For a second, it looked like Daniel Dye would repeat his podium heroics from the Nashville Truck Race again at Pocono. But after registering top 5s in both stages, the 20-year-old managed a P16 finish. Those results only paint part of the picture, as, with that P16 finish, Dye has taken one step closer to his playoff aspirations.

That’s not all. Kaulig Racing handed Daniel Dye another one of his 10 announced starts in their No. 10 Chevy at Pocono. And the young gun finished P17 in his real-time second-tier debut at the racetrack. However, before Dye took off to perform this perilous doubleheader, he talked to EssentiallySports’ on-ground reporter, Bharat Aggarwal, to give us the exclusive scoop as he opened up about the driver who left a lasting impression on him during last year’s Truck race at the Tricky Triangle.

That driver is none other than Kyle Busch. In what now feels like a distant memory, Rowdy famously won that crucial Pocono Truck race, a victory that has deeply influenced Dye’s approach.

How did Kyle Busch inadvertently mentor Daniel Dye?

That was Rowdy‘s last race win in all 3 NASCAR Touring Series at the 2.5-mile behemoth. Before that, the last time he had won a Cup race at Pocono was in 2021, when he still drove the #18 Joe Gibbs machine. Ahead of Sunday’s main event going green at 1:30 p.m. CT, Kyle Busch will be the second-highest active race-winner at Pocono, trailing only Denny Hamlin.

The only driver even remotely close to that record of Rowdy is Denny’s teammate Martin Truex Jr., who is ready to retire next year. It is safe to say that Busch & Denny have held quite the stranglehold over this racetrack in the last decade, nothing non-expectant of their Hall of Fame pedigree careers.

Whereas, Daniel Dye is a driver who grew up in that very decade. Hence, it must have been what one would call, ‘a dream come true‘ for the Florida native to watch Rowdy emerge to life late, against Corey Heim last year, as he finished P17 in the middle of the pack himself. While talking to Bharat Aggarwal at the Pocono Raceway, he let his admiration for Kyle Busch known, with all but a little hint of what to expect from all three races this weekend at the racetrack.

Daniel Dye told Bharat, “It’s just one of those tracks where drafting is really important. I mean, as you saw last year, Corey Heim looked really strong, and Kyle Busch just swept in and took it. So just want to be able to play that drafting game well.”

The youngster did try to play that drafting game just like Busch used to once upon a time, running in the top 5 spots all day. Regardless of his conclusion, Dye also touched upon the unpredictability factor of the infamous Tricky Triangle. “Just keep yourself in position all day. And really, those last couple of laps, it’s a coin flip. And if you really are running in the top 5 in one of these truck races, it’s like a roulette wheel. Just spin the ball. Spin the wheel and hope it lands on you,” he said.

That is an impressive observation, considering you are a 20-year-old full-time Truck Series driver, in only your sophomore season driving in a top-3 NASCAR National Series. Even more so if you notice that Daniel Dye only has a solitary top-5 finish in just as many starts at Pocono during his ARCA runs. With that being said, these revelations should serve as a stern reminder of Kyle Busch’s crucial impact on the potential stars of tomorrow, regardless of Rowdy’s recent misfortunes.

Can the young driver secure his first NASCAR win on Rowdy’s debut track?

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Kyle Busch made his Trucks debut in 2001 at Indianapolis Raceway Park, Dye’s next testing ground in the current Craftsman Truck Series season. At this time, the world was still about 2 years away from being graced with the birth of Daniel Dye. A year after Daniel Dye was born in 2003, Kyle Busch won the Busch Series (now known as the Xfinity Series) Rookie of the Year award.

20 years since: Kyle Busch has become the winningest driver in the Xfinity Series and the Truck Series combined, with the cherry on his cake being those two Cup Series championships he proudly claimed in 2015 & 2019. Simply put, there is nothing that Kyle Busch has not won in NASCAR, apart from the Daytona 500 and a Truck Series championship.

That is exactly where Daniel Dye can take his first step in trying to emulate Kyle Busch – winning the only National Touring Series championship the latter has not been able to claim yet.

With only two races left for the playoffs to hit, and 14 points below the cutline in the updated Trucks ‘bubble’ after Pocono, Daniel Dye must work overtime and prepare for the first win of his NASCAR career next weekend at IRP. The same track was where Kyle Busch debuted in the No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing Ford back in 2001.

It’ll be interesting to see how Daniel Dye keeps up with his rookie year as he takes inspiration from one of the big guys in NASCAR.