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You know, I remember everything from the day.

I remember what I had on.

I was, like, 27 weeks pregnant the time.

You know, I can hear the spotter and Kyle

and the crew chief on, you know, my earphones.

24 and 90, next two,

then a little gap up the string of five .

You know, and I was wide open that entire time,

so now that I'm back here a little bit, it's about three-quarters so far.

You know, you always watch the preliminary races

to gain some intel and information.

I was watching.

Back live at Daytona International Speedway,

closing on the latter stages of the season opener for the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

third caution of the day.

Gonna be less than 15 laps to go here at Daytona

when the green flag goes in the air once again.

So, it's coming down to the end of the race.

So, I'm always keeping my eye on Kyle Busch because

people wanna go with Kyle.

they wanna be in position around Kyle.

All right, K. B., everything look good there?

Tires are pretty much, uh, absolutely nowhere.

Um, we're good to go on the fuel here.

So, it's pretty much in you and Tony's hands from here, man.

All right, 10-4. Thanks.

10 away.

5, 4, 3, 2...

14 laps to go as we go green again.

I just don't see that 54 car sitting back there on the bottom in 11th spot too long.

They're pushing and shoving really hard right now,

so there's gonna be a lot of stuff moving around.

Three of them nose and tail.

So three wide bottom. Four of them nose and tail.

Four of them nose and tail.

All of a sudden, I just remember hearing Tony go

"Lock her down, lock her down, lock her down."

On him, on him, on him, on him, on him, on him, on him, on him.

And then...

it was, like, kind of silent.

Tony gets on the radio, and he's like, "Kyle, are you okay?"

You all right, K.B.?

And there's nothing.

And I just knew something's terribly wrong.

Kyle Busch is the most polarizing personality in NASCAR.

I had never seen anybody with more talent than, than Kyle had.

Oh, and he almost saved it and he did!

Coming to the checkers over here.

"Wild Thing" wins! Kyle Busch!

Since day one, Kyle had that bad boy moniker,

the guy who goes out there with a smirk and a little swagger.

That's the way I'd do it. Coming out of the smoke.

He speaks his mind.

He says things that are not always popular.

Freedom of speech.

They're going against the constitutional rights of everybody.

Man, that's--that's what NASCAR's been built on.

How many times have the greats been booed because they win so much?

Loss frustration, things that have happened bad to him

motivate him in his life, and I think that's why he's a 2-time champion.

Leon Hinske waves the green flag for the Power Stroke Diesel 200.

Glad to have you with us here on a gorgeous night

at Indianapolis Raceway Park in Clermont, Indiana.

I wouldn't say that we came from a plentiful background.

Uh, my dad worked really hard as a as a Mac Tool man,

and then, um, my mom, who worked for the school district in Nevada.

Well we just were able to get by with what we could get by.

This young man in the 99 is the younger brother of Kurt Busch.

He is Kyle Busch who is 16 years, 3 months, and 1 day of age.

Turned 16 back on May 2nd. Man, do I feel old.

My dad was a huge influence on me,

on wanting to be a race car driver,

and I remember him racing in the limited late model division.

I mean, I was 5 years old.

You know, your dad tells you, "Hey, take that nut off" or...

you know, "Remove that bolt" or "Hey, go clean that part,"

you know, just stuff, like being in the garage, being around it,

working on my brother's race car as well, too, during that time

when I was 7, 8, 9 years old...

uh, was a huge part of the beginning for me.

He's got the rookie, Kurt Busch, on his bumper

Actually, pushing this sophomore here right up the bottom line.

Runs in the tire tracks of rookie Rochelle into turn

People say you were the first bad boy of the Busch family.

Yeah, how long's this interview? Yeah, right.

There's no question that having an older brother

definitely always kinda sets you a little further ahead.

Our race winner--Kurt Busch.

He's six and a half years older than I am, you know, and he's 16,

going off and going out of state and going to race with RC cars with his buddies

in California or Arizona or whatever, and I'm 10, sitting there, being like,

"I wanna go, too," and they're like, "No, kid, you're 10."

Like "You're not coming with us."

He's got little brother syndrome.

Little brother syndrome is "I can do everything better, faster

quicker, and--and stronger than the older brother."

The advantage Kyle had was the two of us. My dad raced and helped with us

all the time

but then when I started to mature,

I got a big break to race with Roush Racing.

So I'm like "Man, you guys, you guys gotta know,

I got this little brother, and he's probably gonna be better than I am."

Hey, Kyle.

Kurt started racing when he was 15 1/2, I think, something like that,

and I was able to start when Was 13.

But everybody thought I was 14 'cause I forged my birth certificate,

so, uh, I was-- I started when I was 13.

The gentleman, young gentleman in the 4 car,

just saw him win this race.

It's his first race. in a legends car today, 14 years old.

"If anybody asks you, you're 14. Don't lie to 'em about anything else."

Long story short, I ended up practicing well. I qualified third.

Feature went green the whole way.

The leader never caught me, so I stayed on the lead lap,

so, you know, my dad was pretty pumped. I was pretty pumped.

We had a good night, and we went home.

Kyle is just a 14-year-old kid that's beating grown men,

and I mean, they're coming from Oklahoma, Texas,

and if you got enough money to travel to Vegas

you're not broke. You're not traveling with poor equipment.

My first full-time season, I won the track championship for Legends Cars.

We got it done, and we got it done fast.

I won the Nevada State Semi-Pro Championship.

Turn 1, Kyle Busch taking back the lead.

And I finished third in the national

championship standings across the whole United States.

There's your race winner, folks. He's out of the race car.

Give him a round of applause.

14 years of age.

I've gotta thank my dad also. He set up my dwarf car and my Legend car,

and, uh, yeah, it was a really good job,

but this one was just a little loose coming out of the corner.

Otherwise, it was really good.

In a move that shocked NASCAR, the day Kyle turned 16,

Max Jones at Roush Racing called Kyle

and signed him to drive for their Truck Series team.

The Roush guys called me and said-- Well, they called my dad.

They said, "Hey, we wanna put Kyle in a truck."

My name is Marty Smith. I'm a reporter for ESPN.

I can remember all of us being like, "What?"

To see a 16-year-old in trucks, it was unprecedented.

IRP, Indianapolis Raceway Park would be my first race, uh

in a truck, and I was 16 and 3 months or something like that years old.

Watch the 99 truck of Kyle Busch.

You mentioned he just... I mean, this is his first ever Craftsman Truck Series.

A veteran move by Kyle Busch.

I got to run a few more races. I ran in South Boston.

The left rear tire comes off and wrecked the truck.

And then, uh, there was a race at Chicago.

I qualified third. I'm running up front.

We're leading laps, and we decide that we're gonna stay out on a strategy,

so the guys are all telling me, like, "Hey, save fuel. Save fuel."

So I'm just--I'm like, save fuel?

How do you save fuel? I don't know what the hell "save fuel" means.

Again, I'm still 16. It's like my fourth truck race.

And then truck runs out of gas.

Kyle Busch has pulled up across the top of the race track.

Gotta be out of gas. He's gotta be out of gas.

But it was impressive enough to the NASCAR industry

that hey, a 16-year-old, and I'm leading the race,

like, I'm fighting off the rest of these guys.

Like, I'm driving away.

The fact that he got in that vehicle, having never done it before

and ran competitively, was remarkable.

Coy, my son, was racing trucks at the time.

Uh, I called him to see how he was doing after practice, and he goes,

"There's a, I think a 15-year-old kid that's here in a truck,

and he's 2/10ths faster than everybody."

And he goes, he goes, "I hope they're gonna kick him out."

And they eventually did.

The last race of the season was in California.

Now the track sponsor was Marlboro,

and when the California D.A. saw that a 16-year-old was participating,

they forced NASCAR to not allow Kyle to drive.

This situation led NASCAR officials to change

the age rules across the league

and not allow anyone under the age of 18 to race at the professional level.

They're like, "That ain't happening." So they kicked me out.

o that's when NASCAR came up with their new age requirement that you had to be 18.

That's the Kyle Busch rule. Yeah.

Argument in the paper yesterday saying, if there was a problem,

they should have told you before the start.

It's all a game, you know? It's an unfortunate circumstance for us.

We all knew he had the ability.

For him to come in and make an impression at all was a victory in and of itself.

I'm Jamie Little. I'm a "NASCAR on Fox" pit reporter

and also do some play-by-play for the ARCA Menards Series.

Kyle Busch turns 18. Finally he gets to come back to NASCAR,

and he does it in such a big way.

He gets out of the shadow of his brother, his older brother,

who he's always been in his shadow. I mean, that was just the nature of it.

And now he's starting out on his own.

He is Kyle Busch.

He's going to show the world what he is capable of.

He has his own team, and he's going to do it his own way.

My brother wasn't making very many friends at that time,

so getting out of his shadow

was definitely needing to happen.

So Kurt gets to big-time NASCAR,

and he's racing like a bat out of hell with his hair on fire.

He's pissing off everybody in the garage left and right. What happens?

He starts getting booed.

Well, then by the time Kyle gets there, it's old hat.

So my first Busch Series race that I ever ran,

driver intros, I got booed. Um...

Never even--never ran a NASCAR race, never really done anything.

People really don't know who I am, but they know my name.

So my name was Kyle Busch, younger brother of Kurt Busch.

Kyle was going to get booed because the entire fan base equated him to his brother

Yeah, I feel like there's the positive and the negative.

You know, the different connections that I opened up for him--

you know, those are the good, positive things

that family do for each other behind the scenes.

And then in the public eye, if he gets booed,

and he's sitting there going, "Why am I getting booed?"

It's like, well, yeah, it's-- it's now.

To Kurt's defense, Kyle proved that he also

was: a pain in the ass, a hothead, intolerant of anything but winning.

And they had an "X" factor that very few people get.

They're so damn good, it's undeniable.

How about it, Kyle?

You make your debut, you're starting fifth.

Not bad. You got any butterflies?

Not at all.

We're just going out here today as just another race at another race track

with another race car, so

I had never seen anybody with more talent than--than Kyle had.

Kyle Busch to the inside for third. Boy, how did it--

Kurt, how do you throttle back an 18-year-old?

