Samantha’s Reservation Still Lingers in Kyle Busch’s Head Despite Chili Bowl Right Around the Corner

When the competitive itch grabs you, there is no letting go. Not even if your wife isn’t fully on board with your ambition. At the end of 2024, Kyle Busch found himself going back on his old promise of never competing in the Chili Bowl Nationals. Yet he is dazzling already – he won the winged heat race and the non-wing heat race in the Tulsa Shootout. All this is gearing him up for a debut to remember at the ‘Super Bowl of midget racing.’

Yet Samantha Busch’s reservations still nag him. These were stronger because their son Brexton was also competing with his dad at Tulsa. However, Kyle Busch is cultivating a strong determination for the biggest dirt races of the season – after an awry NASCAR Cup Series season with no wins – despite his wife’s worries.

Kyle Busch confesses lack of agreement

Well, the 2-time Cup Series champion’s previous dirt racing ventures have faced obstacles. During the 2023 Tulsa event at the 1/4-mile bullring dirt track, Kyle Busch was running 7th in a dirt micro race. Beating and banging with a rival resulted in Busch running over his opponent’s vehicle and into mid-air, barrel-rolling and flipping over three times. Such a violent wreck must have stayed at the back of Samantha Busch’s mind when her husband took a step further in his dirt dreams. Now as the Chili Bowl Nationals are all set to kick off on January 13-18, 2025 at the famed SageNet Center, Busch is remembering his wife’s cautious approach.

Clinton Boyles of FloRacing asked the veteran how he finally ended up setting his mind toward the Chili Bowl. Kyle Busch confessed that Samantha still acts as a barrier: “I’m still not sold on the idea, actually.” His warm-up in USAC National Midget events procured mixed results. “Bakersfield was really good, the track was tacky, that guy was really fast… I didn’t know no better, I guess I was just dumb at it. I was fast, you know… Then we went to Ventura, and I was terrible… Just didn’t get the right rear stick needed to get the car on the racetrack to go forward.”

Yet Kyle Busch performed well at the Tulsa Shootout, a fitting comeback to his winless Cup Season riddled with 8 DNFs. He continued, “Anyway, coming to Tulsa, we’ve kind of done set-up stuff with our car. Thanks to Link chassis, Lucas Oil, and FloRacing – TRD giving me a shot to be able to go out there and run a Chili Bowl.” Now all his attention is invested in the grand dirt event. “I’m excited for it you know, I’m looking forward to it. Not expecting to light the world on fire by any means, but at least coming here… I would say… if I could make it to a B on Friday, that would be phenomenal.”

Samantha Busch’s worries were not just for this champ – but the younger champ in the household as well.

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Brexton is the apple of her eye

Well, the little Busch champ has been making waves in motorsports recently. During the 2024 season alone, Brexton clinched 48 race wins, 126 top-tens, and 107 top-fives. The young speedster has several trophies at home, like the KKM Challenge Jr. Sprint championship, the Millbridge Restricted Points championship, and many more. Yet his mother Samantha Busch was worried about his dirt racing ventures – similar to his dad.

In December 2023, Brexton finished 5th in the Restricted A class in a heat race. It was then that he revealed his mom was not in favor of him pursuing dirt midgets, a natural course to take after open-wheel racing.

Brexton Busch told FloRacing in 2023, “I’ll probably get into micros. Maybe midgets. My mom doesn’t want me to get into midgets though.” Kyle Busch added, “Mom would not like the midget class. But, we’ll give it a whirl one day and see how that goes. We’ll see what we like doing throughout the micros.”

Kyle is apparently more liberal than Samantha Busch, as he is eager to see his son perform. “He had really good car control in restricted. Looked great, he looked like a professional…The craft and the class, everything that you get of being able to run different things on dirt kinda gives you different feelings and driving styles. Then, mixing in the pavement, we do some Bandolero stuff. He’s old enough for that. Not old enough for the Legends yet so we’ll get into that. We’ll mix it all up and run some of both.”

Evidently, Brexton may get the same competitive itch as his dad. For now, let us wait and see how Kyle Busch dazzles us at the upcoming Chili Bowl Nationals.