*Quick Summary: The author speaks on his admiration for driver Kyle Busch.*
Kyle Busch is amazing. There, I said it. While it doesn’t sound like that controversial of a statement, there are those who would deny his talent, because they don’t like the man. I’m not among them. Kyle is one of the greatest stock car drivers the world has seen, and I consider myself lucky to live in a time I can watch him race.
My interaction with Kyle was limited to early in his career. Mostly 2005/2006 and before, even to his ARCA days around 2003, before his Busch (now Xfinity) Series starts. He was a favorite of Ricky Hendrick, who handpicked him as “the next great thing”. Well, I should say Ricky picked Brian Vickers, Kyle and another guy named Jimmie Johnson. Apparently Ricky had an eye for talent. Ricky once said “the only thing I want to do is help the organization be successful.”, and his picking of Kyle certainly seemed to accomplish that mission at the time.
My first interaction with “KB-2” came when Papa Joe sold or gave him a used S-10 pickup. Kyle was just old enough to drive on the street legally and needed a ride, so Pop made sure he got one. Later there would be a few more interesting meetings, like the time he came to the shop, ran inside, tossed me the keys to his Silverado parked outside, and told me to wash the mud off it. His second comment was the one that got me, “If the cops come, tell them you were driving it. I’ll take care of you. I was doing donuts at a construction site where they are building some new houses, and the cops started chasing me.” Uh, Yeah, Ooookayyyy. Regardless, we always took good care of the drivers, so even though it wasn’t my “job” to do it, I washed the truck, underside and all, while he talked with Papa Joe. The cops never came. I sometimes would wonder if there ever were any to start with, or if he just said that to add urgency to my wash job, but I guess I’ll never know.
Keep in mind, he wasn’t the future Hall of Famer yet, he was just a kid with some talent. We called him “Shrub”, (little bus(c)h) a nod to his older brother Kurt, who had already established the Busch name. Yes, he was brash and confident, but for all that, he always treated me well. One of the few drivers to ever send a signed/personalized Christmas card to my house, and he did so every year he drove for Hendrick Motorsports, even the last year after he left.
To see him now at over 200 total victories across all three top NASCAR divisions is amazing. Now a former Cup Champion, with more victories and championships to come, no doubt. Yet, with all that success, I still see him as the somewhat awkward kid that would ask crew members to talk to girls for him in restaurants because he was too young to hang out in bars, and too shy to do the talking himself.
For all the attitude, he’s basically a good guy. He has certainly made some mistakes. Some public, some that only a few know about, but to all the haters, I’d say to keep on hating. I think it provides him with fuel to succeed. You’re inadvertently feeding the beast, and he loves it. Even with a mixed bag of emotions about him, I wish him continued success.
