Cup title eases Busch’s burden
Since then, he’s been riding a wave of good vibes and positive energy — a different Busch, certainly, than the occasional grouch who fans found hard to like.
“I definitely feel now that there is a huge weight lifted off my shoulders and a lot of pressure taken off,” he said. “Ray Evernham and Jeff Gordon and people in the garage area always put so much stake into me. Like, ‘ The kid is the best thing we’ve seen since Dale Earnhardt,’ and all this.
“I’ve always heard that. I’ve tried to live up to that, and I don’t know that I’ve necessarily felt comfortable with it, until now.”
Those around him have noticed a change in the 30-yearold’s demeanor over the last year, particularly since November.
“He’s much nicer since he won the championship, for sure,” Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin said with a grin. “Kyle’s changed a little bit every single year. I got tired of the whole, ‘Is this the new Kyle?’ thing every single offseason. But I think this is the Kyle we’re going to have for quite a while.”
Busch returned last May with seemingly a new perspective on life in addition to the new hardware in his leg and foot.
Still, this is Kyle Busch we’re talking about. Standing in championship victory lane last year at Homestead-Miami Speedway, his wife, Samantha, predicted he’d still be upset about failing to win the Xfinity Series race the night before.
So Busch will soon be back to his typically surly self after disappointing losses, right?
“For my sake,” he said with a laugh, “let’s hope not!” NEW GOALS Kevin Harvick can relate to Busch winning the championship after a long wait. In 2014, Harvick finally snagged his first title in his 14th year. Though Busch is a decade younger than Harvick, it took him nearly as long; championship No. 1 came in Busch’s 11th season.
So how could the easing of that burden affect Busch heading into this year?
“I think it relieves that pressure of not having won it, because you don’t have to answer those questions,” Harvick said. “You know how to do it. You did it. That question doesn’t ever exist anymore.”
Busch envisions himself roughly two years shy of his career’s halfway point. That means he’d race until about 2030, or age 45. (Jeff Gordon just retired at 44; Tony Stewart will be 45 when he retires.)
So there’s plenty of time to achieve all the goals he dreamed about as a kid, though they’ve gotten more specific over time.
He has maintained a list in his mind for years. On the left side are boxes he already has checked (including the championship, the Brickyard 400 and the Southern 500). On the right side are accomplishments he won’t feel satisfied without.
“You want to keep moving things to the left side and empty the right side,” he said.
The right side has items such as the Daytona 500 (his new No. 1 goal), the Coca-Cola 600 and the Sprint All- Star Race. It also includes winning at every Cup track (he needs four more) and every Xfinity Series track (three more) and earning 200 national series victories overall (46 more).
So another championship? It’d be nice, but it’s not the first priority.
“That’s just more layers of icing on the cake,” he said. “We’ve already layered it once. I think it’s already pretty good. It would only become sweeter to win again.”
‘IT HAPPENED’
Team owner Joe Gibbs signed Busch in 2008, when Busch was 22 and had plenty of growing up to do.
He has supported Busch, watching the driver get married, have a son and develop a strong religious faith. Gibbs said Busch had learned to keep his poise, citing the driver’s ability to stay cool when a late debris caution flew during the championship race last year.
“You never know what causes somebody to change some,” said Gibbs, whose team is celebrating its 25th anniversary this season. “He’s very smart and he’s gone through a lot, so when you’ve experienced some of those down things, you think, ‘ That ain’t going to happen again.’ ”
Busch used to bristle at any mention of his past indiscretions. The intentional wreck of Ron Hornaday in 2011, for example, is a career lowlight.
But he has changed his outlook. When he someday stands in front of a crowd at the NASCAR Hall of Fame for his induction ceremony, Busch said, he’ll want people to remember: “It happened.”
By “it” he means “all of it.” That includes his early days in the sport — warts and all.
“At the beginning, at 18, 19, 20 years old, I was a kid,” he said. “I was erratic and stupid and didn’t do a lot of the right things.
“But then I grew into this phase. I got smarter, both as a person and a teammate, as a driver, and became a champion. From here, hopefully it’s building on that.”
Busch is practically unrecognizable when compared to the brash teenager who entered the NASCAR scene in the early 2000s. Fans still mostly associate him with that first impression, even though he’s fond of pointing out he hasn’t been involved in any major controversies for a half-decade now.
Even so, he’s not looking for a fresh start. Busch wants to be known for the entire journey.
“I don’t necessarily think I want to be remembered from this point forward,” he said. “That’s not fair to what I became. It was rough in the beginning, sure. But tell me a person whose past is perfect. We’re human, right?”