Martinsville II: Pole winner interview

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Toyota Tundra/Z-Line Designs Toyota Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Starting Position: 1st

How do you feel about the four women competing in the Truck race?

"I think it's great. I think that Johanna (Long), she's done a really nice job in the starts that she's been able to make. Unfortunately she had an engine failure right off the get-go at Vegas. I think the Martinsville, the way this place is and of course going through the NASCAR approval process, obviously it's easy for them to make some starts here at Martinsville. I think it's just another car number when you come up to them, you have to pass them. It's not that they're going to be treated or looked at any differently than anybody else."

Were you able to practice around any of the female drivers today?

"I think the biggest thing is just confidence and being able to have the truck under you and being able to believe in it and knowing how far to push it. Being able to have them just get the track time and the track time they need and deserve is always beneficial. With the way our testing rules are, you can't go test anywhere so they get their first hands on the race track when they get there. I was never around any of them today, but the more track time you get and the more laps you get, the more comfortable you feel and the better you do."

Does winning the pole help get you closer to winning the owner's championship?

"I don't really think it sets us any closer unless there were points for qualifying. For us, I look forward to it. We've got a good set of five races here left to go, of course Talladega being sort of a crap shoot knowing anything can happen there. Running well there in the past so I look forward to it. I feel like we have a good shot at this and it's something that I really, really want to do. I know that Todd (Bodine) and the Germain Racing team, they want to make sure that I don't win the owner's championship, but Bob's (Germain) won one before so I'm hoping that I can go out there and maybe steal a little bit of his thunder and bring Kyle Busch Motorsports home with a championship the first year out."

How important is it for you to have sponsorship for the rest of this season in the Truck Series?

"It's really big and it's a great help that we're able to go out there and race knowing that we can race and we're not racing on my money or we're not racing race to race. It's pretty good. I feel like the sponsors I've had behind me have really been a great story and a great help to me whether it's been in the Cup Series with M&M's or the Nationwide Series with Z-Line and NOS or the Truck Series with the abundance of partners that we've had this year. I'm looking forward to it. I feel like the rest of this year we can race hard, we can race for wins and we can go out there and do the best we can for all these people. Interstate Batteries is the lone one that kind of doesn't fit in with what we've done so far this year at Texas. They'll be on board with us there. Next year, again, same thing I said in Charlotte, I'm not any further along than I was there. I've sold five races, but we'll be announcing that partner hopefully shortly in the next couple weeks and get on to 2011 trying to get everything else squared away and sold where they're no more inventory left would be great."

Where does your love of the history of NASCAR come from?

"I've been wanting to be here since I was a child - eight, nine, 10-years old or whatever it was. Finally got my opportunity and a crack at it when I was 16 and then went away for a year-and-a-half because I wasn't old enough and then came back when I was 18. Ever since I got here, I've kind of never really been really well-represented I guess. The fans haven't quite taken to me. I've been battling that uphill battle forever and I presume it will be a long time yet that I'll be doing that. I've got great people that work with me on the side that know who I am and know that I have a heart and that I'm not the scarecrow or the lion that didn't have the heart or whatever in the Wizard of Oz. I am a person and I do have thoughts. The tin man - the lion was the coward - well, I'm all of those anyway. Regardless of my point there, scratch that. I know a lot about the sport and I've grown up watching it and paying attention to it and just kind of learning about it. I like watching the old day races - sitting back and watching the races from the 70s, the 80s - the Tim Richmond special that was on. I didn't get to catch all of it, but I was watching parts and pieces and it was pretty cool. You watch cars going through the esses at Watkins Glen and they're sideways - the old bias-ply tires and stuff like that. It's just fun to pay attention to the sport and you want to know about what you're doing and how you got there and how the sport has gotten to where it is. A lot of credit goes to those guys that were before me."

-source: toyota motorsports