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Joe Gibbs Racing's Kyle Busch puts great emphasis on maintaining the draft at Daytona

By SceneDaily.com

Jul 3, 2009

Daytona Beach, Fla. — Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch has experienced his share of both glory and heartache at Daytona International Speedway during the last couple of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series seasons.

So which will Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400 hold for the 24-year-old driver?

Busch, the defending race winner, appeared headed for a possible win in this year’s Daytona 500 – until he found trouble.

Running in the lead pack after leading 88 laps, Busch seemingly had the car to beat before being eliminated in a multicar crash triggered when Dale Earnhardt Jr. slid up into Brian Vickers on the backstretch.

Instead of hoisting his first Daytona 500 trophy, Busch finished 41st and left empty-handed in his fifth attempt at winning NASCAR’s biggest race.

It was the ultimate antithesis to his emotions from last July, when Busch prevailed in a late-race side-by-side battle for the lead with Carl Edwards to score his first triumph at the 2.5-mile track.

As much as Busch remembers his Daytona victory last summer, he also remembers February’s disappointment – and a similar feeling after the 2008 Daytona 500, a race in which he led 86 laps and finished fourth.

“I felt like we had the best car here actually at the 500 here last year as well, too,” Busch said. We had a great race car then. Myself and [Tony] Stewart just got misaligned there at the end of the race and gave the race to the Penske [Racing] cars. Then last July we won that race. This spring we were really good. I felt like way better than the year before.

“It was just frustrating to lose that race the way we did.”

Crew chief Steve Addington, who joined Busch at Joe Gibbs Racing for the 2008 season, believes one of the biggest keys to success at restrictor-plate racing is being in the right place or position in the closing laps.

When Busch won at Daytona last summer, he was ahead of Edwards by just a nose when a caution waved on the final lap, freezing the field and ending the race.

“This type of racing here is about how you set yourself up at the end,” Addington said. “We came down here for two 500s and dominated them and haven’t won yet and won the 400 last year. So we feel pretty good about our package coming in here.”

Addington has confidence that his driver can get back to victory lane on Saturday, especially given Busch’s drafting ability. Busch traditionally runs well not only at Daytona but also Talladega – the only other track where restrictor plates keep the cars bunched in tight packs and make drafting the biggest key to going fast.

Busch won at Talladega last spring and led 20 laps at the 2.66-mile oval last fall, but has been even stronger at Daytona.

“He’s become such a good drafting driver here, plus he can handle and take the car to a different level than some of the guys can,” Addington said. “He’s more comfortable with the way it drives through the bumps. He’s mentally prepared for what the car is going to do. He does an awesome job with his spotter and getting the car through the night.

“We just have to worry about the adjustments. The bigger key is him and (spotter Jeff) Dickerson working the car through traffic.”

Of course, if Busch is where he wants to be at the end – leading – traffic won’t be as big of an issue.

“This time around, hopefully we can keep ourselves up front and out of the mess, per say, if it happens,” Busch said. “This race always tends to get strung out a little bit anyways, especially on long runs and stuff, so if you’ve got a good handling race car you’ll stay up front and not have to deal with a whole lot.”