Kyle Busch was NOT happy following Monday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Dover International Speedway, pulling no punches when it came to his thoughts about the controversial race package.
"The package sucks," the driver of the No. 18 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing said in an interview with Frontstretch.com. "No fucking question about it. It's terrible. All I can do is bitch about it and fall on deaf ears and we'll come back with the same thing it in the fall."
.@KyleBusch scored his 11th straight top 10 finish, but he doesn?t care.
?The package sucks. No f*cking question about it. It?s terrible. All I can do is bitch about it and fall on deaf ears and we?ll come back with the same thing it in the fall.? ?
— Davey Segal (@DaveyCenter) May 6, 2019
With 750 horsepower and more downforce, the Dover package was apparently too fast for Busch's liking, even though his performance at the Delaware marked his 11th consecutive top-10 finish of the season, a record for the Las Vegas native.
Despite Busch's momentous finish, he's probably what you could call a "if-you're-not-first-you're-last" type of driver, so a 10th-place finish was probably a contributing factor for his post-race outburst. To be fair though, he did also express his concerns with the Dover package ahead of Monday's race. On Friday, May 5, he said that the speeds at Dover were "probably too fast. The faster we tend to go in the middle of the corners doesn't always produce the best racing."
Kevin Harvick agreed with Busch's sentiments about Dover's package, except without the harsh language.
.@KevinHarvick post-race (P4) ??
"Here's the hard thing about the package. I think that NASCAR's tried to accomplish a lot of things with one particular package, but you look at how the cars drive behind each other & from a driver's standpoint, it's hard to race them. Anywhere."
— Davey Segal (@DaveyCenter) May 6, 2019
"Here's the hard thing about the package," Harvick said. "I think that NASCAR's tried to accomplish a lot of things with one particular package, but you look at how the cars drive behind each other & from a driver's standpoint, it's hard to race them. Anywhere."
Chase Elliott, on the other hand, didn't see a problem with the faster speeds.
"You're paid to go fast so let's go fast, I guess," Elliott said Friday.
While admitting that increased speeds made it harder to pass, Martin Truex Jr. didn't go as far as to be overly critical of the Dover package. Which makes sense, considering he won the whole damn thing.
"At the end of the day it's all about the fans and what do they think," Truex said. "Was the race good? I don't know. I thought it looked pretty good. What do the fans think? What does NASCAR think? What do the owners think? They're the three people that make all the decisions. We just drive them. We'll see where it goes from here."
As most NASCAR fans can attest to, Kyle Busch usually has no problem with strongly stating his opinion, whether it's solicited or not. It's part of what makes him such a polarizing figure in the sport. Some people view Busch as a dominant racer who deserves to run his mouth every now and then, while others see him as nothing more than an overrated crybaby. Where does he fall after his latest outburst? You be the judge.