Kyle Busch Ready To Reign Again At Pocono Raceway

NASCAR drivers return to the race track this weekend at Pocono Raceway in Long Pong, Pennsylvania. The June 27 Pocono Organics 325 will take place at the track known as “The Tricky Triangle” with no fans in attendance once again because of the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.

Kyle Busch won the Cup Series race at Pocono just over a year ago, and along with it he took 2019 by storm with a total of five wins, 17 top-five finishes and the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series title. During the shelter orders that took place between March and May, drivers took to the virtual track and participated with iRacing simulators. Back during the first week of April, Busch said he was getting the hang of his new iRacing system, but was a much bigger fan of the live track.

This week, I reconnected with the reigning NASCAR champ to talk racing and winning, as he gets ready once again for Pocono.

Andy Frye: What’s it like to be back driving live again? Is it weird without fans in stands?

Busch: It’s great to be back and I applaud NASCAR for taking the initiative in ensuring all procedures and the transition back to racing were smooth.

We obviously miss having all the fans at the track, but it’s great to know that we’re getting to point where people can start coming out to races safely and slowly as we get a little closer to normal.

AF: What did you miss most about real races?

Busch: This is our job, it’s what we do. So to just get back to the race track and get out there and do what we do, it was something I looked forward to. The iRacing was fun and I’m still jumping in from time to time. But obviously we’ve had a pretty busy schedule since we came back so I’ve had much less time for that over the last several weeks than we had in the spring.

AF: For the upcoming Pocono you have a new M&M’S Minis Paint Scheme. Tell us about that.

Busch: It’s great to be able to unveil the new M&M’S Minis paint scheme that will feature on our car at Pocono this weekend. M&M’S Minis are timeless, and a great way to share the colorful fun of M&M’S with friends and family. You can get M&M’S Minis in-stores now. 

AF: You hadn’t done any iRacing prior to the shutdown this spring. How did you adapt so quickly?

Busch: I had never really done the iRacing thing until I got to practice the day before the first race. Ty Gibbs was able to show me how things worked and I used his rig for the first week. I was able to get a rig over to the house after that, and just like anything, the more you practice the more you learn and get better.

Also, I had some help from the JGR sim drivers with Graham Bolin and Malik Ray, those guys were very helpful too. It was something I enjoyed and tried to get better at during our break.

AF: You had an excellent 2019 and won the Cup Series. What were the main ingredients to winning it all?

Busch: I think winning it all last year came down to a combination of a lot of things. You have to have a good team around you, and we have that with (crew chief) Adam Stevens and everyone on our M&M’S team and everyone that works so hard at Joe Gibbs Racing. Also, you have great partners like Toyota and TRD who help us be able to be successful for all the resources and people they have.

When it comes to winning the championship in this format, you have to get there to win it. So, the first step is to have a solid regular season and gain playoff points which help you make it through each round and hopefully you can get to the final four. From there, you have to execute in the championship race and have everything go right, and we were able to do that last year, which helped us win a championship.

Read Frye’s Q&As with Hailie Deegan and NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart.