Kyle Busch Calls For Change To Make JGR More Competitive

Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

Kyle Busch is already thinking about the 2015 NASCAR season and what his team needs to do in order to be more competitive. Busch who  races a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing made it clear on Monday that JGR needs to create a better affiliation with Michael Waltrip Racing moving forward. MWR and JGR will run six Toyotas combined in 2015 and Busch feels that there needs to be a better affiliation between the two teams if they are going to compete with the Hendrick/Stewart-Haas combination.

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Busch spoke with the media (including MRN) Monday afternoon prior to the Nationwide and Camping World Truck banquet. Busch emphasized his belief that that four JGR cars (now including Carl Edwards) and the two MWR cars needs to work together as one.

"We have four cars going next year and in reality we should have six, no ifs, ands, or buts. We need to have as much as we can have.We need to have an affiliation. It would be nice if MWR … made us all eight. It would be better for all of us. There’s a couple of reasons that we’re fighting internally why we’re not mingling with those guys quite yet, but hopefully that gets resolved here soon.You’ve got to work from one thing. Everybody has got to decide what we’re all going to use. Are we going to use JGR or MWR chassis? Are we going to use JGR or MWR bodies? Are we going to use JGR or MWR chassis simulations? What are we going to use? Then we just need to go with it and be done with it."

When it came to making the chase in 2014 the JGR crew was able to get all of their drivers in with Denny Hamlin advancing to the finale. Of the eight drivers that comprise the Hendrick/Stewart-Haas partnership, six of them made the chase with only Kevin Harvick advancing to the finale before ultimately winning the championship. Neither of the drivers for MWR were able to make it into the chase this past season.

Busch calling the Toyota’s to arms is a move that could benefit them in the long run. Although all three JGR drivers went to the chase they did not have the success in 2014 that those at Hendrick and SHR did as far as winning races. There were also several moments in 2014 where it was evident that JGR simply lacked speed as compared to some of the other teams. If Team Toyota is able to get on the same page they could make huge strides in 2015 which would ultimately pay dividends for all those drivers involved.

What do you think of Busch’s comments? Do you think an affiliation will help them? Be sure to comment below and let us know what you think.

Christopher Olmstead is the Editor of BeyondTheFlag.com on the FanSided Network. Follow us on Twitter @Beyond_The_Flag and “Like” us on Facebook.

~Unless otherwise noted any quotes in this article were obtained from press releases via the driver or the team.~