A two-time Cup Series champion and one of the most consistent drivers in NASCAR, Kyle Busch will go down as one of the best motorsports athletes of his generation. Over the years, Busch’s driving style and personality have seen steady growth, from a brash and aggressive racer to a calculating and consistent veteran. Busch might have changed teams after 15 years in 2023 when he left Joe Gibbs Racing for Richard Childress Racing, and one of the most important career lessons that he learned was from his own brother and fellow racer, Kurt Busch.

Back when Kyle was a young racer, getting used to the tricks of the trade and hungry for victories, Kurt Busch taught him one of the most critical aspects of winning. It all happened in a national race. Kurt was not a full-time competitor so he was not fighting for the points.

“He was supposed to let me win”, Kyle Busch realizes the importance of what Kurt taught him

Kyle Busch was racing for the national points and Tom Busch urged Kurt to let his brother win if they found themselves at the front of the pack towards the end. And that’s when a young Kyle Busch was taught a valuable lesson.

Speaking about the on-track rivalry with his brother, Kyle Busch recalled what happened almost 25 years ago.

“It was a Friday night race and Kurt was off racing southwest tour, so he wasn’t always there, so he wasn’t really racing for points but this was early on, this was in my first year of racing. And so he came back to race against us one night and he was supposed to let me win,” he said.

“My dad was like, ‘Look we’re racing for national points. Kyle is close, like, we need to win.’ And so on the last lap, like, he was leading and we were trading the lead back and forth,” Rowdy added.

At the end of the race, Kurt Busch pulled a cheeky move down the inside of his brother to take the victory and the points that Kyle needed.

“We were racing and dicing it up and on the last lap, he got to my inside and he nosed ahead of me and beat me to the line by six inches,” Kyle Busch continued.

It’s safe to say that Kyle was not happy about it at the time, although he laughs about it now. He said that the lesson he learned on that day, which he realizes now, is that race wins are not something that can be just handed out. A race winner needs to earn that win.

“I was so mad. Like I was really, really, really mad but at the same time, I didn’t know it at that time but thinking back on it, I’m like, I shouldn’t have been mad because he shouldn’t let me win. Like, I should have to earn it. But that was probably one of the best lessons I think I ever had was in that moment,” he said.

Kyle Busch did take that lesson to heart. Today, he is one of the most successful and consistent drivers on the grid, frequently challenging for race wins and championships.

NASCAR has undergone quite a lot of changes from the 2000s to the 2020s. Being a veteran on the grid, Kyle Busch is one of the few active racers to have witnessed them all. While all aspects of the sport should advance and improve with time, Rowdy believes there’s one area in which they have gone backward.

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We’ve gone backward, says Rowdy about Next Gen cars

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NASCAR currently races with the Next Gen cars, which are built in such a way that there is little speed disparity between the drivers. While that might sound exciting for fans, it actually puts the drivers in dangerous situations every week.

With a ceiling on the top speed, the drivers have to resort to desperate overtaking measures that have led to some hard crashes. Busch himself was a victim of such a crash last weekend in Michigan.

Ahead of that race, Rowdy was asked what could be done to the car to open up a bit of a speed disparity.

“We all talked about overbody, underbody, aero, this and that for years, tens of years, and we all thought that the underbody aero was the way to go but honestly, we’ve gone backwards. It’s worse in traffic,” he added.

After failing to score any points in Michigan, Busch will be looking to bounce back at Indianapolis. The race will see new competitors in the form of Shane Van Gisbergen, Kamui Kobayashi, and Jenson Button. The competition will be a lot higher, and it will be interesting to see if Rowdy manages to bounce back.

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