Indy ORP: Winning team interview

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Fleet Locate Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st

What did you think of tonight's race?

"It was a good, clean hard-fought battle. When you treat people with respect, that's what you get -- you get respect back. Carl (Edwards) was awesome tonight. I can't thank the rest of these competitors. I had a tough battle there at the beginning with Trevor Bayne. I had to do what I had to do to get by him sometimes. I can't thank FleetLocate.com enough along with these guys at Joe Gibbs Racing. Of course I have to thank the fans. It's fun to come out here and put on a great show like this and hopefully they enjoy it."

How did you dominate the race like this and not practice the car at all?

"These guys, they build such great race cars from the shop. It's all back on them. They did a great job for me. We've seen Carl Edwards do it before that way, I'm glad I was able to do it."

How were you able to hold on for the win with the green-white-checkered finish?

"I just knew that I had to get going and I had to get a good launch. You know me, if you want to call Ron Hornaday the restart king, I smoked him tonight. Better re-label that one."

How hot was it in your car tonight?

"It was hot. We have air conditioning units and stuff and back blowers and everything, but when it's so hot and muggy like this they don't have a chance to cool any of the outside air at all so you don't get that much cool air. It was a warm night – that's for sure. I'm just glad that we were able to have a good solid run for Fleet Locate and those guys."

What was it like getting through traffic tonight?

"Traffic was a little bit tough because anytime you got to traffic the cars got aero-tight so you kept having to battle for a lane. You could either try to go high which made your car a little bit tighter or you could try to go low which you were still tight, but you were still able to get enough air on the nose to get under them. It was tough. You had to pick your way through and sometimes you had to root them out of the way just enough to get by."

How were your restarts tonight?

"They were really good, the race car was good too. I can't thank Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) and Brad (Coleman, practice driver) enough and the rest of the guys that worked so hard today in the heat and sweated their butts off. It was a fun night. I knew we had a really good car. I thought it was going to unfortunate when Carl (Edwards) took tires there and beat us. Man, we made it work and we ended up coming out on top tonight. I can't thank FleetLocate.com and the guys at Joe Gibbs Racing and of course Z-Line Designs, NOS Energy Drink and Toyota. That thing was fast and it felt like 2008 all over again. We almost led all the laps. It was cool to see Toyotas up front with myself and Trevor Bayne. Real proud of the effort tonight by the guys and I'm glad we were able to win another one."

Did you think Carl Edwards would have moved you out of the way to take the win?

"It's always there, especially at a short track like here at ORP. You're so vulnerable running around the top side like you do here that people can dive-bomb you on the bottom and slide up into you. I knew it was there, but if I could keep enough momentum rolling, just keep my car rolling then I felt like any time (Carl Edwards) would lay a bumper to me, he'd get sideways too. I felt like it was all about trying to keep the momentum rolling, keep the car stuck as best I could and get it to turn. That was the pivotal thing to do and try to get the good bite up off the corner so you could get a good launch down the straightaways. Carl (Edwards) was right there. He could have used me up more than he did, but it could have cost us both time instead of just him being able to get by. You have to have a really methodical way about doing it here. There just wasn't enough time for him to do it in two laps. We had a fast enough race car tonight where we were good enough to hold our position there and Carl raced me, he bumped me a couple times but it was good. It wasn't clean because it wasn't anything -- it was good, hard clean racing and that's what happens when you race guys together cleanly over time and race each other with respect, you get respect back."

JASON RATCLIFF, crew chief, No. 18 Fleet Locate Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

How were you able to prepare a winning race car for tonight's race?

"With Brad Coleman, he did a great job today. We just worked on our car. We had a game plan going in and he stuck to it and gave us what we needed to put a good car together, then Kyle (Busch) came in and put a good qualifying lap down. He qualified fifth and then from there it just worked out. I don't think the car was where Kyle wanted it to be at the start. We made a couple of adjustments on pit stops to make it better. Once we got out front, we were just a little bit better than everybody there. Like Kyle said, at the end it's one of those deals where I thought I was fixing to be a bad crew chief. It's one of those deals where you can pit or you can stay out and work either way, but Carl (Edwards) ran out of tires just as he got to us and it worked out."

-source: toyota motorsports