INTERVIEW: Billy Scott on reuniting with Kurt Busch, Next Gen & more

Kurt Busch on the eve of the season-concluding Phoenix Raceway race last November hinted about who might be his new crew chief at 23XI Racing come the start of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season.

“We’re looking all over the place, but I believe the crew chief that we’ll end up with will be a guy that you’ve heard of before and that is a winner in the Cup Series.”

Only 10 days removed from the waving of the checkered flag over the D-shaped oval in Avondale, Arizona, both Busch and 23XI Racing let the motorsports world know that Busch and Billy Scott would, in fact, be working together in bringing the No. 45 entry to life.

“The chemistry Billy and I had together a few years back at Stewart-Haas Racing was strong. We raced smart and built consistency with each other. That showed with the results and the run the team had together. Winning races is what it’s all about and our past experiences will help build the future at 23XI.”

Paired together during the 2018 season at SHR, the duo amassed a win as well as a career high 22 top-10 finishes. Now, they’re back together and, as this interview was completed and this piece written, the two are fast at it, haunting Charlotte Motor Speedway this week in the form of a two-day NASCAR Next Gen test. On Friday afternoon, RACER.com spoke with the 44-year-old Scott.

Q: Billy, you, Kurt and the entire No. 45 Toyota Camry TRD team have been hard at work testing the new Next Gen car here at Charlotte Motor Speedway and there is still plenty of testing yet to come. Sort of like being between storms?

BILLY SCOTT: Yes. It’s way more hectic of an off-season than we are used to. Big test days with both sides of it. We had the first day and then one day to recuperate and then we were right back at it. When we get back from the holidays, we go to Atlanta. The following week after that is Daytona. We both have both of those tests to do, so it has pretty much been non-stop.

Q: And with all of the wholesale change, most everyone is basically working from an absolute clean sheet of paper right now, aren’t they?

BS: Yeah, that’s the cool part. Nobody has a notebook. Kurt and I had a relationship of working with each other back in 2018. We worked with each other and know tendencies, communication aspects, what a number scale may be on a balance of the car and stuff like that. When it comes to set-ups and tire data and what happens during a race and strategies and all of that, everything is going to be reset. It is an interesting time to start over. It’s a good time to start over, in my opinion. And the cool thing about it is that Kurt has been through so many changes in the sport that he has almost become accustomed to it and has always succeeded on the other side of it, so that’s the part that we are all most excited about.

Busch (No. 45 Toyota) navigates traffic during the Next Gen test at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Image by Nigel Kinrade

Q: Between Kurt’s 20 year-plus body of work at the Cup level with Penske Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing, as well as his accumulation of experience and on-track success, the two of you working together at 23XI just might be a match made in heaven. 

BS: Yeah, that’s what we are hoping for, for sure.

Q: Even going back to early November when the team was still putting pieces of the 23XI Racing team together, Kurt quietly let it be known that he wanted you to be his crew chief at 23XI Racing. Were you aware that was going on?

BS: Well, for sure. There was some early conversations that led to me knowing that spot was probably kind of going to be available and that things were going to unfold the way they did as far as the growth of that team. There was also a lot of uncertainty around all of that too. I had a lot going on and I didn’t really put all of the pieces together for a while and then Kurt reached out and said, “Hey, I don’t really know what you’ve got going on, but here’s what I’m thinking and here’s what I’d love to do.” It all just fell into place in the coming months.

Q: Jumping back a bit, you and Kurt worked together, and worked together very well at Stewart-Haas Racing back in 2018. How was that? How were you two together and will that relate to 2022?

BS: Well, the previous time in 2018, it was awesome. Certainly, statistically it was really good. Somebody mentioned to me in an interview a few weeks ago and that I didn’t realize was that the 22 top-10s that he had in 2018 was a career high. I think we also sat on five poles and got the pole award for the year and the success on-track certainly added up to a good year. No doubt about it. It was certainly my best year in the sport and we got the big win at Bristol and also competed for other ones. It was more than that. The reason why I look back and why I enjoyed that year so much was about the fun that we had and the relationship we had. It was so much more than just the performance.

"Like I said, the two kind of go hand-in-hand in a lot of ways, but the communication was real good. I think I understood what he was explaining about the car or what number scale he was using for a balance. Some of that stuff seemed to come more naturally than other settings, perhaps. We had fun and a lot of that was led by Kurt’s personality and how much he cares about his people. He says that a lot and it is true. He shows he’s genuine. He appreciates what people do. He likes being surrounded by people he gets along with and having the camaraderie. He’ll like going to a baseball game or out to the go-kart track. That’s what’s fun to be a part of as much as the racing.

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.