First time he'd ever been in an Xfinity car.

I remember him going three-wide into turn one at Charlotte,

and I'm holding my breath.

Kyle Busch is gonna make it three-wide going into turn three.

Aggressive when he needed to be aggressive,

and probably in the early days,

a little bit too aggressive, but he's a heck of a talent.

My name's Rick Hendrick.

I was the car owner that brought Kyle into the sport.

Hendrick Motor sports and NASCAR

is the standard by which everyone else is measured.

They've won the most championships.

They've had the greatest drivers.

If you were gonna say it, they're the New York Yankees of NASCAR.

I mean, you're on the level of Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon.

When you--you sign that contract, it's like, everybody look out.

This kid's got something.

Kyle Busch to the inside.

Kyle Busch for the win!

Certainly, he showed what he was capable of doing in a race car,

uh, very early on.

Three to go here in Kentucky.

Kyle Busch just pulled up on the bumper of Greg Biffle.

He dives in the inside, side by side, and he takes the lead.

My son, Ricky, and Kyle were real close,

and, uh I look back at some of the early days...

Ricky was right there with him, and they were, uh, very tight.

Hey, Kyle, real easy, bud. Three to go.

With Ricky, you know I'm 18,19.

I think Ricky was 26 or 27 at that time, so we're way closer in age.

Found his niche, I guess, if you will,

in picking Brian Vickers as his driver

and then having me as his driver,

and us younger guys were kinda clicking.

Well, when you're 19 years old,

and you've just won your second NASCAR Busch Series race in only 20 starts,

and you're worried about fuel, but you have enough gas to make doughnuts,

I'd say it's a pretty good day.

Ah, he's in there somewhere.

Here he comes.

Yeah, baby, that's the way I'd do it.

Come out of the smoke.

Life is good.

Yes, sir.

Right away, you realized what kind of personality he had,

that he wore his heart on his sleeve, that when he won,

like, he is the happiest dude in the world, and

everybody's like, man, this guy is talented.

But when the day didn't go right

So, Kyle obviously not happy.

It's not good.

And there's Kyle exiting his car and being chased.

And Ricky was this amazing, calming voice for him when he was unglued.

"Hey,, man. We got you. We understand. This one's not on you."

Kyle, how do you feel about the way, uh,

you were penalized for what happened out there?

I was a bit of a wild card at times.

Ricky was that guy.

You know, he'd come up to you after the race, put his arm around you, be like,

"Man, let's talk about it on Monday.

We'll figure it out. We're gonna develop a plan."

Like kinda help-- help you through that moment.

Like, Ricky was that guy.

Kyle's not out there in NASCAR

making friends with everyone.

Ricky was there for him and kind of backing him, like,

"I got you. You're--You're good, and this is going to be a great thing for you."

Oh, that was awesome.

This is the best car I've ever driven in my entire life,

even late models, Legend cars, whatever.

But, uh... Man, I just can't thank these guys enough.

Lance McGrew and Ricky Hendrick, Papa Joe, Rick, you guys are at home watching.

Take care of Pop, and, uh, this one's for you guys.

Um, but that was short-lived, unfortunately.

It was October that year that-- that he died in the plane crash.

More on today's race in just a few minutes.

But we begin our coverage this weekend

with a tragic story that unfolded one week ago,

and the somber days that have followed.

Last Sunday, a twin engine airplane carrying

nine members of Hendrick Motor Sports and its extended family,

along with the helicopter pilot for Tony Stewart,

crashed after aborting a landing attempt near Martinsville, Virginia.

There were no survivors.

It was shocking to just--for me, I think I was--what was I at that time?

18, 19 years old-- to just see how fragile life is.

It just-- I think it shocked me, um, a lot,

and I don't know if I necessarily really knew it back then.

Gentlemen, please start your engines!

The first race that we had the-- the "Always Remember" logo,

there was a sticker that we all had, and we had it on the hood of our car,

and I finished second, and then the next week after,

and it was, like, devastating.

Kenseth protecting the bottom.

Kyle Busch not able to get up or make a move.

Because all you wanna do is- is have that magic moment

of being able to win and...

and give back to those that have given to you and--

and remember and all that, and so I just-- I felt like crap.

The end with just a 2-lap dash, not quite enough. What are your feelings?

I didn't have enough. 17 beat us.

And, Kyle, thinking of things today, obviously, guys,

tried his best there at the end.

He gave it a great ride.

One place short today.

I think maybe his go-to guy here,

the guy that he had the relationships with, was gone,

and I--it was a pretty big void in my life, uh, to getting back, uh

to really thinking about what we were going to do and needed to do,

and so there was a real dip here, and, uh

and I think Kyle might have felt it more than anyone, you know?

When he got pushed to Cup with Hendrick Motorsports

he's 19, 20 years old.

You have this unbelievable talent who has car control beyond comprehension

and he's getting in the absolute best equipment.

Kyle came in,

"I'm just as good. I'm just as talented, I'm just as fast,

and I'm gonna go show 'em."

Kyle Busch comes out of the Busch Series.

He's the new driver, that bright yellow Kellogg's car...

that just brushed off the wall.

Man, if he ever stops hitting the wall in practice,

if he ever stops making these mistakes, whoa.

This guy is gonna be lights out, blowing away the competition.

Through turns three and four. Tomorrow, the headlines will say,

"Busch won at California."

There it is.

But it'll be Kyle Busch. Kyle Busch wins in California.

Yeah! Yeah! Get it, get it, get it!

Most times when I'm in Victory Lane

like, everything goes dark or goes blank, and you forget everything,

but when I won my first Cup Series race, in that moment, I remembered

Hurricane Katrina's going through Louisiana.

It's my first win.

I don't need this money. Like, this is so cool.

I just want the trophy.

What are your thoughts?

It's unbelievable, you know?

For-- For how much joy we're able to share here for our first Nextel Cup win,

I still wanna be able to dedicate it

to all those folks down in Louisiana and Mississippi.

I mean, it's a terrible devastation that they've had to go through.

Next person over, I think, was Rick,

and he puts his arm around me or something.

We're gonna donate your share and my share of these winnings to the Red Cross

-for the foundation down there. -Absolutely, absolutely.

I give away all my winnings to Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund. Hey!

I'm gonna give away yours now, too. He's gonna give way his portion.

I just call him out right there on national television, and he was like,

"Okay, I guess, whatever." You know? So it was, um...

Came off the cuff, man.

And then I got called to go on "Oprah" after that.

Come on out, Kyle.

Oh, yeah, everybody was cheering. They were clapping. They're like, "Whoo!"

And I'm like, "Yeah!"

They had no clue who the hell was.

Not a clue.

Right away, you saw Kyle

was really good at focusing the attention of the media on him.

Even though he got promoted to race in the top series of NASCAR,

he also wanted to race in the lower leagues as well.

So, every week, he was racing Friday and then the Cup Series on Sunday

which meant he was getting that much more exposure,

and NASCAR fans were hearing his name that much more.

Kyle Busch. Kyle Busch looks high.

They go through three and four. Here comes Jack Sprague up high,

and here comes Johnny Benson.

Benson's gonna slide out of four.

Sprague's gonna slide out of four, and Kyle Busch is gonna win this race!

Tonight, we recognize the accomplishments

of the 2005 Rookie of the Year....

I won my one race that I wanted to win.

Kyle Busch.

And then we won Rookie of the Year, so hey, we finished 20th in points,

but ain't nobody remember that fact.

I hope you got good questions, 'cause I'm kind of a mutt.

So you familiar with the term "mutt"?

Like a rescue animal is--is endearing. You love 'em. They're good.

A mutt human is a "mediocre, un-talented, terrible" person--mutt.

Okay, that's a mutt.

That's a mutt.

They saw their dad racing,

you know, 'cause we would go as a family, you know, to the racetrack.

They grew up hearing their dad get booed.

"Mom, why is Dad getting booed?"

Oh, because he wins too much.

People don't want that. They wanna see other drivers win."

Motorsports is the definition of competition.

It's just the next spot's yours. You gotta go take it.

You meet him, and you're like, ah, okay,

I see where Kyle and Kurt came from.

Here's the thing about the Busches-

getting booed is the family business.

His old man got booed in Vegas. Why? 'Cause he didn't give a damn.

All he wanted to do was show up and win races,

and that's the exact example that Kurt and Kyle had.

Kyle Busch spun and hit the wall a ton.

Like, I remember when I crashed a few times racing

in my younger days, Legends cars or-- or late models or whatever, you know? Like...

I come back in the pit, I'm in the tow truck,

and my dad's standing there, and I'm just looking at my dad's face,

and he's just like...

He hates torn-up cars.

So, like, I feel like I got that that built into me.

So, whenever I have a torn-up car, whenever I wreck...

It meant more to me than winning did.

Because I'm like, "I know what goes into this stuff.

I know what it's gonna take to fix this stuff."

Kyle Busch and his crew chief

have been invited to have a discussion in the Oval Office.

That's the Nextel Cup officials' trailer.

So I'm mad at the situation

or I'm mad at another competitor or I'm just flat-out mad at myself.

Uh, Mr. Hendrick may have to join his young driver there.

From the second he walked onto the scene,

we knew he was a loose cannon.

Because when you run second or third,

and you react in a way where you're throwing your helmet into your car or

you know disparaging your team,

that you're driving a piece of shit on the radio

All you who did this, it was a big, fucking embarrassment.

Goddamnit, can we get our shit together?

Your immediate reaction is "what an ungrateful person."

He has no concept of what he has.

And there wasn't that everyday voice that Ricky provided.

Check it up, here, check it up. You're clear.

Kyle Busch today. Holy crap...

Clear by five. This normal?

Does the 5-spotter think his driver's just an idiot?

Corporate America makes the NASCAR wheel turn.

Those guys behind the wheel are the face of that company to the country,

so that type of behavior...? it don't fly, man.

And if it doesn't work, it doesn't last, period.

I'll never forget this. I'm standing next to my car,

Kyle comes over to the--

stands at the passenger side of my car,

says something like, "You better watch it,"

like just like that, and I walk-

-and then walked on, and I'm like, "What is he talking about?"

But that's what he did, and I'm like, God, that's so weird.

