LAS VEGAS, Nev. – Ahead of Friday night’s STRAT 200 at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway, Harrison Burton isn’t letting Kyle Busch’s comments last weekend at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway go in one ear and out the other, the Kyle Busch Motorsports driver realizes the pressure is on to perform.
There’s always pressure on us and that’s not only from Kyle (Busch), that’s from us,” Burton said Thursday evening at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “We want to be the best, we want to be the guy that when they see you in their rearview mirror, they’re going to be afraid because you’re either going around them or something is going to happen and you’re going to try something to get around them.”
Candidly after winning the most races in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series last Saturday night at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway, Busch talked about how the drivers in his KBM portfolio had better perform if they wanted their careers to soar in NASCAR.
“They want to make it and if they want to be a star in this sport, they better perform in the KBM stuff because if you don’t, sorry man, there’s not much left for you,” Busch offered.
That may seem like a direct assessment, but it’s often true.
“That’s the other thing, when Kyle Buch says something, you better darn listen to it,” Burton spoke. “He’s won the most races in the trucks ever and way less starts than the guy that had it before, I think – I’m not a super good stats guy, but I’m pretty sure. He’s won at every Cup track on the circuit, won a Cup championship and he’s just one of the most rawly talented people in our sport. You better listen to him for sure, he’s pretty smart.”
Drivers live for the opportunity to get to compete with the best equipment when starting off a racing career – but when they do, there are also no excuses. Most of the time, a driver will fall into extreme criticism if they have not met the expectations that have been set.
In recent years at KBM has been the base in young drivers being evaluated as part of Toyota’s driver development program. From Erik Jones to Christopher Bell and even William Byron, the drivers have risen to the occasion and performed.
Burton, Christian Eckes and Todd Gilliland all soaked their feet in the KBM mold last year and are back for more this year. With Burton and Gilliland running fulltime, Eckes will join newcomers Chandler Smith and Raphael Lessard on a part-time basis.
Gilliland and Burton have won races and a championship in NASCAR’s K&N Pro Series and including Eckes have won in the ARCA Racing Series, but it’s different mold in Trucks where the pressure to win is a weekly occurrence.
Still, Burton says despite Busch’s harsh words, he doesn’t hide it from his drivers.
“Kyle is the kind of guy that is hard on you, but he’ll be hard on you to your face too,” Burton added. “It’s not like that’s the first time we’ve heard that before. We’ve heard that kind of stuff every meeting, every Monday morning when he comes in, he says, ‘You need to do this better, you need to do that better.’ If you can’t handle that then it’s not the right place.
“I think that’s the best way to learn is you can’t have anyone sugar coat it, it’s how it is and he’s right. We have to perform, that’s what this sport is built on is performance and winning races. It’s part of racing man, it’s how we get better is a little bit of tough love.”
While some drivers have admitted from time to time they can buckle under a certain pressure, Burton craves it – – and says any aspiring driver who wants to win races in good equipment and can’t handle the pressure is dumb.
“I love it. I love that pressure and I love having the opportunity because I know that when I was a little kid, I wanted to be out there winning races. I didn’t want to be out there in equipment that couldn’t win races. The idea that young guys shouldn’t be in good equipment because it’s too much pressure is dumb because no matter when you get in good equipment, you’re going to be under pressure.
“For me, I enjoy being in good equipment, it makes my job easier as a driver. I don’t have to do a great, amazing job to get a top-10. I do a great, amazing job and get a top-five. And race for the win, that’s a good job. That’s doing your job. For me, it’ makes my job easier because of two things, I have a good truck and I can base how I improve myself off of that. Most of the time the truck is going to be pretty good so I can go back and watch film and say, this is where I messed up here, this is where I messed up there and if I’m not in a good truck, I can say the truck might have been not great here or been too loose or too tight.
“That helps me as a driver is knowing that I have a great team behind me and that I can go and work on myself. Especially a young guy coming to his first tracks. I think the other side of that is just the people that are here. You have Kyle (Busch) in your meetings every Monday and you have Rudy (Fugle) and Mike Hillman Jr. and Marcus Richmond and me and Todd (Gilliland) always kind of coming up the ladder together and working together. I think the people that are there make it a lot better too.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
