KURT BUSCH, No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota Camry TRD, 23XI Racing
How do you feel in this stage of your career and the things you have been able to overcome?
“As far as being able to juggle it all and digest it all, compartmentalization is key on being able to learn what to do and each situation as a driver, as a mentor. Even yesterday, we have this new engineering kid and he’s all excited and he’s like, ‘Can you jack up the car after tech inspection and get gear temp in it?’ And everyone is laughing at him, but yet he said something very smart and sharp. He goes, ‘Well, this is my first day. It’s the Next Gen car. I’m not jaded by the Gen 6 car, and I have a clean slate to move forward with.’ And I was real proud of him for saying that. It’s like, you’re going to be a sharp kid. Just give it 10 years buddy. You’re not going to know it all in one weekend. It’s just being that extra person and that extra set of eyeballs to help everybody get better on this 23XI team. A lot of that is because of the things that Chip Ganassi did for me, Roger Penske, Jack Roush, James Finch and Barney Visser was really a great owner that I learned a lot from spiritually. It’s been a good journey. It’s been a good ride. With our group that’s now settled at 23XI. Yesterday, Billy Scott, my crew chief, I gave him a big hug like, ‘Dude. You finally put the crew chief hat on. Now it’s going to be this crew chief, driver stuff. Let’s go.’ Just knowing when to balance it all. Even with Jeff Burton and the driver advisory council, there’s things that I hope to do there to put in place so the younger drivers and the next generation can benefit from as well as help out our past guys. I’m just in a good spot. Just wanting to give back to the sport that’s given me so much.”
How much change do you think there will be with so many new stock parts with the new car?
“I see a few different directions that this can lead us. Some of that is lack of parts and pieces since everything is apples to apples all through the garage. And, then there’s the fine-tuning and taking it to the next level. One thing at 23XI that I’m really excited about and the information from TRD and Toyota is all of these different channels of information. There’s this app, there’s this drawing, there’s this graph. There was an 82-page wind tunnel report on drafting with this car and this final rule package. It’s endless with the amount of information that you dig through and you have to pick the right things to stack on top of each other now to just find that one-tenth of a second. But that’s Daytona. We’re going to get to Fontana, Vegas, Phoenix, and I hope the old school handling comes in to play where tire wear and tire management could come back into play. I have felt that twice during testing. As an old school guy, I’m out there at Charlotte lap 20 and I’m just getting looser and looser and looser and I’m like, man, is this thing is that loose and I look in the mirror and (Tyler) Reddick is back there spinning out. At Phoenix, it gave me memories of running my Late Model there in the late 90s and the Cup cars in the early 2000s. I hope that’s what the Next Gen car does, is it makes you really get into details with certain things and then still brings back old school put in it in the driver’s hands and put it into the race strategist hands on do you pit now or stay out? I’m hopeful for all of that excitement at all of the tracks.”
What do you think of the goal to have both 23XI cars in the Playoffs?
“We’ve set our expectations very high, and we have every ambition and every bit of focus and intensity to achieve those goals. Winning races, both cars in the Playoffs and for us making a run through the Playoffs to have a shot at the final four, that’s what we want to do on the 45 car. There’s no reason to think that we can’t with the information sharing and the technology that we have with Toyota. The notebook that nobody has right now. It’s a clean slate and we build from ground zero. Right now, we’re tied for the lead in points, and we intend to work all the way through the first couple months with a points-building frame of mind. It reminds me of 2019 when I switched to Ganassi. My goal was to get as many points early in the year and it gave you this free mindset of relaxness in the summer months because we knew we were pretty much guaranteed a spot in the Playoffs. Dave Rogers has been a huge addition as a Performance Director for 23XI. (Mike) Wheels (Wheeler) has found his role as the Competition Director. Between those two guys and the two crew chiefs, with Billy Scott and Bootie Barker. I’m not just name dropping. We’ve got the right guys in the right places to gather the information from JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) and work with them and Toyota to make a good run at this in 2022.”
What have you learned about Bubba Wallace as a teammate versus a competitor?
“As a teammate he’s a listener and he’s eager to learn. That’s what any young driver should be doing. It’s funny on how the information is being thrown at him and he goes, ‘Hey man. Is this something that’s serious that I need to look at? Or is this something that Denny (Hamlin) is going overload on for data information?” And, I said that’s a perfect question because Denny is such an analytical numbers guy. He will eat, sleep and chew on them until it turns into a pole. Bubba (Wallace) and his level and my level, we’re all working together to find that right stream. This weekend is a great weekend to let everybody use their talent with feeling the air, seeing the air and then digesting the information and reporting back on how each session went. It’s just putting in that next level effort and Bubba is ready to do that and I see it within him.”
Do you think there is going to be better reception to this Driver’s Advisory Council and what is your role in working with the younger drivers as part of this?
“I think the biggest difference now is the line of communication. We started in the underground four or five months ago and Jeff Burton has volunteered his time. A lawyer, administration group has volunteered their time. Everybody is in a sense of volunteering right now. It’s, I guess, like a non-profit. Our goals that we have are long term and it’s similar to a Formula 1 driver advisory council when they’re working with the FIA or they’re working with specific tracks or if they’re working with specific TV contracts. It’s all a collaborative effort within everybody in the industry. It’s the right timing, and for my role I guess each driver that is on the board of directors has a specific role, but the main thing is communicating to the other groups of drivers such as the Hendrick guys, the Penske guys, the Trackhouse guys. It doesn’t matter. We need to communicate to everybody and just like getting 40 drivers to give a thumbs up that we’re going to announce this, I ended up Secretary of State for a couple days trying to round everybody up, but to get that 100 percent. That’s what we’re after and that’s the same thing we do when we’re in the driver’s seat. Jeff Burton has done a great job to work with NASCAR, the track and all of our other partners that we’re starting to move forward with and you’ll start to see some things pop up here or there. A simple thing is, I tested Atlanta along with (Ross) Chastain and (Chris) Buescher and they widened the front straightaway to five lanes wide and the back straightaway is three lanes wide and we asked why did we do this? They’re like, ‘Well, we wanted the front straightaway wider for other events.’ Other things that they’re doing with Super Cross and such. I was like, well now we have more of an angle and trajectory that we’ve learned from all of our NASCAR data and the crash results that we’ve got to tweak the wall and add safer barrier to this spot on the race track. Similar to the dogleg out in Phoenix on how we changed that front straightaway there and they adjusted that with better curved angles and the safer barrier and the foam behind it. SMI didn’t hesitate one bit and it was okay, this is great. This is good traction. We just need to get good at spending other people’s money. But SMI really helped us absorb just our first issue as a group together.”