From that moment on, I...

we didn't see eye to eye.

Let's send it over to the podium,

where Dale Earnhardt Jr. is getting ready

to make a much anticipated announcement about his future.

We're here today to talk at last, uh, about my contract at DEI.

We decided that it's time for us to move on

and seek other opportunities to drive for a new team in 2008.

Dale Jr. was like Jesus to NASCAR.

He's the son of the greatest driver that ever walked.

He's the namesake of the greatest driver that ever walked

and, as a result of that, the most popular driver that ever lived.

I don't think I'm being overly dramatic

when I say Dale Earnhardt Jr. leaving DEI

is the second biggest story that ever happened in the sport.

He was seriously considering,

and Hendrick was also vetting him to come over to, uh ,join Hendrick Motorsports.

Well, Junior and I, back in that day, we were--

we were really at-- at each other's throats.

Texas Motor Speedway in April of 2007

Dale Jr. was involved in a wreck.

Kyle was also wrecked in this race, and Kyle's team went so far as to fix his car,

which came as a surprise to Kyle because he had already left the track,

so they didn't have a driver.

When the team learned that Dale wasn't returning,

they decided to put Dale in Kyle's car to finish the race.

You never hear of a driver getting in another team's car.

Like, that does not happen.

That also started some rumors that I was gonna go to Hendrick.

And it would make perfect sense

that you'd get rid of Kyle, that sometimes was a problem child,

and you're going to bring in Dale Earnhardt Jr.,

who, by the way, is a selling genius,

and any sponsor will sign up to give you a check for millions of dollars

to represent Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Maybe some resentment started to build there.

How could it not?

Growing up, I was actually a Dale Jr. fan.

Like, 1998, 1999, he won back-to-back Busch series championships.

Like, I was a fan of-- of Junior. Like, that was cool.

It was always, um, Dale Jr. high on a pedestal, uh,

after Dale Sr.'s death, obviously. You know, he kinda morphed into...

"hey, he's that number-- he is the number one guy."

Like, just being Dale's son, he automatically got that title.

Now he didn't-- he would probably tell you today that he didn't want that title.

He wasn't that kind of guy.

He wasn't that kind of personality.

But he got it. He went with it. He rolled it.

Um, he was in "Rolling Stone" magazine,

"Playboy" magazine

having parties at his house all the time, some cool stuff like that,

so I mean, he--he played into that-- that role, and, um, but

yeah, the success on the racetrack just didn't quite follow,

and so to me, I was always kind of like,

"hey, this is a performance-based business.

You should have to win to get that kind of stature" or whatever,

and he just kind of uh...

he just kinda had it given to him,

if you will, and didn't really earn it.

But that's--that's for others to decide and debate on.

Here we go! Green flag! It's on.

We're in the 2007 All-Star Race.

It's either win a million dollars or bring home the steering wheel.

That's what they always say. Checkers or wreckers.

We were up front. It was the final stage.

20-lap quarter. Here we go.

And they're on it!

And by brother was trying to pass Jeff Burton at the time.

And he kind of gets slowed up,

and I'm flying. I'm coming up to behind them,

and Kurt probably thinks I'm gonna get in behind him

and draft him and help him pass...

Burton.

Takes second spot away from Burton!

Here comes his brother Kyle for the inside!

Spotter says, "Car low,"

and I'm like, "Who's to the inside? I'm passing this guy,"

and--and I see it. It's, like the 5 car. The door of the 5 is underneath me.

And I'm like... "bro."

There's a car right there, boy.

So, I jump to the inside of him.

I go, "Bro, if you want the inside lane now,

you're gonna get the inside lane when we go to turn one.

We'll see how you handle it."

Here comes his brother Kyle for the inside!

And almost wrecked him!

Aah! Told you! Here he goes!

- Oh, yeah! - I told you.

You've gotta have air on your car to help support you getting in the corner,

and he knows this.

So he cut all the air off on my car and spins me out getting in the corner.

How stupid is that?

We both wreck.

And everybody-- everybody says it's my fault.

That boy's got a lot of talent,

if only he could harness it on a weekly basis.

And then Kurt gets on TV,

smiling and laughing, and, "Ha ha, yeah, it's Kyle's fault.

He wrecked us. I knew it would happen eventually one of these days.

I'm not having any Kellogg's cereal anytime soon."

But, uh, right now, um, I'm not-- I'm not eating any Kellogg's anytime soon.

So, I hear all this on TV while I'm changing my clothes,

and I fucking beat it out of the hall,

or I'm gonna go whip his ass.

My PR person, two of 'em, stopped me and held me down in the hauler

and had to restrain me from doing something stupid, so...

So that was probably the wrong thing to say,

'cause Rick Hendrick called me afterwards.

He goes, "That wasn't very nice." And I went, "Sorry, sir."

So that was May. Uh, we got to Thanksgiving time,

and Grandma wanted family Thanksgiving,

and Kurt and I hadn't spoken a word to each other.

Uh, that--that was a separation moment of...

I wasn't doing well enough with my maturity in the sport,

and now I'm starting to see Kyle's...

starting to ramp up a little bit and get-- get established

And maybe I wanted a little bit of respect from it.

Here it is. Watch the 5.

And Kyle Busch has won a race this year--one at Bristol.

Probably should have won four or five,

but things like this keep happening.

Car owner Rick Hendrick.

And there he stands with crew chief Alan Gustafson.

Yeah, that was the end, that night.

So that was--that was-- that was the end of HMS.

You know, you can always look back

and say, if Ricky was here, would it have been different?

If, uh, you know, if he was--

if I had been the guy, taking care of him,

would it have been different, you know? I don't know.

You can't-- You can't fix that.

That was part of my problem in that day-and-age, you know?

I wanted the success.

I wanted it so bad...

that the bad moments would outshine any of the good moments.

I talked to Rick. I was like, "I wanna stay,"

and he was like, "I don't think there's-- I don't-- I don't think--it's too late.

Like, Kellogg's essentially doesn't want you anymore."

You could have the best driver. You could have the best team.

But if you don't have money,

and you don't have a sponsor behind you, you're not going to win races.

I'd like to thank everybody for being here today.

It's a pretty packed crowd we got. Uh...

and so today it is with great honor to introduce my new boss for 2008--

Mr. Rick Hendrick.

And this is my opinion...

I think sometimes we forget this young man is only 21, 22 years old.

And in the last two-and-a-half-years,

he has twice as many wins as Dale Earnhardt. Jr.

So I got, uh, I got my release papers,

and you know, they said, "Have a nice day."

Can he go somewhere

and make a huge difference in an operation in their performance?

There's a lot of teams needs that young man to drive their race car.

He now can become the number one guy on the team.

When I had my first meeting with Joe, he and I--

we went to his office, and-- and we had a sit-down.

"Joe, you know what? I've made a ton of mistakes,

and I'm not proud of a lot of 'em,

but what I really want help with is how to harness that."

Joe Gibbs is among the most respected people in all of sport.

He's a Hall of Fame, Super Bowl-winning leader.

I think all the race car drivers I've dealt with are different.

They have different personalities, a style on the race track.

You take 'em to any race track, and you have a chance to win.

He has an uncanny ability to put people together

who create excellence and historic greatness.

They got the deal done where it was M&M's and Interstate Batteries, and...

the rest is history.

When I heard Kyle Busch

was going to have M&M's on his car, I thought

all right, this--this is kind of funny. Like, Kyle's young and fun,

and he'll probably bring a lot of kids into this sport.

The coolest thing, when I talked to some of the M&M's people in the beginning

they just wanted to win.

Okay, what we were talking about Dale Earnhardt Jr.

being the fastest car out there by half-a-second but all of a sudden,

but all of a sudden this cat right there has come to life.

Third place side by side.

Here comes "Rowdy" Busch.

His sponsors allowed him to be Kyle.

"Do what you need to do. Focus on winning, though.

Drown out the distractions. We'll pick up the pieces and figure it out as we go,"

and that's what they had to do.

Coming into checkers over here.

That was Kyle Busch that said that!

"Coming into checkers over here."

"Wild Thing" wins! Kyle Busch!

Look out here. Look out. Where you going?

Anywhere-- Anywhere he wants Darrell.

Kyle--he goes into the Gibbs car having an amazing season

and still was pissed off

about being rejected by Rick.

Um, he took that hard, and I think he took it hard,

and he held that chip on his shoulder.

We go to Richmond.

One to go at the line.

Another sellout at Richmond International Raceway.

The green flag this time by...

Going into Richmond in 2008,

Dale Jr. And Kyle hated each other.

Five to go. Green flag. Oh...!

Gonna get interesting.

Junior went up the hill pretty high, but I think that's his line.

Kyle wanted to prove to the world

that he was better than Dale.

Kyle Busch got a great run on turn two down the back straightaway!

You know he'll tack it down into turn three.

Oh, he's boogeying down in there, baby!

They'll be side by side down the back straightaway!

Whoo, man, that was tight off turn two.

I hear the wreck.

And I hear the crowd explode.

Kyle catches Dale...

and dumps him.

I-I lose it getting into turn three.

I just-- I threw it off in there too hard.

I got loose, and I had to chase it,

and I'm just-- just turned right getting into the whole corner.

He's got him. I believe he's got him this time.

- Oh, he turned it! - No!

Oh, he turned it, no!

Oh, no!

No, no!

Boys, I'll just tell you something.

That ain't gonna go over too good right now.

No, it's not.

When you wreck Dale Jr.,

you're not making the fans in the stands mad.

You're making Junior Nation mad.

You know what, Darrell? I did not like what I saw.

I saw the wheels on the 18 car turn to the right just ever so slightly.

That's like wrecking the Pope, bro.

You race people how they race you, right?

I didn't care. I wasn't giving him any room--

any extra room or making sure I wasn't gonna crash him,

but when you don't have that respect between another guy,

you-- you don't show it.

You don't give it.

Was that a fair racing move,

or does Kyle Busch need some extra security leaving Richmond tonight?

Whether it's fair or not, he's gonna need some security from all of us.

I wouldn't wanna be Kyle Bush right now, trying to get out of Richmond,

because it's gonna be ugly.

