The Busch Clash. The Rebel 500. The Sun-Drop Music City 420. The Allison Brothers. The King. The Wood Brothers. Junior Johnson & Associates. The Daytona 500 on Live National TV. The Fight.
Welcome to the 1979 NASCAR Winston Cup Series. A skinned knuckle era when men were men and racing was rubbing and if you didn’t like it, well — you could put it all up on the trailer and take your country club ass home. Yep, no messing around at the speedway back in the day.
A polarizing figure in this modern era of the sport if ever there was, love him or hate him — there really isn’t much in between — Kyle Busch is, whether you know it or not (if not, check out the excellent book "He Crashed Me So I Crashed Him Back" by Mark Bechtel) a way, way throwback to ’79.
Famous for dust-ups, freak-out-stomp-offs and, at times, stinging words, Kyle is a chip off the 351 block that trotted NASCAR out of the Deep South and into the bright klieg light which now illuminates both Big Bill France’s 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway and a TV audience in the multi-millions.
And that’s where I caught up with "Rowdy Busch" — on his way into the tunnel that leads out into the clean, well-lit World Center of Racing.
Q: How are your wife Samantha and that new baby on the way doing?
A: Yeah, everything is great. Thanks for asking. She’s doing real well and she’s growing and he’s growing. All is on schedule so far for the delivery in May.
Q: Jumping right into it here… I saw this fact in print the other day: Richard Petty has amassed a career total of 200 NASCAR National Series victories. You, if you add together your NASCAR Sprint Cup (29), XFINITY (70) and Camping World Truck Series (42), now have 141 career wins. Only Petty now has more combined NASCAR victories than you do. Yes, I realize both the times as well as the series structures were much different then, but 141 total victories is a truly remarkable number.
A: Well, I appreciate it. Thanks. It’s definitely good to win that many times in the top three series of NASCAR has been a big accomplishment for myself and the team — the team people that I’ve had surrounding me over the years. It’s a relative number. I mean Richard Petty has all those Sprint Cup Series wins. My wins are going to be scattered around in the top three NASCAR series. I don’t know if anybody will ever be able to reach the 200 Cup series wins. But 141 was just a number for me to kind of put out there and shoot for and thus far through the years I’ve won a ton of races to where I’ve gotten up to 141. Let’s hope there’s plenty more victories across all three series, especially the Cup Series, to get that number higher.
Q: Being a fanatic of the 1970s-era history of NASCAR, I grew up watching and idolizing guys like Bobby Allison, Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough and Buddy Baker. To me, you have the racing spirit of those guys in that you’ll show up and race anybody at any time. More than anything, I guess you’re a racer.
A: Yeah, no doubt. I’ve always joked with people that have been around me over the years that I’m still stuck in that era. I would have performed well in that era. For as much as I tend to run my mouth sometimes, I would have definitely stacked up better in the 1970s or the 1980s when there wasn’t as much media or there wasn’t as much publicity and sponsorship around the sport that you had to be PC for. I definitely feel like my time in the sport may have been a little misrepresented based off the time I was born.
Q: I remember being a little kid and Bobby Allison racing at a local track in Ohio. That sort of thing would never happen today. I could see you doing it, though. You’re a little bit different than the NASCAR racers of today, aren’t you?
A: Yeah, no doubt. I love racing and I’ve always enjoyed racing. I love to try and go back to the local short tracks and do those races. And sometimes I do. I like running my Super Late Models here and there and there are times when you go to those events and they are for $2,000 or $3,000 to win. There’s no money involved in that; you’re basically spending your money to go racing in those things but it’s so enjoyable. For me, it’s kind of like a golf game.
Q: You’ve heard it throughout your career, "Oh, Kyle gets upset and runs his mouth and pisses everybody off." Well, back in the day, those dudes were ALL like that. And it’s those dudes who made the sport what it is, correct?
A: Yeah, definitely. The guys back in the day, I mean, sometimes they’d fight, you know? They’d get in a fight if somebody did something to them and they’d fight. That’s what put NASCAR on the map at the 1979 Daytona 500 — that fight that broke out in the infield with Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough. It’s certainly been what our sport has been built off and not necessarily maybe what it is today. It’s fun for me, and I love doing what I do. I get to drive race cars for a living and when you win, that’s the greatest satisfaction there is.
Q: Last year in the XFINITY Series, you competed in 26 races. You won seven of them and placed second in nine others. With the exception of an off-song mechanically-induced 17th at the Daytona summer race, you were never worse than fourth. In this day in age when it’s so competitive in XFINITY to win or finish second as often as you do is astonishing. And yes, while many often criticize you for dropping down and cherry-picking the XFINITY division, the fact of the matter is that you’re racing against plenty of Cup guys and highly talented young drivers. Thoughts?
A: No doubt. I think, and I don’t know the exact number, the least amount of Cup drivers in a field that I’m in is, like, eight. I’m still racing against seven or eight other guys and sometimes as many as 12 or 14 or other guys that are going to be racing on Sunday also. It’s not like the competition is entirely different. And so what if it is? For me, I always do it, and I enjoy doing it because it gives me the experience and the feel for the car and the tires and the track and everything for that given weekend.
Q: Do you drive the XFINITY car differently? Do you drive looser? Do you take more chances?
A: I wish I knew. I don’t know why my success has been greater in XFINITY cars than it has been in Cup cars. It’s the exact opposite for Jimmie Johnson. He never had a whole lot of success in the XFINITY Series, and he goes to the Cup Series and he’s the second-most winningest driver in the current era after Jeff Gordon. It’s certainly frustrating, but at the same time, it’s very rewarding because you still know you can do it and it sort of proves the fact that I know how to drive a race car. I just have to be able to get my Sunday cars as good as my Saturday cars.
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