DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Kyle Busch and the rest of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series field turned their attention to the next race on the schedule upon arrival Thursday at Daytona International Speedway. But the memory of Busch’s breathtaking final-lap victory last weekend at Chicagoland Speedway still remains fresh — both because of the nature of it and the social-media buzz surrounding it.
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Then there’s the matter of Busch’s meme-friendly message to the Chicagoland boo-birds after his retaliatory roughing-up of runner-up Kyle Larson, adding a Buschian flair to his post-burnout interview by pantomiming the wiping away of tears to the camera. Thursday at Daytona, Busch explained the impetus for the gesture.
“Well, when you put on a great show and you have a really fun time being able to race these cars and you do everything as hard as you can to try to win a Cup Series race and for as hard as they are to win, even though we’re talking about winning 48 of them, it would certainly be nice to have some appreciation for putting on a good show for those fans,” Busch said Thursday evening at Toyota’s introduction of the 2019 Supra for NASCAR Xfinity Series competition.
“And when the boos are raining down on you in that moment, it certainly doesn’t make you feel good about yourself or what’s going on or what you’re doing or what you just did, and so you sometimes aren’t thinking straight or clearly in those moments and you do what you do. You know, I wouldn’t say that that race was fun to win afterwards, but it’s a win that’s now in the history books.”
Busch indicated that part of the negative reaction to the last-lap battle was that observers failed to take the final circuit in the proper context, weighing his actions against Larson’s contact that initiated the gloves-off contest for the checkered flag. But there’s also Busch’s reputation as one of the sport’s biggest lightning rods, a touchpoint for strong reactions from the grandstands.
There was a significant reaction Thursday from NASCAR legend Donnie Allison, who raved about the Chicagoland finish in a passing visit to the Daytona media center.
“That’s pretty cool,” Busch said. “All the racers out there, all the people that know racing appreciated what that race was. … Well, they take that little tidbit of (Turns) 3 and 4 and don’t even look at 1 and 2, and it’s like, they don’t see the eye-for-an-eye-type thing. You’ve got to know what you’re watching to appreciate it sometimes.”