Kurt Busch Quotations

Each driver has their own identity and from one week to another, normally it stays the same.

There are going to be little victories that we claim, even if it's finishing 15th and putting the car back in hauler without a scratch on it.

This is fun. This is entertainment, right guys?

Over the Thanksgiving holiday I took time to reflect on what is most important to me and realized I need to find a way to put the fun back into racing.

Leaving a great organization and a lucrative contract is not easy, but it allows me to take a deep breath and work on things that can make me a better driver and a better person.

I also appreciate the lasting friendships I've made while working with our great sponsors through the years, including Miller Lite, Shell and Dodge.

You really don't put a value on your first win, it is priceless no matter where you are.

Is my strike zone bigger than others? Yeah. It might be bigger than others, but I don't have a problem with it.

You know, it's just a matter of working through the pitfalls sometimes and working through the challenges that lie ahead.

I just always dreamed of racing cars, but I didn't think I could do it as a living.

Newman and I were friends. We were great teammates, and he needs to check his trophy case on that Daytona 500 trophy I helped him get years ago.

That's what I try to do each and every week is give my best effort and not give up, no matter what comes at us.

That's what race fans love to see. That's what they bought this ticket for. That's what they're sitting in the grandstands rooting on their favorite driver for is to see him get out there, mix it up clean and bring it home just like we were, third and fourth.

I am grateful to Penske Racing for six very productive years. Together we won a lot of races - 16 in all. I'm proud that we won on a variety of tracks.

Just a ton of excitement, and the way the guys are together on this, they're looking at me to grow and to learn, and I'm looking at them to grow and to learn.

This is like my dad's race team where we had one Legend car. If we wrecked it, we couldn't race the next week unless we had enough parts to put it back together again.

It's almost therapeutic driving there and driving back (to North Carolina), with the time you get to think about things as well as create checklists.

I'm technologically challenged, so I finally hooked up Bluetooth in my truck so I can talk going down the road.

I feel like we're a very good top-10 car, but we really have to work hard and find a unique way to get these top fives.

I've been fined probably more than any driver, and I've probably paid it out of my own pocket more than any driver.

It's just that fun atmosphere, working on the car, being with the guys. This is exactly what I needed.

James Finch has always had pretty stout cars for the restrictor-plate races and I know we'll be very competitive at Daytona.

James Finch is exactly what I'm looking for, as far as getting back into the race car to have fun.

The Daytona 500 is a big race, and Darlington is just as big of an event, and a lot of people get excited for it.

This 51 Phoenix Racing team, I love them to death. They've got my back, I've got theirs.

I feel comfortable around every driver out there and each driver is in charge of their own car, but you feel very secure racing the competition out there.

So there is going to be that balance of understanding how to get the best out of the car that day, whether it's 15th or even if I have a shot at a top 10, protecting that car so we can bring it back when we have to.

There's steps that I've taken already, and each week, talking with the sports psychologist on a routine basis and working with the different programs that we're going through. This is all stuff that you can say you're going to make a difference, but I'm putting it into action.

What we do is just race hard on the track every week. That's the way I'd like it to be documented, and if we watch the tape, we'll see that the No. 48 swerved into us first and I know that, before even watching the tape.

When Jimmie Johnson goes out early and finishes 35th, as he did Sunday, he can look at the cameras, lament about it being a tough day, and then say, 'We'll just try to get them next week at Darlington'.

We're independent teams, but we want to beat each other. Unfortunately, we were a little too loose in cool air and we just couldn't get a handle on it.

Last year Tony had trouble as well as Mayfield, and they never seemed to rebound. It's like a golf tournament. If you start off and you're 4- or 5-under and the other guys are waffling around par, they're not going to catch you. ... When you have a bad race early on it's just that much more difficult to overcome later on.

Last year we saw (Tony) Stewart have trouble as well as (Jeremy) Mayfield and they never seemed to rebound after that, ... It's just the pace. In a lot of ways it's like a golf tournament. If you start off and you're four- or five-under and the other guys are waffling around with a bogey and a par, they're not gonna catch you. It's up to the leader to make those mistakes and we did have a big mistake at Atlanta with the motor blowing up. That took away our solid advantage, so when you have a bad race early on it's just that much more difficult to overcome later on.

One thing that really helped me decide that I needed to go was their program of consolidating all the cars. I used to have a plate where they built my cars. One guy was the leader, they had a couple of 'grunts' around him and they built the car. That guy had spent 10 years of his life working up the stepladder to become a plate leader. Now, they have him putting right-front fenders on all five cars. The personality and identity is gone. I think that's a mistake as far as operating a business. We'll see how that turns out for them.

