Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch held the wheels of a stock car for the first time when he was quite young. In an NBC Sports interview a few years ago, the then-JGR driver reflected on his father’s impact on his racing career.
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The passion for speed in the Busch family stemmed right from Tom Busch’s (Kyle Busch’s father) racing days. Senior Busch was involved in several local racing scenes and competed in various amateur racing events. Busch said about his dad, “My dad was a huge part of my career essentially from the beginning. He is the reason I’m a driver.”
The RCR icon began his racing journey back in the late 1990s when he took part in the Legends car series in Las Vegas at the young age of 13. Since then, Tom Busch has not raced that often owing to his neck injury from a race.
Busch explained to Steve Letarte, “It was about when I was 13, he kind of took a step back and didn’t drive much anymore. So we worked on rebuilding a brand new race car and that was gonna be my car for the following season.”
The fact that Kyle Busch has made it to the topmost tier of NASCAR was made possible by a series of priceless sacrifices. Being an employee of the school district, Busch’s mother didn’t earn a lot of money.
Hence, it all came down to Busch’s father’s job as a tool distributor. “He drove around town all day from four o’clock in the morning until six o’clock at night, every single day,” recalled Busch. “He’d come home, and I’d help him with the tool truck.”
Little did Kyle Busch know that his father was listening to everything the former was telling Steve Letarte from a separate room! It’s then that Tom Busch walked up to his son and said a word or two about him.
Kyle Busch’s father reflected on his younger son’s racing career
According to Tom Busch, Kyle Busch has always been obsessed with racing and race cars. He said, “You didn’t have to get him out to the garage, you had to get him into the house.”
Tom Busch said that perhaps Kyle Busch’s earliest memories were getting his stuff ready but he also felt like Kyle Busch was probably too young for that. However, Tom Busch said, “He (Kyle Busch) worked on cars probably more than Kurt (Busch) did.”
When someone has two boys, it’s not unusual for them to go on the record to say that they have always treated them equally. Speaking of the driving styles of his two sons, Tom Busch said, “They are more similar than you think!”
