Kyle Busch and crew chief Steve Addington will run their last race together Sunday and the duo hopes to go out on a high note with a victory in the AMP Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
Addington will be replaced by Dave Rogers after Sunday's race and Busch looks to notch a third straight top 10 on Sunday at a track where he won in 2008.
"The key there is to somehow stay out of trouble," Busch said when asked about his strategy on Sunday. "You pretty much stay around the bottom, since there is a lot of grip there, and you can pretty much run wide open every single lap. Everyone can run up on top of each other. When you get single file at the bottom, sometimes it's hard to get a lane on the outside with enough good cars to get something going."
Although Busch says that's sometimes easier said than done.
"It can be frustrating at times because of that," he said. "It also seems to still put on a good race each time we go there. If you can be a contender and stay in line on the bottom, you can make it a pretty easy and safe race. Normally, guys are not content doing that, so that's when it starts to get crazy."
His win in the spring race of 2008 at the 2.66-mile track doesn't necessarily give Busch an advantage on Sunday.
"It doesn't matter at all," Busch said. "It's such a crapshoot there in the last 20, 30 or 40 laps that you never really know who is going to win, what's going to happen and where the wreck is going to come from."
Teammates are always a key to any driver's success in a restrictor plate race and Busch feels confident JGR stablemates Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin will give the organization a potent combination come Sunday.
"I think our Toyotas are pretty good when we get to the restrictor-plate tracks, so Talladega is going to be fine," he said. "I think we'll have a good run there. Everybody is typically fast at Talladega, so it will be a little bit different. I'm looking forward to it. I feel like myself and Denny are good drafting partners, and Joey is starting to get the hang of it for sure."
Busch's win in 2008 ended a drought on the plate tracks for the No. 18 team and he's hoping it can recapture that magic in Addington's last race with the squad.
"I felt pretty fortunate that I was able to win there because it's just been a struggle for as long as I've been going there," Busch said. "I don't think I've ever finished one there without having some sort of damage. That good-luck streak didn't last too long, though, since we got a piece of the big wreck there at the end in the fall race. You just have to survive there and hope you somehow stay out of the inevitable big wreck."
