Dave Rogers credits Kyle Busch’s great driving and hard work in the shop for win

There are many who critique a driver who runs in both series, however that is something that Kyle Busch has found to be an advantage.

“Being able to get that feel of what the racetrack transitions like and what the car does throughout the run and everything and where you have to move around to,” he explained.

Following his win during Saturday’s Nationwide race, Busch texted crew chief Dave Rogers what way he thought the track would go and what he learned.

“Kyle did a fantastic job yesterday of predicting the direction the track was going to go, gave us really good feedback, sent me some texts last night, today I think the track is going to do this, this is where I need help,” Rogers said. “So great feedback, and the guys on the Interstate Batteries crew prepared a great race car.”

Rogers also wanted to keep the track position they had, not bringing Busch down pit road for tires. As result, Busch and Joey Logano had the oldest tires at the end of the race.

“Kyle just did a great job of moving around and figuring out how to get the most out of his car with what he had and capitalize when the 22 and the 11 started racing hard,” Rogers commented.

In the final lap while Logano and Denny Hamlin were just worried about each other, Busch was able to sneak by on the outside and go to victory lane.

Busch said that he came out wanting to run strong early this year after missing the Chase by just a few points last year. Rogers made note that they had good finishes, just never capitalized and got the wins they needed to get last year.

“Unfortunately we picked up right where we left off, were running top 5 and not capitalizing,” Rogers said. “Today we finally capitalized on it due to some great driving by Kyle.”

Rogers also feels that the new car has been an advantage for his team because of the motivated and dedicated people at Joe Gibbs Racing. He feels that his guys have put a lot of hard work into the car.

They worked really hard this winter,” Rogers spoke of his guys. “Our goal was to come out of the box really strong, show our fans what we’re made of.”

If you look at the five races so far, they back up his theory as the JGR cars have been strong every week, whether at the plate tracks, the mile and a half or the short track.

For Busch, this marks his third straight top four finish after blowing a motor at Daytona while running in the top two and having an incident at Phoenix. Busch’s teammate Kenseth, meanwhile, picked up a win earlier at Las Vegas and had a poor finish at Daytona due to a blown motor, while finishing 35th at Bristol due to a wreck. Lastly, Hamlin has been up front every week, but has ran into his fair share of bad luck.

“Every team in the business started from scratch,” Rogers continued. “We all started from ground zero, so it was a design competition, who could build the Gen-6 or the 2013 Camry the fastest and the best, and right now as an organization JGR has two wins, so really proud of that. My hats off to all the guys back at the shop.”

About the Author

Ashley McCubbin

Joining OnPitRoad.com mid-2013 season, Ashley McCubbin is now the Managing Editor and contributes to each racing division as needed. Since studying journalism at the University of Guelph-Humber, Ashley has published articles on a couple of different websites, while serving as a public relations representative for different short track teams. Born in North York, Ontario, Ashley currently lives in Bradford, Ontario and spends her weekend at the local short tracks in the area. She has spent her entire life at the short track level, falling in love with the sport at the age of five. Beyond her love of short track racing, she also has grown an interest for both NASCAR and the IndyCar Racing Series. She also enjoys taking photos and working on websites, while playing a couple rounds of Candy Crush afterwards.

View All Posts