They're not going to forgive him for a long time to come.

Getting on the golf cart and getting him over to the helipad

and there were fans waiting at the helipad.

It was scary because all the fans had turned on Kyle,

even if they didn't love Dale Jr., which there weren't many,

and it was a dangerous situation to leave the track.

The irony of that entire moment...

is that Dale Jr.'s daddy became an icon for doing that exact thing.

Because when his peers looked in their mirror and saw Goodwrench,

they went "Oh, shit. I'm gonna get dumped."

He became a mythical figure because that's how he raced cars.

So fast-forward to Kyle doing it to Junior,

it's exactly what Big E would have done.

At that time, he embraced being that guy.

He was, like, "I'm done trying to be the Dale Jr. of the sport

and trying to say all the right things and do all the right things

'cause that's not who I am."

It proved to me that he didn't care if he had any friends.

He didn't care if the fans hated him.

Cale Yarborough, 1979.

White flag is out. One lap to go.

This is the last lap.

So it was on CBS, live race, the whole country's in, like, a deep freeze.

Everybody's in front of their TVs.

Two of the greatest, fiddling here, fidgeting with first place.

Donnie Allison in first.

Where will Cale make his move?

He comes to the inside, and Donnie Allison throws the block.

Cale hits him! He slides!

Donnie Allison slides! Linking again!

They drive on the turn!

They're hitting the wall!

They're head-on to the wall!

And this fight breaks out.

And there's a fight

between Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison.

The tempers overflowing. They're angry. They know they have lost.

And everybody in the whole country's talking about it.

Boom. People are like,

"What the heck? Is this NASCAR? That was the coolest thing I ever saw.

These guys are going 150 miles an hour, and then they're fighting?"

And I feel like back in the day that was normal.

You didn't have to work your stuff out. Like, you just...

"We're racing. I'm not here to be your friend."

Kyle Busch is the fabric of what NASCAR was built on.

Last four races for Kyle Busch-- Victory Lane at Talladega

second at Richmond, win at Darlington, third at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

What a season.

Most drivers just choose to keep everybody on the up and up

so for somebody like Kyle to come along and be like...

"I don't care. I'm not apologizing to anybody," that says something.

Here's, uh, what happened.

You jumped out of your car, and you went back and had words with him.

What did you say?

I basically told him

that you mess with the bull you're gonna get the horns.

He wants to play those games, he's gonna get hurt.

I wanna see if they're gonna fight. I wanna see this.

Oh, here we go.

Unfortunately, you race with idiots,

and, um, you know, I guess you'll have that sometimes.

For every amazing moment he had behind the wheel,

he had a "What the hell are you thinking?" moment...

Oh!

...when he wasn't behind the wheel.

In that 2008 season

Kyle went to Victory Lane 21 times across the top three levels of NASCAR

more than his previous three years combined.

And by standing opposite of Dale Jr.,

Kyle Busch might have turned a lot of fans on him

but he also turned just as many fans to Rowdy Nation.

So the Harvick rivalry,

I think started when I started Kyle Busch Motorsports Truck Series team.

And when I did that, I hired one of his lead crew chiefs

from his Truck Series team, Rick Ren,

so I don't think he was ever too thrilled losing one of his key guys.

Kevin Harvick is a certified badass. Like, he's a legit badass.

Highschool wrestling champion.

Like, a dude-- you don't mess with a wiry guy.

And Harvick's that guy.

For one, Kyle definitely showed his-- his immaturity tonight,

and he's gonna grow up, or he's gonna have some swollen eyes.

Anything and everybody associated with Kevin Harvick was told...

"Fuck with Kyle. All you can, fuck with Kyle."

It was coming down towards the end of the race.

It was, uh, a late race restart.

Here they come for the green with five laps to go.

The track is really narrow.

I mean, it's not even wide enough for two cars,

and we're racing around there two-wide, right?

So we race through turn two, and Kevin Harvick doesn't

run his car, like, up next to the wall. He stays like a half car width off of it.

Well, if I'm on his inside, and I don't know that's coming,

I doored him and we touched.

So, we roll down the back stretch into turn three, and he lets me go.

And he lets me get in front of him.

Kyle Busch way on the inside, picks up a spot. Harvick drops one.

And I kinda slide up the track a little bit,

and he just throttles up in the middle of the corner,

drives in the back of me

Gives the 18 a big shot in the rear.

Knocks me sideways up the track, whatever, he gets back on my inside.

Now there's another guy involved. It's his teammate, Clint Bowyer.

Now Clint Bowyer's on the bottom of him,

so now we're three-wide coming off the corner.

Like, that was it. Like

Four to go. That's time.

Four to go and three-wide.

Oh! Bowyer in the wall hard!

Hard wreck.

I turned left and just dumped his ass on the straightaway.

Aw we just got spun!

Hold it. Hold it straight!

hold it straight, hold it straight, hold it straight!

Keep going. Keep going.

Three of the four Childress cars in trouble in the closing laps.

This shit can't keep going.

There has to be a stop to it somewhere or another.

Clint Bowyer climbs out.

He is okay after a hard hit to the inside wall.

33 put us three wide

and, uh, and then the 18 hooked me.

Oh, we're gonna hook that 18 some other time.

He can just be ready for it.

He's got a flat, too, on the left. Running a hole.

So Harvick's a fighter.

He was a high school wrestler. So, he always likes to fight.

So, he knows that he is "good" at fighting

or might have more experience at fighting than everybody else.

He enjoys that. So then after the race is over...

Um, you know, we end up coming around to turns, uh four,

where the pit entry is.

And Harvick and Busch...

He's after him.

So I was thinking, "Okay, I'm gonna be really sly

and really quick here. I'm gonna drop it in reverse.

I'm gonna back up.

I'm gonna put it in gear.

I'm gonna go down pit road.

My crew will be there. Like, I'll have backup.

We can fight this thing out on pit road, right?

This ain't gonna happen too good.

Well, I blow out in reverse.

Okay, you gonna have to...

So, I'm like, "oh, shit. Okay."

So, I put it back in gear and I turn out, and I go around.

The winner's doing his burnout over there on the front straightaway,

and we're doing this uh, hokey-motion on turn four, but anyway,

I think Harvick beat me into pit road.

So, he was in front of me.

So as I turned in, I got behind him, and I'm just cruising behind him.

I'm like, okay, what's gonna happen here? And...

Harvick looking in his mirror.

Shuts the switches off.

And he stops, and I'm like, okay, so I stop.

And then he backs up to get closer to me, so I pull forward to get closer to him.

So I touch him.

And I know and I think he knew, too, that I didn't have reverse.

So he's like, "Kyle can't go anywhere, so now I've got him boxed in."

Something's gonna have to give here, boys.

So, he starts taking his stuff off

and he gets out of the car.

Oh, wheel's off,

-And here he comes. - And here he comes.

He says, "Okay."

So, I had a plan.

I had a plan the whole time.

I'm like, "look, I'm not gonna hurt the guy.

I'm gonna wait for him to, as soon as he gets out,

I'm gonna push his shit out of the way, and I'm gonna drive on."

This is a "I'm going back here,

and we're gonna have a little talk."

And there goes his car!

Dadgum car just took off!

He slapped me--whatever-- on the helmet as I drove away,

and, uh, by then I got down to the end of pit road,

and he was walking, and we had our team

so... there was no--

no fight action, but we were called to the NASCAR trailer after that.

Kyle, uh, I understand now you're being asked

to go to the NASCAR trailer, is that correct?

Yeah, yeah, no big deal. That's fine.

Good to hash it out now. Might as well.

-Okay. Good luck. - Yeah. Thanks.

Is it settled between the two of you?

You saw the end.

I don't know if we saw the end.

I think we saw another chapter.

I think we saw some continuation, though.

Yeah .

'Cause you start getting into this--this place,

and I see a lot of drivers do it,

and things just keep coming at 'em,

and all you start doing is--

is focusing on the negative, and it affects your ability on the race track.

I would get annoyed when some of the media would go,

"Oh, Kyle's just passionate." "Oh, Kyle just hates to lose."

I'm like you're-- you can't enable this guy.

I felt like that he deserved the criticism

because it was like to not criticize him

would be to enable him, to keep that going,

and it's--it was hard to watch some of it.

Some of it was frustrating to watch.

The 18-- too fast.

They said we sped to keep from going a lap down.

Bullshit!

And okay, with speed, maybe it was a mile/hour over,

but it wasn't like it was 15 miles an hour over like it was fucking obvious.

Hey, they always get the last word, bud.

Fuck you, guys.

Oh. I guess that's a little hand signal

he's giving the NASCAR official.

Yeah, we will apologize for Kyle.

This old man, right and Kyle's sitting there

throwing the double-birds at this guy,

and the guy's just doing what he's told from the tower.

That's freedom of speech.

They're going against the constitutional rights of everybody.

Kyle, stop, please!

Fastest guy out there.

Can win any given Sunday,

won't ever win a championship.

'Cause he doesn't know how to take care of his stuff.

I think his operational approach definitely cost him Cup titles.

Because he had the equipment. He had the talent. He had the team.

He had every-- He had everything you needed.

He just couldn't finish.

And here comes Hornaday for second

trying to take that spot away.

There was a lot of build-up to the Hornaday situation.

I mean, we ran over each other five times

in that season in 2011 in the trucks.

We're racing against each other in the Truck Series,

and he thinks we're gonna go three-wide around this lap truck, and in doing that,

he had to he hit me to get me up the track to miss the lap car,

and then he got loose and puts me in the wall, puts him in the wall.

Kyle Busch all the way up the racetrack!

He has to catch him from going in the wall!

And Hornaday catches the wall.

Caution down. Caution down.

And it's like 15 or 20 laps into the race.

And I'm like, what? What are we doing?

Like, if it was five to go, I get it. But it's 15 laps into the race.

All I saw was, I saw red. I saw the back of his truck.

I am like, "I am going to fucking crash you right now."

Both drivers trying to get by.

Look like they're 17 to 10, but it appears they slid up the racetrack, and now--

Calm down. Hey, calm down. Calm down.

Kyle Busch not happy at all.

It's all good, dude.

And Kyle Busch is gonna turn the 33 to the wall!

