When Kurt Thomas Busch steps up to the podium Friday night to give his acceptance speech on his Class of 2026 induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, it will be the end of a 33-year journey that began as a raw but impressively talented 14-year-old kid with big aspirations at a ramshackle dirt track called Pahrump Valley Speedway in the Nevada desert.
That track, about an hour from his Las Vegas home, was where Busch – like many young, aspiring teenage race car drivers – began to have dreams of grandeur and greatness. He not only learned how to race, but soaked up everything he read, saw, heard and experienced like a sponge. He learned the proper racing lines, how to get around a driver blocking his forward progress, and although many may not know it, became somewhat of a mechanical mastermind, insisting upon working on his race cars as much as possible (usually with lots of help from his father and mother, Tom and Gaye, and younger brother Kyle, who himself would go on to NASCAR greatness as well).
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But while 99% of young race car drivers never see the glitz and bright lights of major auto racing – and we’re not just talking about the glitz and neon lights of his native Vegas – Busch went on to not only fulfill his dreams, he lived them, succeeded and became a hero and inspiration for future young kids who also aspire to be racers.
Kurt could drive anything that had a steering wheel
Along the way, the now 47-year-old Busch has achieved success he never thought possible. Not only did he win NASCAR’s first-ever Nextel Cup championship in 2004, he also was one of only a handful of drivers who have ever taken part in “The Double” (racing in the Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 in the same day in 2014, finishing sixth in the 500, earning top rookie honors, but falling short and finishing last in the 600 due to engine failure).
He also tried his hand at NHRA drag racing (Pro Stock category), has a large car collection of not only some of his former race cars, but also a considerable amount of street and “fun” cars that he can drive any day, any time, at his disposal.
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Admittedly, there were some situations in his career that were distasteful and cost him both on and off the track. But Friday is a day not to reflect on the bad, but to celebrate all the good that came from his racing career, including 34 NASCAR Cup wins, all the top team owners he drove for, including Jack Roush, Tony Stewart, Roger Penske, Chip Ganassi, Michael Jordan/Denny Hamlin and others, all the charitable work and philanthropy he’s done over the years and so much more that makes Busch not just a race car driver but a great human being.
As I reflect back on Busch’s career, I could tout all the wins and everything he did on racetracks from Loudon to Sonoma. But rather, I think back to the numerous interactions he and I had over the years.
I’d like to share some of those memories with you:
One of my favorite memories came on the evening that he received the Nextel Cup championship in December 2004. Even though he had only met my wife and daughter a few hours earlier, in the post-awards party at New York City’s grand and famous Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, he left some of the friends who were gathered around him and made an almost immediate beeline for my wife and daughter when they entered the door, greeting them as if they were long-lost friends.
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I mean, here was the man of the hour, the guy all eyes were on and who received constant applause and congratulations for a job well done all night, and he dropped everything to welcome them.
He welcomed them and then said, “Where’s Jerry?” to which my wife said I was up in my hotel room writing my column for Yahoo! Sports (I’d eventually come down after I finished my work and shared a beer and several toasts with the new champ). That was one of the many times Kurt showed me the kind of classy person he was.
Another time I fondly recall came in 2005 during Speedweeks prior to the Daytona 500. I pitched the idea of writing a book about him and the journey he took to achieve greatness, hoping to capitalize on the title he won just a few months earlier. In humble fashion, Busch demurred, saying he felt it was too soon or too early to do a book, that I should circle back with him after he won a second Cup championship. Unfortunately, that second title never came about.
Another favorite Busch memory was September 19, 2011. He and the rest of the NASCAR world were in Chicago for that weekend’s race at Chicagoland Speedway. A diehard Chicago Cubs fan, Busch was like a kid in a candy store because he was granted a double honor by the occupants of Wrigley Field: he threw out the first pitch and then was brought back for an encore, singing the Seventh-Inning Stretch from the TV announcer’s booth.
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Okay, admittedly, it was a bit off-key, but even with all the things he accomplished as a driver, that still stands out as one of his all-time favorite memories as an individual.
“They trust you with a gun?!”
Yet another of my favorite memories came in 2005. I called Kurt about an interview we were supposed to do, asking if we could reschedule because I was unexpectedly called in to work my part-time job that day.
“Sure, no problem, Jerry,” Kurt said, before adding, “Uhhhh, are you standing next to a cop or something? I keep hearing a police radio in the background.”
Curses, I was outed! One of the secrets I liked to keep private and separate from my professional sportswriting career was my alter ego as a part-time police officer, complete with the gun, badge, and squad car with the siren and flashing lights.
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Busch didn’t know about that part of me and seemed enthralled that I made arrests, answered calls, performed traffic stops and wrote tickets and did everything a full-time officer did. When I told him I was “working my part-time cop job,” I’ll never forget the quip out of his mouth as we both shared a monstrous laugh afterward: “You mean they REALLY TRUST YOU WITH A GUN? What, are you like Barney Fife with just one bullet?”
It was a good-natured joke, and I took no offense. And when I saw him at the next Cup race I covered, he asked me if I “was packing heat.” To play along, I reached into my pocket and pulled out my police badge, causing his eyes to bug out somewhat.
What if I forgot my wallet at home?
Another favorite time was when Busch was racing for Team Penske and was a “guest bartender” at a Miller Lite charity event only a few miles from my home – again, part of another Chicagoland Speedway weekend. When he got my wife and myself each a glass of beer, I thought the drinks would be free because I was there as a member of the media. Nope. “That’ll be $5 each,” he said with the big smile he’s known for.
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When I feigned indignation, Kurt – still smiling broadly – said, “Sorry, it’s for charity. Everybody pays!” That was yet another time we had a great laugh as friends, not as athlete and reporter.
I have one final KB story to tell here – actually, I could probably come up with a dozen more – that is right up there with the Waldorf story as among my favorites. It was 2002 (when he would finish third to Tony Stewart in the championship), and I was interviewing Kurt at Rockingham. Somehow, the conversation segued from racing to talking about our respective families.
Kurt told me about how much support his parents gave him growing up and that he would never have made it to NASCAR without them. He also credited his “kid brother,” who was seven years his junior but was always willing to help Kurt “fix” his race car.
An early look at the future for his ‘kid brother’
Kurt then said something that I’ll never forget. When I asked him what made him so good as a driver, he gave me an answer that I wasn’t expecting: “If you think I’m good, wait till you see my little brother Kyle. He’s going to be big some day, real big.”
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Guess the apple didn’t fall far from the tree, for sure!
The elder Busch brother’s career was unfortunately cut short by a crash-caused concussion in 2022, but he’s gone on to become an excellent coach and advisor for 23XI Racing, including mentoring Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick, not to mention getting to play lots of golf with his bosses, Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin!
Congratulations to Kurt on his well-deserved induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, along with Humpy Wheeler, Harry Gant, and Ray Hendrick.
The post Recalling the Side of Kurt Busch Many People Don’t Know About appeared first on EssentiallySports.
