Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Busch not looking behind after symbolic win
Kurt Busch celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the Daytona 500 on Sunday night without his rearview mirror. him she was a trained assassin, and Driscoll countering that Busch had problems with alcohol and depression.
Driscoll was subsequently indicted in 2016 for allegedly stealing from a military charity. Busch has moved on, clearly on a redemptive path.
Now 38, Busch has found a nice balance of professional and personal symmetry. Marriage has made him a happy man after a tumultuous ride. Winning the Daytona 500 for the first time in his career has made him appreciative of the journey.
“I’m a survivor just giving it my all,” Busch said.
Daytona’s 200-lap grind is simply a microcosm of Busch’s long road traveled. A bunch of cars wrecked on Sunday, sending people like his younger brother Kyle, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. home with cars in a scrap pile.
Busch’s No. 41 Ford took some hits, too, but pushed on, with man and machine receiving another fortuitous run of fate when Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson dropped out of the lead pack when their cars ran out of gas.
Busch was close to running on empty, too, and thought he was done.
“I literally put my head against the headrest and said, ‘Please, don’t hit me too hard when you come zooming by,’ ” he said. “And then I crossed the line and you see all the flashbulbs going off in the grandstands heading down into the short chute, and that’s the moment that I knew. I don’t remember anything over the radio.”
The rest of the evening was a bit of a blur, too, as it always is for Daytona 500 champions.
He woke up Monday to 500 texts that he had not yet read, adding he was fortunate not to have set up voicemail on his new phone. He did manage to peek at a number of texts, including one from Mario Andretti.
“That meant the world to me,” Busch said, later acknowledging texts from Michael Andretti and Marco Andretti as well — peer-group pride connected to Busch’s ride with Andretti Autosport in the 2014 Indianapolis 500.
But the best moment involved family. He called his mom Gaye on Sunday night. Through her tears, she was equally proud and relieved that Kurt and Kyle had found safe passage in the Daytona 500.
It had been particularly unsettling two years ago when Kyle suffered a double compound fracture in his right leg and a fracture of his left foot competing in an Xfinity Series race.
“She just always thought that Daytona and Talladega were the toughest on her boys and she just wanted us to come home safe, so when I called her I felt like I had placed the sword in the stone,” Busch said. “I said, ‘We’ve conquered it. We’ve conquered Daytona.’ ”
A champion forevermore. No need to look back again.