Kyle Busch Explains How He Has “Grown Up a Little Bit” Regarding Handling a “Crappy Day”

Handling a bad day while out on the racetrack isn’t something that everyone has the emotional capacity to deal with. Everyone has their own way of dealing with such things. Even for a two-time Cup Series champion such as Kyle Busch, dealing with horrid days has seen a significant amount of change over the years.

Gone are the days when he would stick out double birds at the officials for handing him a penalty. The new Busch is a different Busch, or at least that is what he recently tried to explain when quizzed by the Athletic on how he handled such days.

Kyle Busch explains his ways of dealing with bad days then and now

During a recent interview, Jeff Gluck of the Athletic asked, “What do you do to make yourself feel better when you’re having a crappy day?” Busch clarified, “In life or on the racetrack?” Subsequently, Gluck responded, “Sometimes it’s all intertwined, Kyle.”

Busch then said, “Well, yes it is. If you have a s*** day on the racetrack, you’ve had a s*** day. In my younger days, I would take everything right on my shoulder and be upset about it right then and there and not really think about tomorrow.”

“Or (think about) there’s other things in this world that are much worse than what we’ve got going on. So I guess I’ve kind of grown up a little bit and realized a little bit more about life in general and letting some things roll off a little bit easier.”

He added, “But it’s hard to kind of do that in other situations where you’ve got people working for you doing stuff and they don’t get it done on time or in the time you need it done by. And it’s like, “Well, damn. I want to let it roll off, but I can’t because I needed it. So it’s a balancing act.”

Busch once gave NASCAR officials a double bird

The nickname Rowdy sits aptly with Busch, considering the several moments he had while out on the track. This one time back in 2010 during the race at Texas, Busch was caught speeding on the pit road. So aptly, NASCAR decided to penalize him with a lap in the pits.

Although, Busch had completely tossed his cool out for this one. He went on yelling obscenities on his radio and gave the double bird to the official standing in front of his car in the pits. Meanwhile, his crew chief, Dave Rogers, tried his best to calm him down, but to no avail. The damage was done. NASCAR slapped him with a two-lap penalty owing to his unsportsmanlike behavior against an official.

Thankfully, after the conclusion of the race, Busch had finally calmed down. Furthermore, he then told the press, “I’m sorry I lost my cool.” He also apologized to everyone, including NASCAR and his team, for his uncontrolled outburst during the heat of the moment.

Now 13 years later, Busch has definitely evolved a lot. He does not participate in such shenanigans. One could say that he has definitely matured in a lot of ways these days.