Nine-year-old Brexton Busch won his first Golden Driller trophy in the Junior Sprint Division of the 2025 Tulsa Shootout on Saturday. The achievement has proven his skill on dirt tracks beyond doubt, and none could be prouder than his father, the two-time NASCAR champion Kyle Busch. But what is the ultimate goal here?
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Rowdy told FloRacing in an interview at Tulsa that NASCAR is where Brexton is aiming to be in a few years. Reaching there requires good experience levels in go-karts and pavement tracks, not dirt. But what Kyle also wants his son to be is an all-round racer like the Hendrick Motorsports superstar Kyle Larson. For that, he needs a balance between dirt and pavement racing.
Kyle said, “A lot of guys Larson grew up doing the dirt stuff. So, he’s great at the dirt stuff, and he’s obviously great at the NASCAR stuff. I just feel like if you mix in a little bit of the dirt and a little bit of the pavement right now, you can do anything.” So, when the time comes, Brexton will be up for whatever destination his heart takes him to.
For now, the idea is that it will be NASCAR. “Right now, NASCAR is the end goal. So, I feel like you have to have some pavement stuff right now.” Brexton still has a lot of years ahead of him before coming to that crossroads of which racing discipline to choose. Until then, he can continue testing the waters in each.
How Kyle Busch influences the race craft of his son, Brexton
There are few better authorities than Kyle Busch when it comes to teaching a young driver the art of racing. But his main area of expertise is limited to racing on pavements. He was a child, not much older than Brexton when he majorly drove in dirt tracks. However, this doesn’t stop him from giving his son a piece of his wisdom before crucial events.
He said that there is no point in teaching him about complex techniques like re-attacking and pinching, considering that he is just a nine-year-old racing in Junior Sprint. But when they get to tracks like Tulsa, they go over videos to analyze what the right racing method would be against the older drivers in the competition.
It is through such practice that Brexton has been able to make a strong mark in this year’s Tulsa Shootout. He secured his first driller over Jax Whitmer and Gage Pio. Also on the field was Kyle Larson’s son, Owen, who finished sixth. All these talented young racers point to an extremely exciting future for NASCAR.
