Kyle Busch feels no pain when racing for a win

Last week's Kentucky Speedway Sprint Cup Series victor might be repeating the phrase to subconsciously trick his mind into believing that he is fully healed from a brutal crash in the season-opening NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Daytona International Speedway that left him with lower extremity injuries requiring surgery -- even if he isn't.

Busch maintains that he is at 100 percent behind the wheel, but that some pain still lingers when he jumps out of the cockpit of his No. 18 Toyota Camry.

"Winning cures all and it seems like last week at Kentucky the good runs we had there, my foot has felt a lot better," Busch said. "... Early on I probably mentioned at Charlotte (his first race back) that I wasn't dealing with much pain and I really wasn't. There's times where it flares up and it gets bad and you have some good days and you have some bad days. The more and more we get going here, the more and more good days I seem to have. Just trying to get through the inflammation and stuff like that, that I had in my foot and ankle and everything has gotten a lot better."

Any concerns about Busch returning to racing too soon were quickly put to bed at Sonoma Raceway a few weeks ago when the Joe Gibbs Racing driver won in just his fifth race back after missing the first 11.

"I can push the brakes real well -- I think we saw that at Sonoma. I started to feel a little bit of pain with about 25 (laps) to go, but then you get the adrenaline to take over and get going when you're having a shot at the win and you don't feel anything until the next day afterwards when everything kind of calms back down.

"Last week at Kentucky everything went real well, real smooth, actually. Got out of the car and walked around for all the media stuff afterwards and didn't really feel any ill effects. It's getting better."

MORE: Timeline of Busch's injury and recovery

From a medical standpoint, it sounds as it Busch still has a ways to go until he gets the full clean bill of health. The 31-time Cup Series winner mentioned at Kentucky that he's planning on more surgery in the offseason to remove plates from his left foot, with an estimated recovery period of four weeks.

It's the foot pain that continues to linger.

"The foot has definitely been a lot worse. If it was only the leg that got injured in Daytona," Busch said, "I probably would have been back three weeks sooner than I was. I felt like Texas the leg was ready to go, but the foot has just kind of been a little bit worse just because there's so many bones in your foot. I think there's over 100 muscles in your foot, but there's over 30 bones or something in your foot. It's complicated down there, that's what the doctor said, it's complicated."

With all of the downtime that Busch suddenly found on his hands since he was unable to race, it allowed the driver to be a little more introspective than perhaps he's been in years past.

Since his return, it's been clear that the now-30-year-old isn't the same Kyle Busch that we've seen since he broke into the sport as a teenager. Credit the injury, his new son Brexton and a newfound gratitude overall.

"I think anytime any person that goes through the kind of setbacks that I went through -- I think it always changes you a little bit. Some look towards the brighter side of things and others tend to look towards the darker side of things. Fortunately for me and everybody that I've had around me, including my wife and now my son and family, friends -- it's been really, really fun to come out of this experience and to be able to grow and learn a little bit," Busch said.

"Just maybe enjoy things a little bit differently and that's what it's been all about. More so than just all that, you get back in the race car and you run well and you're happy with your team and then you win races -- winning cures all."