No. 18 team is clicking, winning four of last five races
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Two days after a dramatic and dazzling victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway — his third consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup win and fourth in five weeks — Kyle Busch still sounded awed and amazed.
The 30-year-old confessed Tuesday in a national teleconference with reporters that there was a time when he thought his season was over before it started and insisted the guiding force in his recent historic high performance was as much because of the people around him — doctors, his wife Samantha and crew chief Adam Stevens — as it was something he’s been doing differently.
“It was a natural reaction initially,” Busch conceded, thinking he wouldn’t race again in 2015 after suffering serious injuries — broken leg and foot — in the Feb. 21 season-opening XFINITY Series race at Daytona International Speedway.
“Fortunately, everything came to plan actually quicker than we all anticipated, and for me, once I started listening to doctors and understanding what all was going on and what all I was going to go through, I realized, ‘OK, I’m going to be back this year.’ “
“They didn’t want to rush me coming back too soon and take a chance of reinjuring something. We made the right decisions. I think everything just kind of came together and fell nicely.”
And that’s the understatement of the season.
Busch said he will be having further offseason surgery to have plates taken out of his left foot and screws removed from his right leg. And if he responds to that surgery and recovery like he has this season, the competition should be very worried.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver is on a rare and impressive run that seldom happens in NASCAR’s most competitive ranks. After missing the first 11 races of the season, Busch has won four times in the nine events he’s started.
By winning Sunday’s Brickyard 400 — the first victory ever for Toyota in the race — Busch cut a 58-point deficit to 30th place in the standings to 23 points with six races remaining to decide the 16-driver Chase for the Sprint Cup playoff field.
When Busch received a Chase eligibility waiver from NASCAR upon his return, it came with two conditions: that he win a race and be ranked among the top 30 in the drivers standings. When Busch returned to competition in May, he was 179 points behind then 30th place driver Tony Stewart. He’s made up 156 points in nine races.
Asked on Tuesday if he credits his current win streak and ability to overcome the setbacks to a more mature mentality or extra motivation, the new father Busch had a much simpler answer: people.
“I think I would point more so towards the relationship with Adam Stevens and myself,” Busch said thoughtfully.
“There was never a time and there was never a weekend that we weren’t able to speak to one another (when Busch was recovering from injury).
“I think that really helps fortify a relationship as much as we could without me being in the race. Then since I’ve been in the car, just trusting what he’s doing and giving him all the feedback I possibly can and letting him go to work.
“He’s done a really good job — the whole team (has) of everything that they’ve put together for me.
“Maybe it was a little bit of other stuff, too, studying the racing and seeing what was going on and being hungry for it and wanting it and knowing that this is what I want to do. I don’t have anything else in life that interests me as much as driving race cars.”
The result has been nothing short of amazing — to watch, to cheer, to chronicle and understandably to take part in.
“I definitely think the whole company is really jacked up,” Busch said. “Everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing feels everything going and coming together as a whole. Even my teammates, we went to lunch the other day and everybody is just kind of gelling and happy.
“Everyone is smiling and they’re happy for me and the success that we’ve had at the 18-car but also the success that the company is starting to put together as well with a bunch of us finishing in the top 10 each and every week.
“It’s a lot of hard work, a lot of dedication. Adam Stevens and his group of guys on the 18 have really come together and come full circle. It actually started out real tough with them and they were down in the dumps maybe and really weren’t sure what was going to happen or who the driver was going to be week-to-week. But Matt Crafton, David Ragan and Erik Jones did a fantastic job filling in for me. And once I’ve gotten back maybe it took a couple weeks to kind of knock the rust off a little bit, but since then it seems like we’re running on all eight cylinders and just have done a fantastic job being able to get our M&Ms Crispy as well as our Skittles Camry into Victory Lane.”