Harvick, considering how good he is here?
KYLE BUSCH: I think you'd rather battle Harvick. Any time you race a teammate, you got to do it clean. As least I could lay a fender to the 4 probably (smiling).
Teammates are a lot harder to race. You got to respect them a little bit more. That's the situation that we've been through, Denny and I. Some of our other teammates have been through it. It's way easier to race somebody else for a different organization.
THE MODERATOR: Kyle, thanks for joining us.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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