Now we have to go and attack each race for a win. We have to go to Dover and expect to win and try and build our points back up.

New Hampshire is key to getting a good start,

Obviously this wasn't the end result we were looking for, ... We were in position for a great finish at Dover, a track that hasn't always been our best, but unfortunate circumstances lined up against us again.

If we're leading and he's running second and he bumps me out of the way, I'd understand. That's what goes on, man. This racing is awesome. Fans dig it. That's the big thing about Bristol, you have to come to race hard. You have to be able to hoist up the trophy at the end of the day without any grudges.

I don't know what he was doing. I was a lapped car trying to get out of his way. He checked up. ... I tried not to get him. I had nowhere to go.

I can just feel the team has a stronger intensity level. All of us went out to the start-finish line at Richmond and kissed that start-finish line and kissed that race track . . . We all felt very complete by that win and now we want some more.

I believe they're more behind me now than we were this time last year, knowing that this is a unique opportunity -- A, to defend our championship and, B, to get the most out of 2005,

I believe the situation has worked out in the best interest of the drivers, the teams and the sponsors,

I'm a little older now. I've aged pretty quick these past few months.

Frankly, I hope it does. They've run it all year long. It's been a matter of time before things were revealed.

He checked up on the straightaway. I had no place else to go.

He likes to talk a lot. We like to race.

He is really coming together quicker than I thought. He was pretty stout and I am pretty proud of him. He competed with the best of the best. He did it in Vegas, of all places.

Guess we're even with the 17 car. We'd gotten around him. He bumped me up the track. We came in and got four fresh tires there at the end, but we were just so darn loose that we couldn't use them to our advantage.

Guess we're even with the 17 car. We'd gotten around him for seventh. He bumped me up the track and we fell back.

Last year in the spring it was an alternator belt that broke when we were leading that took us out of contention, and then in the fall last year we were leading at the end before fuel strategy cost us the win. But Richmond is a terrific racetrack.

I was very surprised that it got that personal. With the way that everything came about, looking back on it, maybe I could have done it a different way. But I thought the best approach was to vilify them early on. That way they would get their sponsors lined up (so I could leave at the end of 2005).

I said it earlier this year, I think you can have one 'mulligan' (and still win the championship). But this has been two for (Kurt) Busch, I don't think he can still win the championship.

Roger told me to stand on the right pedal, turn left and go fast. He doesn't want me to do anything different. Just race hard, race smart.

Martin said. ''That's the way it looks today. It's a real tight time right now filling Cup seats for '06. I haven't seen it like this in a long time. I think that '07 will be much more free. Somehow or another, everyone in the business was committed for '06.

It feels good to get off to a great start. But we're just two races in. I'd like to say that we're a championship contender with the way we ended last year and we'll just try to keep our momentum rolling forward.

It feels like we've had about anything that can go wrong happen at Richmond,

I'm still the down-to-earth guy who'd rather go have dinner with my grandma and her meatloaf than go out and do things with some friends.

I'm still contractually obligated to drive this car in 2005 and in 2006. I told Jack (Roush) that. I signed with a different team for 2007 because of opportunities and timing.

That's what I live for, is the challenge and the competition on the track. You're going to have your good days and have your bad days, but it's easier to be comfortable because I know in the long run everything's going to be all right.

You just have to make sure you do things as close to normal as you can and not get too excited because it is 10 races. If you don't get off to a great start it's not the end of it, but you're working from behind the whole time and it's much harder to do that.

Today's Friday and I'm fast. I don't know what to say. Usually, I'm 15th or so.

We did what we needed to do and I thought it turned out well, ... I just came up a bit short on Jimmie Johnson.

Yeah, a little slicker. I've got it working in the draft now.

We definitely had great times together. Biffle and I grew up running trucks together. It's a great relationship and not just one race will tear it apart.

We don't know what 2006 has in store. Right now, it's time for this team to shine and hopefully back up our championship that we won last year.

The crew gave me great equipment to drive. I'm real proud of this effort. It's a race leading up to the Chase. We have to go and we need consistent finishes, so I'm happy.

The coolest thing is when you come to a race ... when you come and see it live and you're there and you get the sound and you get the feel and then the smell,

With a little bit of racing luck and a little bit of staying on top of our game and not let the big picture get away, we could do the same thing we did last year.

This was a great momentum-builder, ... Look out, Kurt Busch is running again. This just propels you right into the Chase.

With the asphalt here being so old, it's going to be hard to see what it does, but there are going to be some shadows. The way we're going to be racing at night the corners might look the same to the eye, but we're going to have to adjust to it as we go.