As a driver who didn’t make the main event in the Clash, would you be okay with that format at other points races?
“Oh, hell no. We have to have all of our cars out there. I was devastated by not making the A-Main. In all reality, we had to go and qualify first as a brand-new team with no points. The track was, I’m not making excuses, the track was soup. That’s a term I use when it’s another four-letter word. And the first three cars that went out qualified as the last three cars. Then the track started to burn in and then lap times started to go down. It was just unlucky that they went off points and then this weekend is off a random draw. So, we just need to get a bit more consistent on how we’re going to set qualifying procedures. The LCQ that I was in was the roughest race and it was due to not counting yellow flag laps. There was no reason to have a 50-lap LCQ and not count yellow flag laps. I survived three restarts as the leader and on the fourth one the train and the chain of events, the bumper cars started and unfortunately, we didn’t make it through. And, then it looked like the A-Main could have had more cars in it. There wasn’t as much action, so I don’t know why they cut the number to 23 cars. Twenty-three seemed very random. So, I gave my little list to NASCAR and hopefully we can polish up on things that need to happen for certain events, but yet still follow a nice trajectory that makes it to where it fits in a column everywhere. When you have sponsors and big organizations and you’re not in the race that’s not a good thing.”
What do you say to the younger drivers that may not be with the top teams yet?
“It’s similar to a question I get on what would you teach a young Kurt Busch to do? And I’m like what age are you talking about? I was a rookie when I was 22 years old and wanted to set the world on fire and win every race. And I bumped into Alex Bowman a few years back, it was Dover, I don’t remember what year it was. And he got to the mothership I’m assuming it was just after Dale Jr. retired and he’s driving in Cup cars and he’s like, ‘Man, I got here and I’m at the best team.’ And it was a year that Hendrick was off and he’s like, ‘Man, I’m just so deflated.’ I’m just like, hey buddy, patting him on the shoulder, I said ‘In a couple years you’re not even going to remember this moment of me trying to pick you up.’ And just said, ‘Just throw some patience down, and step on it and stand right there.’ And that’s what I would’ve taught my young self to do. Making it to the top, having a ride like Harrison Burton with the Wood Brothers. Yeah, you’re not at Penske, but it’s as good as you’re going to have and as good as you’re going to make it right now. Find the right things that make the puzzle pieces work for your puzzle to find success. You’re not going to win every race, you’re going to have a battle just to make the Playoffs, but find things that make it to where you’re able to find your goals realistically and then to continue to advance. It’s similar to the kid in Formula 1 who is driving for Williams, and he’s got the Mercedes connection in the background. You’ve just got to stay the course and hope that it all plays out.”
Have you met Michael Jordan yet?
“Yeah. I met (Michael) Jordan last summer. It was right when my window opened to contract negotiations. It was an awesome moment of seeing him in a board room and walking up to him to shake his hand. He stood up and then he sits down and he’s in charge of the room. It was within two minutes he says, ‘We will win together.’ That was the easiest conversation I’ve ever had with a team owner to know that we’re on the same page on day one.”
What differences have you seen at 23XI compared to other teams?
“Our team president Steve Lauletta has done an incredible job of assembling a really strong team on the marketing side, on the social side, the management of the accounts and here we are. We’ve announced with Monster Energy close to 30 races on my race car. McDonalds will be on my race car later this year. MoneyLion, SiriusXM, it just continues to build. And, to have these blue-chip companies and brands being announced to be with our team at 23XI, it helps all of these crew members know that they made the right decision to jump on board and be a part of this program. The buzz, the energy, it’s all there and just like I said at the beginning of this conference, it was great to just give Billy Scott (crew chief) a hug and say, ‘Hey, man. Put your crew chief hat on. We’re going to do this driver, crew chief stuff now.’ Everything is in place and I’m really happy with the way our season is going to look in the next few weeks.”
What was the meeting like for you at Toyota Performance Center with the younger drivers who are a part of the TRD Driver Development program?
“That was my first setting in speaking to a group of young drivers that are part of the same system that I’m in with the TRD Development program. I’m a new guy to Toyota, I love putting on the rookie hat every now and then like I did for the Indy 500 a few years ago. And it’s to show this group of kids, these young drivers, that I’ve been through ups, I’ve been through downs. It was to give them a sense of my heart and my sole and my commitment level on – it’s not just eat, sleep and race. It’s beyond that. And it was to give that motivation to the kids. A few years ago, I wouldn’t have known what to say to them. I wouldn’t have known what role to really find, but now I’m not afraid to speak my mind and to be a mentor with a little bit of sarcasm to have a little fun with it. To really teach them you can win the race before the green flag even drops with your preparation, your mental preparation, working out, PR, social, your whole team. There’s ways to win without even grabbing that checkered flag, and so that helps them build up other categories that they need to do to become a successful driver and get their neck stuck out just a little bit further ahead than the next guy.”
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