Our Championship contender, Hornaday in the wall.

Well, Kyle Busch should be parked for this race,

and maybe the rest of the season.

And so I just destroyed his truck,

and lo and behold, he was racing for a championship at that time.

Holy cow. I can't believe he did that.

Championship contender, Ron Hornaday, hard into the wall.

Kyle Busch sends him in.

I was suspended for the rest of the weekend,

and that's the biggest black mark that I have on me to today.

Was my wreck on Hornaday overdid?

Yes, it was for sure. Did he deserve something?

Absolutely, no question.

Now I wasn't born or raised a fighter.

Like, I didn't go to the race track and--

and get out of the car and wanna fight guys.

Should I have in that instance, like, just after the race,

gone over and been like, "Let's fight"?

Absolutely. That--that would have probably been the more "man" way to do it

than taking a race car and--and you know, playing weapons with it, but, um...

that-- that's just-- I mean, when you're in that moment,

and you've seen red for the whole year, and you see red,

I mean, I-I don't even remember being in the truck in that moment,

and all of that happening until I was back at the garage area.

Like, that's when it kind of comes back to me.

It was almost like an unconscious moment, but it happened.

I never watched it and-- and took satisfaction from it.

Like, "oh, hell, yeah, he's burying himself.

Yes, keep--keep--keep acting a fool

uh, and keep burying yourself and--

and just bury yourself into the ground, disappear."

I watched it going, "damn, get it together!"

You know, I wanted him to fix it.

He was gonna be around a long time.

He was too good behind the wheel,

and I wanted him to get it-- get better at the other stuff.

Up until this point in Kyle's career,

he has proven without a doubt he's one of the best drivers on the racetrack

week in and week out.

2013, Kyle Busch is just 27 years old,

and he becomes the winningest driver ever in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

But despite all the wins and record breaking,

Kyle still had not won a Cup Series championship.

So Daytona, 2015, it's the first race of the year for all series,

for the trucks, for Xfinity, and for Cup.

For Kyle, he wants to run the Xfinity Series for multiple reasons,

and I'm sure one was just, you know,

to knock off the rest and be ready for Sunday.

Bird in the air, and let's get down to business at Daytona.

And, Kevin, I'm not kidding.

We watched Kyle Busch in practice make some moves that were incredible.

We know he's gonna do that in the race,

and he's already three wide on the outside,

trying to push his way to the front.

Watch this tandem on the outside, though.

Kyle Busch has been really pushing Bubba Wallace.

Listen to this from Team 54 and Team 6 moments ago.

KYLE BUSCH: TELL HIM TO STRETCH OUT ON THE STRAIGHTAWAYS…

GO TO THE WALL ON THE STRAIGHTAWAYS…

GET OFF THE INSIDE ROW.

BUBBA'S CREW CHEF: K.B. SAYS, SPRINT IT OUT ON THE STRAIGHTAWAYS…

STALL THEM IN THE CORNERS.

You can see he's doing it now.

Bubba's separated from the inside line, and look at the run they're making.

Uh, Darrell really trusts Kyle pushing him,

and Kyle trusts pushing him because they've worked together so much.

And don't forget this about Kyle Busch:

He started outside the top 30.

Right now he's third, Vince.

You know, I remember everything from the day.

I remember what I had on.

I was, like, 27 weeks pregnant at the time.

You know, I can hear the spotter and Kyle

and the crew chief on, you know, my earphones.

SPOTTER: TWENTY-FOUR AND NINETY ARE THE NEXT TWO…

THEN A LITTLE GAP UP TO THE NEXT STRING OF FIVE.

KYLE BUSCH: I WAS WIDE OPEN THAT ENTIRE TIME,

SO NOW THAT I'M BACK HERE A LITTLE BIT

IT'S ABOUT THREE QUARTERS SO FAR.

I think there was, like, 14 laps to go, and you hear it ramping up,

and you know, like, okay, now--now--now it's race time.

TWENTY IS GOING TO BE CLOSING WITH THE HELP FROM THE NINE…

NOW HE HUNG.

ALRIGHT, 10-4

I just don't see that 54 car sitting back there on the bottom

in 11 spot too long.

So it's coming down to the end of the race.

So I'm always keeping my eye on Kyle Busch because people wanna go with Kyle.

They wanna be in position around Kyle.

SPOTTER: THREE OF THEM NOSE TO TAIL… STILL THREE WIDE BOTTOM…

All of a sudden, I just remember hearing Tony go,

"Lock her down, lock her down, lock her down."

SPOTTER: ON 'EM, ON 'EM, ON 'EM…

And I just knew.

Something's terribly wrong.

Come on, down, down, down, down, down. Go, go, go, go.

And then...

it was, like, kind of silent.

A horrific crash for Kyle Busch,

who slid through the infield grass and went head-on into the inside wall.

And then Tony gets on the radio and he's like, "Kyle, are you okay?"

You all right, K.B.?

And there's nothing.

You could hear a pin drop.

We see drivers hit walls all the time, but the way that he hit,

the speed in which he it, and the angle--

you were just praying for the best at that point.

I saw a hole open up through the middle,

and I got run on Erik Jones, who was in front of me, my teammate,

and I started kinda pushing him a little bit,

bumping him a little bit in order to get the run

started and moving momentum forward.

I think the second or third hit that I had on him,

it got him sideways and got him crossed up.

As he corrected it, it hooked and it turned him

back across the racetrack, essentially.

Erik Jones around. Back across the field!

And I tried to shoot through the middle through that gap.

I was fine. Like, he didn't hit me.

I made it through there, and I was like, whew.

But the air off the nose of his car,

and the air on the tail of my car just spun me sideways.

Like, I never got touched. It was just air that got me turned sideways and--

and heading towards the infield.

As I was spinning,

I was thinking to myself, I'm like,

just get the car to rudder, to turn directions.

And just kept sliding, you know, down towards the infield and--

and sideways, and it wouldn't change directions at all.

So um, I ended up head-on in the inside wall at 90 miles an hour.

It was about 90 G's of a hit.

But when I hit,

the impact pushed the motor 16 inches, 18 inches backwards towards me,

basically, like, compressed in the seat belt.

My chest, uh, hit the steering wheel. My-- My chin hit the steering wheel.

The--As the motor came back and hit the gas pedal and pushed it back towards me,

in that quickness of that abrupt hit, snapped my leg instantly.

Little bit of fire outside the-- the cowl area of the car,

and I'm like, "Oh, shit, fire. I gotta get out."

And I felt my leg, like, just flopping there,

and my bone's sticking out, and blood everywhere.

So I'm like, "Oh, shit. This is gonna be bad."

And he is climbing from that car,

and--and that is an unbelievable sight.

So I just had to pull myself up.

Wow.

I mean, he hit that wall head-on.

It looked like he never even slowed down.

Oh, she probably does not know

that he's getting out of the car.

And this camera guy-- 'cause I'm crying,

and he stops me, and I just remember turning around,

and he's like, "He's out of the car."

But that is a-a great sign,

and you saw her say "thank you" and perhaps

one of our cameramen sharing the news with her.

We're watching it just like everybody else is, on TV,

and you just knew when that car went in,

it was... wow.

I'm a pretty good automotive physicist by

crashing stuff myself or fixing stuff that's been crashed.

That was just... you could tell.

Anytime you're told that a driver's going straight to the hospital,

you know it's--it's serious, and at that point, it was like,

"How is he going to come back? Is he going to be okay?

Are his legs going to be able to function,

and will he be able to race a car like he's used to,

or is that going to be a whole new part of his life and his chapter,

having to adapt?"

♪ You can run on for a long time ♪

♪ Run on for a long time ♪

♪ Run on for a long time ♪

♪ But sooner or later, God'll cut you down Sooner or later, God'll cut you down ♪

When you realize that somebody's human

that you think is not human, when they're so good at what they do,

he's hard to beat, he's rough and tumble,

he's easy to hate, but all of a sudden,

this guy gets hurt, and he's not Superman anymore.

Whether you're a fan that hated him,

a driver that hated him,

everybody stopped and appreciated Kyle Busch when he was hurt.

So my injury to my right leg was a double compound fracture,

and them, um, my left foot-- mid-foot break.

One of the hardest ones to--to repair.

And so they called a doctor who was a specialist with a rod in my leg,

six screws, two plates in my left foot.

I-I didn't really realize how bad his legs were hurt, and his foot.

You know, I think all athletes, if they suffer a major injury like that,

you're not sure how they're gonna deal with it.

A lot of athletes, that-- that ruined their career.

Everybody was pretty much saying the year was shot.

Like, I might as well just stay the whole year out, right?

But I told Joe-- I was like,

"I'll-- I'll be back ready by the All-Star Race in May."

May 16th. I'm like, "I'm gonna be back ready by May 16th."

If I could be back by the All-Star Race and--and racing again,

then I figured, okay, I'm gonna--

I'm actually gonna be able to be there for my son's birth.

His birth date was scheduled for, um...

Samantha's due date was scheduled for May 22nd.

And the doctor was like, "That's 11 weeks. That's not gonna happen."

You know, he's like, "This might just be an off-year for you,

and we'll get you healthy, and then, you know, you could be back,"

and he's like, "No, I'll be back for the All-Star Race."

Rehab was the most excruciating thing I've ever done.

I got home from foot surgery. They come over, and they cut my cast off.

And they said, "Okay, stand up." And I was, like, "Wait, what?"

He took every-- every rehab assignment literally

as a--as a goal every day.

"I couldn't do that yesterday or I struggled with it.

By the time you come back in two days,

that's not only gonna be able to be done,

I'm gonna do it well so I can do the next thing."

Sometimes I would tell him, I'm like,

"I'm ready for this and I'm ready for this and I feel fine, and I'm ready for that."

And he was trying to hold me back some of those times,

'cause he's been there, done that.

Charlotte race was gonna be our goal.

It was gonna be a really tough goal to get,

but that was the race we set as a comeback.

You know, just like in racing, when Kyle has a goal,

and he sets his mind to it,

like there's nothing that's going to stop him,

and so he pushes himself

harder than anybody else will push him to get there.

Hello, everybody. Uh, thanks for coming out today.

