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| Kyle Busch won at Texas in 2016. He's 4/1 to win Sunday. |
What are your thoughts heading into the Texas race next weekend?
“Texas is still a bit of an unknown for us since this is the third race on the new pavement. I know they’ve been working on the track, but you are still trying to put rubber down. With a newer surface, it’s hard to understand what you’re feeling with your car because you can think you’re tight, you’ve got all the grip in the world, you’re going around the corner and then, ‘Boom,’ it just busts loose right out from under you with no warning. That’s why the older racetracks, the more aged racetracks – the Atlantas, the Californias – you’re sliding the whole time, so you’re already against the slide. You don’t have maximum grip. You’re already playing with it and trying to get the most out of yourself and the car that you possibly can. At Texas, you’re not just locked down, you’re locked in solid, then it can jump out from under you in a hurry. We ran a bit better there last year than at some of the other recently repaved tracks. We’ve had good cars this year, so hoping we can qualify well and stay up front and get our Interstate Batteries Toyota back to victory lane there.”
How special has the partnership between JGR and Interstate Batteries been for you?
“It’s crazy, if you think about it. If it weren’t for Norm (Miller, Interstate Batteries Chairman), JGR wouldn’t even exist today. Personally, Norm and everyone at Interstate Batteries treats me and my family like we are a part of their family. We won the race at Daytona back in 2008 and that was the first time Interstate Batteries had been to victory lane in a long time, and we’ve been able to add more for them over the years. Winning at Texas was special in 2016, too. Any win is special. But, I’ll never forget how excited Norm was back in 2013 when we won the Cup race there even though 2016 was cool, too. Norm had been trying for so many years and he really soaked it up the entire night in 2013. He and Joe (Gibbs) came up to the Speedway Club and told some stories about how long they had been trying to win there. So I was very proud to be able to do that for Norm.”
What has Norm Miller meant to Joe Gibbs Racing over the years?
“Norm Miller (chairman of Interstate Batteries) and Joe Gibbs (team owner) are obviously both instrumental in Joe Gibbs Racing and what it’s become and where it started so, without Norm Miller and the Interstate Batteries folks back in the beginning, there would be no Joe Gibbs Racing. I think that was on the NASCAR side, as well as the NHRA side when they did some drag racing stuff back in the day, so Norm’s been a passionate guy for us to work with and be around for the last 27 years – for me, it’s been the last 11 years – and we’ve had a lot of fun together both on and off the racetrack.” Does your mind ever take a mental break from racing, like during the recent off weekend?
Do you get recharged in any way?
“Yeah, I think you’ve kind of got to. We were able to head to the Bahamas with Samantha and Brexton and friends and recharge and have a good time. You know, there are times when you run these seasons out for as long as they are, and it’s like, ‘Man, can it just get over, can we just go home?’ And finally you get home and you finally have a couple of weeks or a month or whatever it might be away from the car, then you’re kind of like, ‘Oh, I’m ready to go back, now,’ and you’re itching to get back in the racecar. As you get older with more years and things like that, they’re going to feel some of the same ways that we do and want to see a little bit more of a break or whatever. But we know the season is February to November, and that’s what we sign up for, and that’s what the challenge of our business is, to make sure that you can continue that longevity and make sure that you’re ready for 38 weekends.”
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