“Tom Brady Relied A Lot on His Coaching Staff”: Kyle Busch Picks Peyton Manning Over the 7-Time Super Bowl Winner to Make Decisions for Him

Kyle Busch is a big football fan when he isn’t driving a race car.

When asked recently whether he would hypothetically pick legendary NFL quarterback and seven-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady as a fantasy spotter, you might say Busch called an audible.

Instead, the two-time NASCAR Cup champ, who is in his third season now with Richard Childress Racing (and remains unsigned for next year), would rather have former Indianapolis Colts star QB and two-time Super Bowl winner Peyton Manning as the guy he’d like telling him what to do on the racetrack.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Manning wore the same uniform number – No. 18 – as the car number Busch drove during his previous 15-season tenure with Joe Gibbs Racing before moving to RCR.

“Peyton Manning,” Busch immediately and emphatically said recently. “He is probably one of the best game-callers ever.

“He would be able to maybe look at certain situations and be able to pick up on things, whereas another celebrity might not be able to, and I would kind of enjoy his voice in (your) head.”

But not Brady, who many consider the greatest QB of all time?

“Tom’s not far behind,” Busch said. “I think Peyton had better games in which he made a lot more calls himself over his coaching staff, whereas Tom relied a lot on his coaching staff. But obviously, you have to have instinct, and he doesn’t lack in that.”

It’s not the first time Busch has used the Brady-Manning analogy.

Following his last race at JGR at the end of the 2022 season, Busch equated his departure and move to RCR to Brady’s move from the New England Patriots to a two-year stint with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Manning’s move from the Colts to the Denver Broncos for the final four seasons of his NFL career.

“I’m kind of looking at it as the Tom Brady-Peyton Manning aspect, where they left great teams, great organizations, where they won championships, and they went on and were able to win championships somewhere else.

“So I’d like to think that I still have that opportunity to be able to do that with RCR.”

Post Edited By: Rahul Ahluwalia

Kyle Busch NASCAR Cup Series Peyton Manning Tom Brady

About the author

Jerry Bonkowski

Jerry Bonkowski is a veteran sportswriter who has worked full-time for many of the top media outlets in the world, including USA Today (15 years), ESPN.com (4+ years), Yahoo Sports (4 1/2 years), NBCSports.com (8 years) and others. He has covered virtually every major professional and collegiate sport there is, including the Chicago Bulls' six NBA championships (including heavy focus on Michael Jordan), the Chicago Bears Super Bowl XX-winning season, the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs World Series championships, two of the Chicago Blackhawks' NHL titles, Tiger Woods' PGA Tour debut, as well as many years of beat coverage of the NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA for USA Today. But Jerry's most notable achievement has been covering motorsports, most notably NASCAR, IndyCar, NHRA drag racing and Formula One. He has had a passion for racing since he started going to watch drag races at the old U.S. 30 Dragstrip (otherwise known as "Where the Great Ones Run!") in Hobart, Indiana. Jerry has covered countless NASCAR, IndyCar and NHRA races and championship battles over the years. He's also the author of a book, "Trading Paint: 101 Great NASCAR Debates", published in 2010 (and he's hoping to soon get started on another book). Away from sports, Jerry was a fully sworn part-time police officer for 20 years, enjoys reading and music (especially "hair bands" from the 1980s and 1990s), as well as playing music on his electric keyboard, driving (fast, of course!), spending time with Cyndee his wife of nearly 40 years, the couple's three adult children and three grandchildren (with more to come!), and his three dogs -- including two German Shepherds and an Olde English Bulldog who thinks he's a German Shepherd.. Jerry still gets the same excitement of seeing his byline today as he did when he started in journalism as a 15-year-old high school student. He is looking forward to writing hundreds, if not thousands, of stories in the future for TheSportsRush.com, as well as interacting with readers.

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