Uh, it's been a while since Kyle's had the opportunity to get in front of all of you.

Um, and especially the opportunity just to share his thoughts.

Um, thank you to all my family and friends,

and, uh, and in a situation like mine,

you really get to know who your friends are.

And, uh, from all the texts, the phone calls, the messages,

and the visits from people who care,

that really means a lot to both Samantha and I.

The response from the fans-- it's been the most amazing thing.

I think it's just been crazy.

I think that was really good for him,

because I mean, all people, right?

So, if you get a hundred comments on Instagram, and 99 are good,

what's the one you're gonna remember?

That one person.

Just that outpouring of love from his fans,

the other competitors-- like, that was-- that was really cool to see.

Everybody thought I was rushing to come back.

Every-- Joe Gibbs thought I was rushing to come back.

When he came back to racing, uh, I thought he had a chance,

but I-I thought it was a long shot.

It's a lot to win one of these races,

and if you're not totally healthy

It really becomes a lot.

Just the level that he was pushing himself physically

made me really uncomfortable, um...

because it seemed like his timeline

and the timeline that a normal person would think it would take to come back...

uh, were two different things.

So, right away when Kyle said he was going to make a return

in May already, what is he going to be racing for?

So right away, NASCAR announced that there was going to be a waiver granted,

'cause normally you have to start in every single race of the season

to be considered for a championship.

For me, I remember thinking, "okay, well, they've gotta-- they've got to

grant him a waiver just to say, like, 'You're not racing for nothing'"

So we thought "okay, well, he's getting a waiver.

Let's see what happens."

You're watching the 31st edition of the Sprint All-Star Race.

We welcome back Kyle Busch.

I'm telling you, what this race is gonna be about

is Kyle Busch determined to show the world that he's ready to win.

He earned a lot of fans. He earned a lot of respect that year

because he showed how much fight, how much grit, how much determination that he has.

Drivers! Start your engines!

Yeah, buddy, what is your comfort level in the car, Kyle?

How--How are you feeling out there?

Just a matter of trying to feel out what the seat's all about.

We'll just fight through that, and, uh, and, uh, get ready

for the long haul next week.

Going for it all. That's who you are, brother.

I'd be disappointed if it was any less.

Yes, sir.

I was definitely limited a little bit.

Yeah, like if you needed to give a thousand pounds of brake pressure,

I think I could only do, like, 850 or something like that, so...

But the--the thought in your mind is like,

"Man, if I crash again in the same way with everything in me,

that's really gonna mess me up."

Hello...

How's our man Kyle doing back here?

- He's hard at work. - Started in the back.

Started 19th, up to 17th,

going for 16th against teammate Matt Kenseth.

Remember, these are the first laps that Kyle Busch has run

in this--in this, uh, Sprint Cup car this year.

- How you holding up in there? - Oh, yeah. Real good.

Solid top 10 night.

Um, and yeah, that was Saturday night, and Monday we had a baby.

TMI-- I pushed for, like, three hours to try to get my child.

You know, he did not wanna come out, and--

and he stood on his two feet for three hours...

with me, you know? Um, I was, like, horribly sick,

and so I would be, like, throwing up,

and he was there, like, with a bucket, giving me oxygen, and I was like,

"I can't believe you're standing."

Like, and--and I think to myself, I thank God you push yourself so hard

because I don't know that I would have been able to do this,

you know, without you, um, it--and then it was just--

it was-- it was great.

The following week is our year's longest race the Coca-Cola 600.

It's 400 laps at the same track.

But I was like, uh, we're gonna do it.

Kyle Busch right behind him in the 18.

Started 13th. He's up three spots.

I hit the wall with, like, 10 laps to go.

I-I-I fell out of the seed.

Like, I was just hanging on at the end of that one,

just exhausted.

Kyle had so many things, I feel like,

against him when he came back.

I mean, not just the way that he felt physically.

He wasn't 100%.

He was way outside the top 30 in points,

and of course, he didn't have any wins to lean on.

And then the next week we go to Dover,

and I'm running in third. Like, I'm doing okay.

And I entered the corner on the inside of a lap car,

and we touched, and we both crashed.

It looks like Kyle just gets in the corner really hot.

And it was--it was a pretty good lick.

And I was like, "Fuck!

Dude, you have to stop crashing.

Like, you're trying so hard to come back and to win.

Like, you're not just letting things happen naturally.

Like, I was trying to force it, and then the next week, we go to--

I think we went to Michigan,

and I slip in the-- I slip in the rain, and I smack the wall again.

Got your radio on, driver?

Confirm that the track was wet.

Everybody else said it, but he just wants you to say it,

and he's gonna go talk to 'em.

Joe's just wasting his breath.

I still think he will win a race,

but this hurts his chances of getting into that top 30 in the points.

Yeah, 173 points outside the top 30 right now.

Yep.

Michigan: has a wreck. That does that.

Like, that's the nail in that coffin. He's not getting in that top 30 in points.

Like, there's just too much against him.

I think there was then an off week,

and I kinda, like, reset my head. I'm like, dude, just--

Just chill. You're not a movie. This is real life.

You know? So, I-I kinda rolled into-- to Sonoma with that attitude.

So Sonoma's an 11, 12 turn course--

road course that we race on, heavy braking, lots of braking,

lots of technical stuff that you gotta do, shifting.

So, I knew it was gonna be a challenge. In practice, after practice was over,

I was like, "there is no way I'm gonna make the race.

Like, my foot is killing me.

Like, it swells up twice the size that it was.

Like, I can't even tie the laces on my shoe."

I get in the car, and we roll, and we run, and I'm good for about halfway through.

Like, everything was fine. I wasn't that bad.

Yeah, I don't know. Like, I felt like it--I-I know he can win races.

I mean, that's a winning driver.

It's a winning car. I know he can win some races.

I just don't know if he can overcome those points or not.

You know, that Michigan race

where he finished last-- that really hurt him.

And, uh, we're getting down towards the end,

and I'm starting to feel everything, and I'm like, oh, this shit hurts. Like...

Just be over already. Be over.

Caution comes out.

A lot of them lose their mind again--

Whoa! Regan and Edwards-- there they go into the wall, hard.

So, we pitted with some of the rest of 'em

but we come off pit road second.

Kyle hits pit road for fresh tires.

Kurt Busch was gonna try to stay out if he could,

but since others were coming in front and behind, that was their call as well.

Race off pit road. Murray, Gordon, and Stenhouse.

Clint Bowyer in sixth.

Kyle Busch in seventh.

And I'm like, "we have a shot,"

But again, I'm like, "don't force this, though.

Like, don't be a dumbass.

We're so far down in points, you have to stay on course.

You have to finish. If I can slice through here good enough,

we might have a shot, right?"

All right, here we go. Pace car's off. 48's the control car.

Free green.

Nice and smooth. Then hit your mark.

Throw the tires out back by 7.

Can't go anywhere, got a roadblock here,

so-- whoa! Three wide, Bowyer!

Exactly what I was telling you.

There's one out of the way.

I start cutting my way through a couple guys. First couple guys were easy.

Up and over the hill at 3A.

They're off in the dirt to three, four wide.

Look at this. You can't make it down here, boys.

Something's gotta give.

Kyle Busch to the inside of Stenhouse.

Plenty of room out the back. Hit your mark

Kyle Busch in that 18--

he needs to put Jamie McMurray in that one away in a hurry,

and you can see he's doing everything he can

probably by the time we get to turn four.

Lot of smoke from Kyle Larson,

but Kyle Busch up to second.

Six to go, bud.

So the first-place guy is Jimmie Johnson,

who-- Jimmie's one of the best of the best, 7-time champion.

He's--He's the GOAT, right?

Don't forget my brother

is back there, who's one of the best road-course racers in--on the circuit.

He's got fresh tires along with me, and he was running third when the caution flew.

Kyle Busch is all over the rear bumper

of Jimmie Johnson in that 48.

I run him down, and I catch him,

and I'm like, "I have to dispose of him fast."

Like, "I can't waste one turn,

'cause I know Kurt's coming."

And here's where "need to win"

overcomes "wants to win" right there.

Kyle Busch to the lead.

That's one of the best, most significant passes

Kyle Busch has made probably in his career.

Hit your marks nice and smooth, inch by inch.

Now Kurt Busch to fourth,

right on the bumper of Johnson for third at turn 10.

Whoa! Man, he was- Kyle lost some time around turn 10 right there.

He's letting it all hang out,

because here comes big brother.

I'm leading the race.

Kurt's coming. Kurt gets by Jimmie.

Kurt's running me down. He's like 3/10ths, 4/10ths faster than I am per lap.

It's gonna get good, boys. Gonna get good.

White flag by 12. Hit your mark.

And we take the white flag for the last lap.

There's Samantha, his wife.

They just had their new baby.

I mean, this is a big, big, big day for this team.

Nothing different than you've done.

And if he wanted to,

I think he could've made, like, a dive bomb banzai stupid move

to just throw it in there and hit me in order to win.

And he got in there, and he was, like, on my bumper on the exit of the turn.

And I had just enough drive-off and good-exit

that I was able to inch my way away from him, and I--

and I made it back to the line free and clear.

Kyle Busch wins at Sonoma.

Whoo-hoo-hoo!

And for the first time in Sprint Cup history,

the Busch brothers finish one, two.

Yeah .

43rd last week.

First place brothers, one, two, won.

That's pretty awesome. Mom and Dad can be proud.

You know, to go through the accident,

to go through the mental challenge,

the physical challenge,

having your son born, uh,

and to get that win, and here we are, finishing one, two.

It wasn't just that win, It was-- everything Kyle was going through,

and it made him whole.

I love you, Kyle Busch.

All the therapy and all the hard times,

like, the times that people don't know--

like, so emotional and so exciting.

I was just so proud of him. Like, he worked so hard,

and--and of that race,

of all races to come back and be your first win back was--

it was awesome.

From the very beginning,

he was not focused at all on the injury. He was focused on getting back to racing.

On a Saturday in February,

Kyle Busch was head-on into an unprotected concrete wall at over 100 miles an hour,

spent a month in the hospital, a couple of months in rehab,

returned to the race track

in mid-May, and now returns to Victory Lane.

He just put a period on that...

The whole last run of the race, those last eight laps,

I never felt my foot, not one time.

I never-- I was just able to focus on the race

and the car and everything I needed to do to win

and we did.

Well, next checkmark-- try to get to the top 30 in points.

He's got the win.

He's got that in the bucket.

That's good enough to put you in the playoffs,

except for the fact have to get in the top 30 in points.

So, he's coming from the bottom, basically

bottom of the points barrel.

Kentucky Speedway,

as the green flag back in the air. 43 laps to go for Kentucky.

Kyle Busch has already done it.

Kyle Busch moves up to second,

chasing after Joey Logano down the back stretch.

Under 3/10ths of a second

separating the top two.

Kyle's licking his chops right now.

This is what he wants to see.

The gap is closed now.

He's on the back bumper.

Here comes Kyle Busch.

Little bit of contact there between the 22 and 18.

Here comes Kyle Busch to the bottom of the track for the lead.

Kyle Busch, is he gonna clear him? He does.

He takes the top spot away from Joey Logano.

Kyle Busch is gonna win at Kentucky!

Awesome job! Awesome job!

It was so Kyle, right?

"You say I can't do it? Watch me."

Kyle Busch will win at New Hampshire.

How many times have the greats been booed because they win so much?

Fans on either side.

Kyle Busch is gonna add his name to the illustrious list of Brickyard 400 winners!

Whoo !

Well, we roll off these three wins,

and now we're, like, right on the brink of--of 30th.

So now the mindset is, like, "okay, don't screw this up."

Seven seconds. Seven seconds.

"Give it all back." Yeah.

5.7 seconds was the gap. He said, "Give it all back. "

He doesn't want him going any faster.

By the way, two laps of racing to go for Kyle Busch if he can make it.

So we're at Pocono. We're running good. We're running strong.

We're up front all day, and it's gonna be close on fuel mileage.

And we come around the--the track, and we take the white flag.

One lap to go.

The white flag at the end of the 18.

I think 18's out.

He's very slow.

Going down the front straightaway, and it stumbles getting into turn one

and I'm like, "oh, no..."

He has 15 seconds.

He can push the clutch in, coast when he can, but, Jeff,

I don't see him accelerating off the corner.

No.

I think he's completely out of fuel.

He's out.

He's shaking it, trying to get gas.

The guy behind him--Matt Kenseth

It's out. It's out.

could steal it.

-His access. His access . -Stay on the track!

Stay on the track! 16 seconds.

Yeah, stay on the track.

You can't use the access road.

You have to stay on the racetrack.

If you use the access road, you shortcut the corner.

But here comes Matt Kenseth,

the yellow car coming up behind him.

Kenseth takes the lead away.

Kyle Busch will not make it back

to the start-finish line.

He will not make it.

That was a bummer day for sure.

We were gonna win the thing, um, for one,

but for two, that was also gonna put us in the top 30 in points, I think,

so that was gonna be an op-- opportunity for us to be eligible for playoff.

Now was I in before I ran out?

Uh, you might have been, yes.

Yeah, we--we would be celebrating a win and a--and a Chase berth, you know?

But, um, we got greedy.

I don't know how greedy, but, um, you know, that's the position we're in.

Watkins Glen, we were able to finally make it top 30 and,

uh, be playoff-eligible.

You are now among the top 30 in the standings.

Yeah, we knew we would be. It was just a matter of time and--

We're in the top 30 in points.

Like, don't go out there,

and don't go crashing any more of these races.

Like, keep, keep clicking off finishes and that's what we did.

Look at the run he has here.

Kyle Busch powers by the 11 of Denny Hamlin.

Bumping and banging continuing here at Darlington.

Kyle Busch takes third away

from Brad Keselowski.

Kyle Busch moving toward the front.

So, I think, during that time,

I actually jumped from, like, last, lowest in the totem pole,

way down at the bottom, the last guy to get in,

and boom, I jumped all the way to the top.

So the playoffs start

but we were like, we were playing with house money.

We were like, "we're not even supposed to be here."

But we're right on the brink of points.

We're battling our teammate, Carl Edwards

for the final spot to go to Homestead for the championship

and the race is coming down towards the end.

We're in Phoenix, Arizona.

It's the desert.

There's a rainstorm coming.

So, lo and behold, I think we finished fifth,

and Carl finished seventh, and we,

we made the final race at Homestead,

the last car in on points.

For Kyle to make it to Homestead

it's the Championship 4.

The feeling that I remember about that race is, like,

everything he overcame this year just to be here--that's a win.

And so all through media week

and everything leading up to that championship race,

I was--I'm like, "we're playing with house money here, guys."

Like, "we've got nothing to lose. Everything to gain. Nothing to lose.

Everybody says we shouldn't be here, so fine.

We're here because we met all the requirements.

We did what we're supposed to do,

but none of you think we should be here,

so there's no pressure on us."

Kevin Harvick was in that race.

Kevin Harvick was the dominant guy all season long.

Jeff Gordon's retiring, so he's your retirement guy,

who made it into the final four for his final year.

And then you have me and Martin Truex Jr.,

who me and Martin Truex Jr. fought for the Busch Series Championship back in 2004.

I lost to him on that one.

It's all good. We shouldn't have been there anyway.

It was our shot to race for a championship

the first time for me in that playoff system.

So just--just be happy with that.

So that's kind of my mindset going into the weekend and going into the race.

Marty, Kyle Busch has just buckled himself into his race car,

looking to complete one of the most improbable comeback stories

in all of sports.

Just eight months ago, he was recovering from a broken leg and a broken foot.

He missed 11 races.

He's now back, qualified for the Chase,

looking break the dreams of three other championship contenders.

Time now to get things started in the 2015 season finale.

In the final race of 2015, the green flag is in the air!

Joey Lugano with a great start just out in front of Denny Hamlin.

At Homestead, you never push until it comes to night time.

There's no reason to race in the day.

You're just making it to night time. You're just bypassing the time.

Amazing you can hear the near-60,000 people

over the roar of 43 engines,

but you can hear it there when Jeff Gordon took the lead.

Jeff fricking Gordon.

It's his last year, and he made it to the Championship 4.

Everybody's watching him.

Do you really wanna be the guy that stops Jeff Gordon

from winning a championship in his last race?

Kyle's sitting in the back going...

All the way to the top of the track goes Jeff Gordon.

Here comes the 18 of Kyle Busch.

Fight for second is on. Kyle Busch has the advantage.

He'll move right up in front of the 24.

And it was coming into nighttime

but it was me and Kevin Harvick running one and two.

And our cars are coming to life and we're getting faster,

and we're getting better to Kevin, 'cause Kevin was gone.

He was, like in a league of his own during the daytime.

I think there was a strategy call that Adam played

where we came to pit early and then they stayed out a little bit longer

and we jumped it.

Really quick, he's away.

Kyle Busch came to pit road in front of Kevin Harvick.

That gave him an opportunity

to take away that spot on the track.

Quick work by the 18 team on pit road,

and great work by Kyle Busch on and off pit road,

allowed him to stay in front of the 4.

And you would think that him having fresher tires,

he would kind of run me down and catch me. He never did.

So, we stayed the same gap the whole time, the whole run,

and I'm like, "I'm bleeding this thing."

The gap between the two, five seconds.

And I had already told myself before the race started, like,

all through history, and in the final race, like

there's this-- there's this weird "caution" that flies.

Kyle Busch was sitting in a hospital bed,

wondering whether or not he'd ever be able

to compete for this championship this year.

Now trying to complete the improbable comeback story.

We ran winged sprints, and now the caution will come out.

Debris on the racetrack brings the caution out with 11 laps to go.

That was the piece of metal.

Lo and behold, 12 to go, caution comes out.

I knew it was coming.

It didn't mind-fuck me at all, so I was good,

that I was prepared for it, mentally prepared for it and everything,

so we come down to pit road.

I'm like, "Guys, just give me a great pit stop."

Lead lap cars making their way onto pit road, Dave.

Just give me a good pit stop. Just give me a pit stop.

Just give me anything.

Wedge adjustment on the left side for Kyle Busch.

A very important pit stop here. 4-tire change. He's away.

So, my guys clicked off a great stop.

Brad Keselowski left first.

Now I'm starting to think, like,

"okay, what lane's he gonna choose for the restart?"

Well, he's gonna choose the outside.

The outside's always the lane that every leader chooses on the-- on the restart.

Why would he not choose the outside?

He chooses the inside.

And we saw earlier,

the outside line was prevailing on restarts,

and yet Brad Keselowski chooses the inside line

for potentially this last restart.

I'm--I'm blown away. I'm baffled.

I'm like, "wait, what just happened?"

So with Brad choosing the bottom lane for the restart,

it gave me the outside to front row.

Well, Kevin's fourth, so Kevin restarts behind me.

So I'm like, "okay, whatever restart I get, Kevin's gonna get.

Doesn't matter if I botch this restart and spin my tires or whatever.

He can't pass me until we get to the start-finish line."

Kyle Busch might be the best driver

of the 43 that are on the track, on restarts.

All right, this is good. I can-- I can roll with this.

We come up to the restart zone.

I prep my tires. Everything's good. We're ready to roll.

Into the restart zone. Green flag back in the air!

Brad fires off, and he spins his tires.

And I knew he was gonna spin his tires, so I had already mentally thought, like,

"okay, just get rolling a little bit. You know, don't--don't rush it."

I launched

and I-I got a gap on Kevin, so I'm like

I don't even have to look in my mirror and block where Kevin's going,

'cause I-I have a run.

I'm stretching already.

So, we get through one and two, and I'm side by side with Brad

and I just held it wide open.

I was like, "it's either gonna stick or it ain't."

So, I just held it wide open

around the outside of Brad, and we get to the back stretch.

Kyle Busch out front!

I look in my mirror, and I got Brad in between me,

he was on old tires. Kevin's gotta deal with him.

"And I'm like, how many laps to go?

Shit, there's still eight laps to go?"

I'm just like, "so don't screw it up, right?"

To the bottom of the race track they go.

Six laps to go.

Jeff Gordon has made his way up to sixth. Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick.

Two of the Championship 4, running one and two.

Maintain

Kevin Harvick already searching up the racetrack

looking for that clean air.

He can't just follow the tire tracks of the 18.

- The gap - Take your marks here.

getting bigger between the 18 and the 4.

Kyle Busch trying to complete an unbelievable comeback.

Two to go.

- I love the tone. - Two laps to go.

The tone of the spotter very calm,

like he's sitting next to him at the table, not agitating his driver, at all.

Let Kyle Busch does what he do best.

So you've run eight laps of just "Don't screw it up, don't screw it up,"

like just going through your mind the whole time

and we just--we just kept driving away.

Kevin got by Brad.

Kevin was second,

and we just--we kept stretching.

Coming back no matter what by 20.

One more time around.

Kyle Busch missed the first 11 races of the season

with a broken leg and a broken foot after an accident at Daytona.

When we came out of turn four for the final time,

I saw that checkered flag. I had some tear rolling out of my eye down my cheek,

and I'm just like, "no way... no way."

Down the back stretch,

his closest competitor just a dot in the rearview mirror.

Through three and four.

No one has battled through as much pain and had as much perseverance

as 30-year-old Kyle Busch!

Tonight he earns his first Cup title!

Kyle Busch-- the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion!

Woo! Oh, my God!

Sounds like heaven.

I've never seen anything like it. Thank you so much.

Thanks, team! Great job!

No one ever questioned the talent that Kyle Busch had.

They questioned if he could do what it took to win the championship.

He has grown as a driver.

He's one of the best at celebrating.

Over the top three series in NASCAR, he's won over 150 races.

He is now the 2015 Sprint Cup Series Champion.

What an incredible run Kyle and his family have made.

Kyle now joining his brother Kurt as a champion in the Sprint Cup Series.

You could see him say, "Thank you."

It's for everybody.

Kyle, you said on the radio afterwards,

you said, "I don't know what life's all about,

and I don't know what to say about this year."

What do you say about this year, Kyle?

Uh pretty, pretty unbelievable, I guess.

You know, it's, it's, uh, a dream of a lifetime,

a dream come true and something that, uh, that only happens every so often,

you know, and I just can't believe that with everything that happened this year

and all the turmoil and things that, uh,

that I went through, that my wife went through,

that my family went through, and people and those around me,

that they went through.

This championship is all for-- all for these guys, for my wife,

my family, and, um, it's pretty awesome to have this opportunity

and to be here and to beat guys like this one right here,

Mister, uh, Mr. Four-Time. Thank you, man.

I appreciate it.

It's awesome racing out here on his last run,

and being out on the road with you. Thank you.

That year, it was unreal, you know,

to be out of the car that many weeks,

I can only imagine the pain you went through

you know, to be able to come back from that.

And he did it, and he beat me doing it, too.

Congratulations. You're the champion.

I hear you, man. This is so cool!

Whoo! Yeah!

All right, Kyle Busch obviously a little bit happy to celebrate

this 2015 Sprint Cup Series Championship.

Brothers. Family.

Kyle and Kurt, their father.

No way. I won. We won. The team, everybody.

We all won our first championship.

I mean, it was stupid...

amazing and, uh...

unreal.

I guess we've all probably heard that old saying, "Break a leg"

which means "Good luck" in showbiz.

Works just as good in racing.

So, Kyle wins his championship.

It's like, oh, my gosh, this is the craziest comeback story.

Like, everybody's talking about it, and then that kind of wears off,

and then all of a sudden, the questions start coming.

"Was it fair? If he ran all those races, would he still be in the same situation?"

Everybody's talking about him being "champion, but..."

"champion, but... he'd missed 11 races"

Traditionalists hated it.

Especially traditionalists who hate the playoff format anyway.

It's funny. The championship--

I don't know if it quieted anybody, or if it brought on more,

because everybody always puts an asterisk next to the 2015 championship

because I missed 11 races.

They go, "That's not a full-time championship."

It's human nature to wonder.

"I didn't win it the way that every other guy has.

So can I win it? Am I legit? I have to go out and prove myself.

I have to win in a regular season and not miss a race

and prove that I'm capable, and this is not a fluke."

I have a lot of friends in country music--

a lot of buddies who are artists. They always say,

"It's really damn easy to write the first record.

It's really damn hard to write the next one."

2016, '17 and '18,

Kyle Busch made it to the championship all those years.

Jimmie Johnson wins!

Yes!

Martin Truex Jr. is the champion!

It's Joey Logano who wins!

Yeah!

Although he wasn't able to come away with the championship

Lots of wins. Forget about it now. Move on.

Kyle Busch, fourth tonight, and fourth in the Chase playoff cars.

He was able to prove he was one of the best drivers in the series.

In NASCAR, to sustain that level of performance,

it's extremely difficult.

There are drivers in the NASCAR Hall of Fame who never won a championship.

DaleEarnhardt Jr is a Hall of Famer now. He never won a championship.

What comes with all of that is

perspective as a man and as a human being,

and I don't think there's any doubt

that anybody who's known Kyle Busch

from the time he walked into the sport to this second

he might still be a pain in the ass, but he has perspective in his life,

and it's awesome to see.

Kyle, I have a joke...

-Huh? -I have a joke.

What?

What did the fish say when he hit the wall?

-Um, "ouch." -No.

- What? -Dam.

What was your joke for the day?

What did the fish say when he hit the wall?

-What? -Dam.

That's pretty funny.

I think from the first time we met Kyle Busch,

when he came onto the NASCAR stage

to today, he's changed in some ways,

in that he's matured, I think, off the track.

He's become more aware of who he is as a human,

and there's more to life than just racing.

He's embraced being a dad, being a husband, being a business owner.

You start fourth, and Wyatt starts third, so he'll be on the inside of you.

So, when you guys hammer down and go on the start,

you gotta go super, super hard, and you gotta try to follow Wyatt

'cause Wyatt's gonna go up, okay?

So, it's--it's gonna be a tough heat race.

Okay?

You got your work cut out for you, but you're fast.

You have to stay in the gas, okay?

You gotta be brave.

You only have eight laps,

so you don't have time to sit behind somebody and ride.

Get him, get him, get him, get him, get him! Oh, boy.

Whoo-hoo hoo-hoo! Hell, yeah!

That's what I'm talkin' 'bout.

I mean, that was an awesome move. He did really, really good.

-Three wide! - Three wide

Coming off the back stretch there,

couple guys in front of him got crossed up,

got side by side, and he made a bold move to the inside three wide,

stuffed it in the turn, and washed him out,

made the move to finish second.

So I mean, you finish second in the heat--

The better you finish in the heat, the better you start in the main.

So that was awesome.

That was the most aggression we've seen out of him, so excited for that.

How did you do that?

I went three wide.

You took him, buddy! You were a beast!

Going for his second championship title--

is it gonna be number four? Kevin Harvick!

So 2019 rolls around,

and Kyle Busch is Kyle Busch.

He's the same guy that we had seen for many years,

and he's out to prove a point.

He's going for the championship.

So nothing is different.

Everybody's looking at him like one to beat.

Fans, let me hear you,

if you think it's gonna be last year's champion,

Martin Truex Jr.!

Make some noise if you think

it's gonna be M&M-loving number 18, Kyle Busch!

Brexton will watch Kyle race,

and Brexton will see him in his fire suit,

and it's like--like his, you know, superhero came to life,

and even though it's his dad, and he knows that, like,

he's starting to be that age where he realizes,

like, how good his dad is, and he's proud of it.

One more time around.

And Kyle Busch--you see him?

Even as wide as the camera shot got there...

nobody around him.

What a performance he has put on this evening.

119 laps have been led. Kyle Busch--

he's the winningest driver of the decade,

and now he is joining elite company.

Kyle Busch

is gonna win his second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship.

Awesome work.

Awesome to be here. Thank you, boys.

Old two-timer out there.

Proud of you, buddy. Way to stick with it. Great job, guys!

He's in elite company.

Now only the 16th different driver

to have multiple championships in the 70-plus years...

All I know is I call him and congratulate him when he wins,

when he wins championships, and, uh,

I consider him a good friend.

And, uh, I'm sure he wants to beat the guys here

just like he wants to beat everybody.

I think you can be friends and competitors,

and I think #1 that's what we are.

He just was rude, mean, snarky butthole.

Part of that is just in his DNA.

If you can become friends with him,

you can accept that part of him, right?

'Cause I've got flaws that people accept to be my friend.

In my opinion, and for me personally,

he got to where the good far outweighed the bad.

You know, for any haters

that doubted that Kyle Busch was a true champion,

this shut 'em all up.

To me, he's a two-timer now.

You know, it doesn't validate the first one

that people can write about on how much time he missed

or it wasn't a true championship.

I mean, it, uh, he's a 2-time NASCAR Cup Series champion.

You know, as--

as a husband, as a father,

uh, team owner, uh, and--

and a driver,

um, you know, he's--he's-- I think he's-- he's been humbled, right?

And he's--he's looking at life, um, different today.

Now you start to connect with the people.

And now you start to be human, and that's when you start gaining fans,

and that's where I see Kyle Busch is at right now.

Um, he's being more comfortable with who he is and--and showing, you know,

peeling back those layers and opening himself up and not

being as afraid to do that as maybe he once was.

I guess I-I-I've known this racecar-driving jerk

for all these years, and it's good to see the real person

and get to know who he really is.

You know what I'm saying?

-For sure. Thank you very much. -Yep.

Thank you. Thank you.

I hope he doesn't get mad at me

for being so honest.

I think you always have regrets in things that you do, in life, whatever.

You're always gonna have situations where you're like,

"Man, I-I could've done that differently,"

or "I-I shouldn't have done that," right?

But you know, life isn't always, you know, puppies, kittens,

and baby seals and rainbows, right?

I mean, you're-- you're gonna go through the dumpster sometimes,

and, uh, when you're drug through the dumpster,

that's when you reshape, you know, the-- the character in which you are.

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

♪ Happy birthday... ♪

You know, end of part one.

You know, like to me, there's-- there's gonna be more.

There-- There has to be more.

There's... The story's not over 'cause I'm not over,

You know what I mean?