Q: Over his past 20-plus years at the NASCAR Cup Series, Kurt Busch has certainly been through it, hasn’t he?

BS: Yes, he has definitely been through a lot and he’s grown. I saw that in the years that I was around him at SHR. I think we are just getting started out in all of this, but it seems like he’s continued to grow and mature and learn and just progress even more. Yeah, it’s exciting.

Q: OK, so just how’s the Next Gen testing been going for you guys and the No. 45 Toyota Camry TRD? Kurt was third fastest overall from the Wednesday day of testing at 181.020mph and he sounded encouraged from that speed.

BS: It’s been good. Some of it we are working through, both the previous Next Gen test as well as this one and we are working through the package changes from NASCAR. We’ve worked on the tire stuff and that, but we haven’t really gotten to hone in on adjustments and setups and things like that. In general, just getting back to the communication and being at the racetrack and getting to know all of the guys and working as a team and stuff, it has been awesome.

Q: So, 23XI racing is all-new across the board?

BS: We are. A few people have worked together or worked at the same company, but it is definitely a clean slate from that aspect and a variety of different people from different companies and different backgrounds. It’s cool and it’s exciting to help build the team, but also grow with them as the year goes along.

Q: I’ve been able to speak with Denny (Hamlin), Bubba (Wallace) and Kurt, as well as other people involved in the 23XI Racing effort during the past month and I must say that everyone is absolutely excited and enthused to be a part of something so new and different.

BS: It is and that’s a cool thing about the company as a whole. Everything is new. We’re a new company and a lot of people have been added to the effort to support two cars because there are a lot of things to be done operations-wise to keep the growth. It’s not just the core group of guys that travel with the car. The company is still growing. They have a lot of vision to be much bigger down the road and that part is cool, too. It’s very cool just to be on the ground floor and watching and being a part of the process. Everybody there is excited.

“You can talk about our excitement with the team, but the whole company is that way. It really is a family atmosphere. They care about the employees. Denny is really big on wanting to treat everybody well. We had an awesome Christmas party on Sunday night that didn’t feel like a company Christmas party. It was more like a party with your friends. It was just kind of a different feel and it’s just exciting with the vision that they’ve got.

Everything is new, but that’s part of the excitement for Scott as he reunites with Busch at 23XI Racing. Image by Nigel Kinrade

Q: How have Toyota and TRD been to have involved?

BS: Yeah, they’re awesome. I’ve been fortunate to be with TRD before many years ago, but they are first class. They are definitely on the forefront and always pushing the envelope on any aspect of technology and they’re definitely a great partner.

Q: What have you guys worked the past two days of testing as far as the Next Gen car?

BS: Yeah, Friday is just more development on the package as a whole. NASCAR has been really impressive to watch with their involvement. It’s not just them saying, “Here’s what you’re going to do. Go make it work.” It’s them saying, “Hey, what do we need to make this work better? What are your guys’ concerns? What are your thoughts? Does anybody have ideas for this stuff?” They’ve been open about everything from the driver cooling side to the packages to everything!

Yeah, it’s just going to be more development of that. We’ll also have to make sure that the horsepower package goes with the aero balance and the effect that has in traffic and the overall grip level and etcetera. Yeah, the majority of the focus is to let the crews work on a configuration and then go out and do some mock races and see how they handle around each other. It’s all a clean sheet of paper, no doubt, in many ways. It’s a clean slate to develop all of this and to learn about it and to progress and to figure out the nuances of it all quicker than the next guy.

Q: It’s very early on, but what will make you guys happy come 2022 and all of the NASCAR Cup races that go along with it?

BS: It sounds like a cliché, but we want to run for a championship. The ultimate goal is to win it. But I do think that there is no reason why we shouldn’t be there in that final four at that last race and contending for it. We expect to have multiple wins and to just keep advancing to the playoffs. There are certainly a lot of factors that go into that, but I think we have the tools to do that and we expect to.