Kyle Busch: JGR success no surprise

LAS VEGAS — After winning last Sunday’s Cup race at Phoenix, Denny Hamlin expressed surprise at the performance of his No. 11 Toyota. Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch, who finished sixth, wasn’t shocked at all.

“I thought that there would be big things that could come out of JGR this year, and we’re already seeing some of the fruits from that with Denny’s win in Phoenix,” Busch said Friday at Las Vegas. “. . . I congratulate Denny, and it’s funny, because we were at our team debrief on Friday (before the Phoenix race), and he was just complaining about how slow he was, he didn’t have any speed and this and that and everything else.

Joey Logano (L), driver of the #20 Dollar General Toyota, talks to Kyle Busch (R), driver of the #18 M&M's Ms. Brown Toyota, after qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 9, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

“And I said, ‘Just shut up. You’ll be fine. You’ll make it work.’ So, obviously, he did, and he was fine.”

Greg Engle
About Greg Engle 7421 Articles
Greg is a published award winning sportswriter who spent 23 years combined active and active reserve military service, much of that in and around the Special Operations community. Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.