CHEVROLET NCS AT DOVER: Busch Claims First Pole Win of the 2024 Season – Speedway Digest – Home for NASCAR News

Kyle Busch became Team Chevy’s third NASCAR Cup Series pole winner of the 2024 season at Dover Motor Speedway – posting a best-lap of 22.196 seconds, at 162.191 mph, in his No. 8 FICO Camaro ZL1 qualifying to take the pole position.

· The pole marks Busch’s second career, and second consecutive, NASCAR Cup Series pole at Dover Speedway – both recorded behind the wheel of a Chevrolet.

· The feat is Busch’s 34th career pole in NASCAR’s premier series – a record that ties Fonty Flock for 22nd all-time on the series’ all-time pole win list.

· Busch delivered Chevrolet its fifth pole of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season; the manufacturer’s 27th NASCAR Cup Series pole at Dover Motor Speedway; and its series-leading 748th all-time pole in NASCAR’s premier series.

· Four drivers from three different Chevrolet organizations will lineup in the top-10 for tomorrow’s 400-mile race with Busch leading Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron and Alex Bowman in the third and ninth positions, respectively, and Kaulig Racing’s AJ Allmendinger rounding out the top-10.

· FS1 will broadcast the NASCAR Cup Series WÜRTH 400 at Dover Motor Speedway on Sunday, April 27, at 2 p.m. ET. Live coverage can also be found on PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 STARTING LINEUP:

POS. DRIVER

1st Kyle Busch, No. 8 FICO Camaro ZL1

3rd William Byron, No. 24 Liberty University Camaro ZL1

9th Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1

10th AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Action Industries Camaro ZL1

Kyle Busch, No. 8 FICO Camaro ZL1 – Pole Win Media Availability Quotes

How big of a momentum boost can this be?

“I mean I would certainly love for it to be a huge one; getting our season rolling and back in the right direction. I feel like the last couple of weeks, the discussions at RCR, me and Randall (Burnett), everybody, has just kind of been like – OK, let’s get some sort of a reset going here. We feel like Dover (Motor Speedway) and Kansas (Speedway) are certainly those weeks for us that we definitely want to work towards and put our focus on to get ourselves righted, and it seems to be going well, so far. Really excited about the car and the speed that it had. Coming off the truck and the way that it felt, there’s definitely some things that we can be better with or improve upon, but I feel like the changes that we made from practice into qualifying were good. Being able to go a tick faster in the second round over the first round was certainly huge for our qualifying effort and being able to sit on the pole today, so all of that worked out really well.”

Regarding Erik Jones’ injury, do you look at that and say ‘Racing is dangerous’, or is there still angst about the safety of this car?

“Yeah, I mean to me, I would just definitely look at the impact rates. I mean man, I hit at 90 g’s in the Xfinity car and with all the things that happened in that one.. you know breaking my foot, breaking my leg, but like the rest of my extremities were fine. My core was fine. My neck was fine; my back, shoulders, everything was all good. So, it’s just the nature of that big of an impact and your body withstanding it. Everybody is built differently. I think everybody’s cockpits are built differently. It’s just the nature of Racing and the danger that’s out there.

Our insurance is not cheap, in case you were wondering (laughs). So that doesn’t help our rates at all either.”

The last time you won a pole, you went on to win the race at Gateway. Does this just start the tone for the weekend right?

“It certainly can, you know. And like I said, I felt like our car was decent in practice. We had some good adjustments for qualifying. It’s not that we’re on the pole by a fluke.. like I do feel like we have some good speed. But there are others that are right around us that were really fast in practice, as well, too. I looked at the No. 12 (Ryan Blaney). I looked at the No. 45 (Tyler Reddick). I felt like they were really good. The No. 24 (William Byron) was pretty decent, as well, too. So, there are definitely some players that we’re around. It’s never easy but having track position to start here certainly helps. We started on the pole here last year. We led some laps right out of the gate, and unfortunately I sped on pit road on the first stop, so let’s not do that tomorrow.”

You had a victory earlier this week. Is any victory something that just kind of puts a spring in your step?

“Are you talking about the micro?”

Yes..

“(laughs) Yeah, I won beating up on all the kids. I felt really good and gave myself a huge pat on the back for that (laughs). Yeah, it’s a no-win situation. If I win, I beat up on all the kids. If I don’t win, I got beat by all the kids.

It’s fun – I love it, I enjoy it. It’s all for Brexton and what we’re doing with him and his development and how he’s coming along. I just enjoy getting out there, so it was fun to score the victory. I am the points leader, in case anyone was wondering (laughs), so excited about that, too. Bringing home some big trophies and big checks at the end of the year.. let’s go!”

This is only your second pole in the Next Gen car. Given the recent weeks you’ve had, how important is it to get a milestone like that? Also, with the colder temperatures today, how different will the Racing be tomorrow compared to what we’ve seen today?

“Yeah, I mean qualifying has never really been my strong suit. I’m definitely one that gets into a rhythm and gets into a set with the racecar throughout the race and is able to make the most of the racecar with laps. So, I feel like I’ve won more than double the amount of races than I do have poles. You know, I wouldn’t say that’s a Next Gen factor, but definitely a little bit of Kyle Busch factor in that, as well.

Today is not at all indicative of what we’re going to see tomorrow. Just the weather being very cool today. The track temperature going up means it’s better for the tire wear for rubber to get down on the track to help the tire wear. We didn’t see any of that today. We actually picked up the Xfinity and ARCA rubber from yesterday. We need some heat in the track, so hopefully we get that hot day like it’s projective.”

Following up to last weekend, you had a frustrated tweet after Talladega Superspeedway. At this point, superspeedway-wise, with this car, is there anything that they could do, package-wise, to make things racier for you guys there, or is this car just what it is at those types of tracks?

“I mean it’s car at all the tracks, really. Where the fastest groove is, everybody migrates to the fastest groove. And how the cars are set up, you’re running in the same car, on the same tire, on the same track. The setups are going to start looking the same. The drivers are going to start driving them the same more and more. That just creates parity and the inability of passing. The biggest struggle with this car is that you can use it more as a defense tool of air blocking and everything else on the guys behind you than being able to go out in front of you and pass the guy in front of you. We’ve seen it at the 1.5-mile tracks even, which we would all probably agree are one of our best racetracks or best shows that we have. But you can literally be catching the guy in front of you, and him just start mirror-driving and putting his car where you are and not even worrying about where he needs to go to go forward and pass the guy in front of him. That’s just one topic. There’s probably a range of 1,000 that we could discuss, but we definitely don’t have enough time in the day.”

Obviously the start of the season isn’t exactly how you probably wanted it to go, but with you being arguably one of the most competitive guys in the garage, how much does this pole fuel to your fire?

“I mean it certainly helps, right? You know, it’s not a fix all. We know that we’ve had some shortcomings and things we’ve messed up on, whether it’s been on pit road, me sliding through the box or cars not being good on a weekend. Last weekend, our car was good and our pit stops were good. We were in position, but we had to literally stay in line. If I wouldn’t have stayed in line, I either would have been crashed on my side upside down across the line, or I might have finished third. So, it’s all dependent on the situation and that’s what’s a little frustrating. I think that’s always kind of been superspeedway Racing anyways, but when you have these races that are more in your control like Dover, Kansas, Las Vegas or places like that, then you definitely want to excel at those racetracks.”

Back in 2020, you were very vocal about your win streak every year. If you win this year, this will be your 20th consecutive season with a win. Is that something that’s been weighing on your mind, as well?

“No question.. absolutely. We already passed the Daytona 500 and I didn’t check that box, so the next box to check highest on the list is to get a win this year to just continue that streak. From there, of course you’re never settled or never happy with just one.. you want to have more. You want to be able to get the playoff points that you need. You want to be able to peak at the right time and carry yourself into the postseason with good speed and good momentum; have a great finish to the season and be one of the Championship Four drivers at Phoenix.”

Looking at the lap tracker, it looked like where you beat everybody else was entry into turns one and two, and that allowed you to run a little twitch in turn three. Is that a pretty accurate description of your lap?

“I haven’t been able to see it compared to anyone, so thanks for that.. appreciate it (laughs). How did it feel driving it? I would say I was definitely charging the entries. I felt like there was room for me to do that from the first round. I felt like in the first round, I kind of maybe babied it into the corners a little bit, but it definitely gave me the speed out of the turns. I was like – OK, if I can maximize my entry and still keep the speed out of the turns, then I feel like I’ll net positive on the first round to the second round, which we did, right? I think I ran a 26 or something in the first round and a 19 in the second round. Literally when I came over the radio after our run, I told Randall (Burnett) – man, besides running a .200 of a lap time, like that’s as close as it is to perfect… like we don’t have to change a whole lot.”

The last driver to win from the pole at Dover Motor Speedway was Jimmie Johnson in 2010. Why do you think that is, and do you think you can be the person to beat that streak?

“Man, I wouldn’t have thought it was that long ago..

This place is really different from practice, qualifying and into the race. The race is certainly a whole different game, and like I said, track position plays a big role. Pit stops play a big role. Us having the number one pit selection will hopefully help on that, so we only have to go a little bit to jump across the line. You know, the strategy here is obviously to stay out front. You would think if you start on the pole, you lead every lap and win the race, but that’s not always the case. You just have to play it out. It’s a race.. that’s why we race.”

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