RELATED: Busch gets awesome fan reaction on road
FORT WORTH — Kyle Busch was still smiling Friday thinking about the surprisingly huge reaction he received from a video showing him signing a fan’s hat while waiting car-to-car in heavy traffic as they left Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
Only hours earlier he had been celebrating his first Sprint Cup Series win at the track, and the young lady he interacted with was wearing a Kyle Busch hat.
The video has been shown on most of the national news networks. Busch figures more than 10 million looked at it on his Facebook page in a single day after it was posted Sunday.
“I was surprised at the response it got, certainly,” Busch said. “We were just kinda messing around rolling down the road in traffic the other day and figured we’d give it a shot. I’ve done other things like that before when I just kinda waved at them.
“But her response — it seemed as if it initiated a little more, where I asked her for her hat, gave her an autograph. It probably wouldn’t have happened if she was wearing another driver’s hat,” he said laughing. “I don’t know. Maybe we’ll have to try the flip side of that another day. As far as speaking with her again, we’ve reached (out) and tried to get her information and get her to a race and she wanted to go to Bristol so we’ll see her again next week.”
Asked if he could imagine being that effusive meeting anyone, Busch grinned, shook his head and offered a definitive, “No, not a chance.”
MORE: See all of Kyle’s premier series wins
But he did seem grateful if a bit amazed at the reaction he’s received from interacting with a fan — something he does constantly without the broadcast replays. He recognized, as well, that maybe there is a shift in fans feelings for him. Instead of getting boos, Busch is hearing more cheers and applause after coming back from injury to dramatically earn the 2015 Sprint Cup championship.
“Last year, when I came back, I was booed a little bit, but there was certainly some cheers around being able to get back in the race car, get back to the race track — things like that — but then I started winning again and it kind of went away,” Busch said. “It seemed like not only did I go back to my winning ways, but it seemed like the fans kind of went back to their old ways of how they treated me, but I feel like through the championship and things like that obviously I’ve grown a little bit. But I think my reputation’s kind of grown a little bit as well, and I think it’s just — it’s a never-ending evolution of people in the sport.
“You look at every single driver that’s gone through the sport over the years and they’ve all kind of gone through that — every popular one maybe I should say — Rusty (Wallace), DW (Darrell Waltrip), Dale Jarrett I think, even Bobby Labonte, Jeff Gordon especially and (Dale) Earnhardt. So you’ve seen those transitions happen and I feel like this is maybe mine. … I did start probably a lot younger than many of the other ones did and made a lot more mistakes in my younger age than many of them did, but I think it will be — hopefully will be — pretty memorable by the time it’s all said and done.”
Last week’s Martinsville sweep
Busch’s sweep at Martinsville last week — winning both the Camping World Truck Series and Sprint Cup events — certainly seems to put him on a more solid path to defending his title. He’s ranked third in the standings, only five points behind leader Kevin Harvick. And his victory essentially ensures a spot in the 20116 Chase for the Sprint Cup.
Busch said he put one of the grandfather clocks he won at Martinsville at his Kyle Busch Racing shop and the other is in the foyer of his home.
“I had to turn off the buzzer because it’s close to (son) Brexton’s room, so we don’t get to hear it,” Busch said. “Although we heard it a couple of times while it went off, but then I turned it off.”
The clock is a very real — and potentially very loud — reminder of winning early in the season. It’s a luxury he didn’t have last year while recovering from a broken leg and foot. He missed the first 11 races and had only 15 opportunities to score a win, get into the top 30 in points and secure a place in the postseason.
“I’ve always put extra emphasis on being able to start the season off strong my whole career, and there’s been times where I’ve been kind of behind the eight ball and a little down on myself,” Busch said. “But then there’s also been times where we’ve started out the season really well like this year and we’ve got a win earlier. … Every single year you try to get a win early, so it just kind of alleviates that pressure as the season winds down getting towards the Chase, and it’s nice when you’re able to do that like we were in 2013 and again this year.
“Last year, it was hard. There were times where we came back and we knew we had to run strong and we were crashing out a couple times and it was getting pretty stressful that we weren’t going to make the Chase and that was one of the things where I kind of had something reset and click and turn into something different when we got to Sonoma. We won Sonoma and stuff like that just a week after crashing, finishing last at Michigan.
“So there’s times where it just seems to work and there’s times when it doesn’t. It’s way more fun when it is working.”
Looking ahead to this weekend’s Texas race
This week in Fort Worth, Busch has every reason to be optimistic. The area is home to his team’s Interstate Batteries sponsor, and it has been a fully charged effort from Busch at the 1.5-mile track.
He won this race from the pole position in 2013 and has five top-four finishes in the last six races at Texas Motor Speedway.
MORE: Busch tames Texas, lands 80th XFINITY win
Wheeling the No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota for Saturday’s event, Texas is certainly a place to keep Busch’s momentum going as he searches for another title drive. And he comes in with as much pre-race goodwill as he could hope for.
“There’s plenty of things that are out there to achieve,” Busch said. “Being able to win at every single venue — that’s one of the things I’m close to. I’ve got three to go. Getting a Daytona 500, an All-Star race, a Charlotte Coke 600 victory and then from there just being able to continue to add on to the legacy and winning at more venues.
“Just building that win column — it’s at 35, but to be able to build that to 100 or something like that, I think that would be pretty special. Now whether 100 is reachable or not, I doubt it, but we’ll give it our best shot.
“There’s no reason why to not try. Hopefully the championships will pile in there, as well. Whether seven is achievable, probably not, but I’d like to say it is and we’ll give it our best. I’d like to have five, how ’bout that?”
How ’bout it indeed.