When you're a team that's won a championship, people look at you and how you did it and what your approach could be.

The race is definitely a high-intensity race. You have to stay patient. I've got one win there, but many tough finishes. I hope we're able to stay out of trouble in the pits and put together a good finish.

We've never seen a spark here out on the race track, because we've never run under the lights, so you'll see sparks in odd places that you've never seen here before.

We just missed the handle on it again. It was just way too loose off the corners.

We had (the car) in position late in the race and I thought we had a shot. You could just see it brewing. With 20 to go, it was going to get busy.

Believe it or not, when practice begins on Thursday morning at Texas Motor Speedway, that will be the first time I've ever even sat in a Grand National car.

Don't just do it. You have to make an impact and tell them you learned some things and that you're going to make sure that doesn't happen again.

There's no more important test than Vegas. We've got quite a bit of guessing to get through the next part of the season, and that's why this test is very important.

Seeing Tony do it last year at Indy, I was envious. I said, 'I want to do that at Vegas.' It's a big race for me and my little brother, of course. I watched the track get built from the ground up.

Roy and I have talked a lot about it already. He says he can't wait for a chance to make those strategic calls and I have a world of faith and trust in him. Roy and Matt have always worked great together and they both stay so cool under pressure.

Rusty is definitely very keen on what shocks you need to run at Bristol, the different adjustments. I'm going to use that knowledge as well as what I've had there in the past.

Race tracks have somewhat gone away from building charisma and building an identity. They all seem to look the same. Fans are going to get a new perspective when they come to Las Vegas Motor Speedway that's so much different from all the other tracks. That's what it's all about, putting a new face on it for the fans.

(A race you win) is one less race for things to go wrong, ... You can look at it from many different directions, and for us, we wanted to capitalize on the first eight races and after Atlanta we were forced into making sure we didn't have anything go wrong after that. We wanted to attack for as many races as we could, and then you have to play it cool, because you can only go for so long.

That's why we're here testing at Richmond. That's the cutoff for the Chase. They want to make it an equal opportunity for everybody when it comes down to the wire whether you're in or out. There are no excuses.

That's what makes our sport so unique. You can sit there and watch it on TV, and you get more of the perspective of the pit strategy and the way the guys are passing each other out on the track. Then when you come to the race, you lose a little bit of that, but you can still see live what's going on, and you can get a scanner and hear the teams and what transmissions go back and forth. And you have the smell, you've got the sight, the feel. When cars come by at 200 miles an hour, it blows you away.

This is something we've been looking forward to for many races -- Richmond. We wanted to get a good finish because it has bit us so many times.

The way that Roger runs his organization, it's a 'flat' organization. What I mean by that is that you can just walk into anybody's office and ask them a question on how we can get things done a little bit better or easier and nobody has a chip on their shoulder on how the totem pole is supposed to work. Everything is run flat across the board. Everybody is smiling and having a good time.

There's a 26-race regular season where you can bring the intensity of the final 10 into every week, and that will burn you out pretty quick,

It's just the same old deal, you go race your car,

It seems the young Jedi has done well. He learns quick - he's putting all his knowledge from his own team and what I've given him to work with.

It was fantastic. I just jumped out of the car, and it was cold when I got out of the car. It was really just to reflect on those 160,000 fans.

It's a good and a bad thing we're here testing at Richmond. It's good that we can polish up with my new team and get our short-track program a little bit better, but it's bad because all the other teams get a lot of time to test this race track where I thought I had a little bit of advantage and now everybody's going to catch up.

It's a great thing that I have going with the NASCAR Cup car right now.

It's mind games, and he's already starting too early.

For me, it would be like winning the Daytona 500.

For a team that's new, we're just feeling each other out and getting comfortable.

It still feels strange for many different reasons - I kind of feel a little like Rusty Wallace. I think of it more as just carrying on his legacy, the good times he's had, the championship, all the race wins.

It's a privilege to take part in such a worthy cause. The people of that region need our help, and everyone at Crown Royal Championship Racing recognizes the urgency to do whatever we can to assist in the relief efforts.

It's going to be tough driving down the front straightaway, looking at the sun for a while, but that's the direction of our sport. And that's tough. If we start the race at 8 o'clock, it would be 11 p.m. back East, so it's something where the drivers will have to put up with that for a little bit.

It's been a tough few weeks with running into SAFER barriers, luckily, and researching with NASCAR what type of G-force my body's been through, ... You just need time to repair, to rebuild and to re-gather yourself, and next week something else would happen. And so this is a great taste of victory. It's very satisfying.