He spent the next several weeks in surgery and physical therapy, missing the first eleven events of the NASCAR season.
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“But going through the rehab and everything, it was hard”.
Basically, Kyle Busch grew up real fast. “I actually thought when I got ahead of Kyle (early in the race), I got my hopes up”.
“I’ve never dreamed anything so little could be so happy, but he’s such a cool little dude”, Busch said. You know this night tonight is is certainly really really special.
While it was a magical season for NASCAR as one of the legends of the sport took the last laps of his career, Busch had a magical season of his own on the way to winning his first title. NBC enjoyed significant gains in viewership for the final race of the season culminating in a 10 year high in viewership for a NASCAR season finale. Four drivers including Busch, defending series champion Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon and Martin Truex Jr. entered the race with a shot at the championship.
Gordon failed to add a fairytale ending to his storied career Sunday, finishing sixth in the NASCAR season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Perhaps signifying Kyle Busch’s rise in popularity, an unusual reception – at least by his standards – greeted NASCAR’s newest champion Sunday night.
In his post-race media rounds, Busch said even he was surprised that he made it back from such a devastating injury. All of the Hendrick drivers not only sported yellow numbers on their cars, but also wore tribute hats during the day.
“Well, we all know nothing would have been quite better than that and the win”, Gordon said. “I just can’t help the competitor in me still is cutting into that slightly right now”.
Sunday’s race marked the final race of Gordon’s legendary career. Harvick, the reigning champion, finished a distant second.
Truex, the underdog driving for single-car team Furniture Row Racing, also didn’t have enough in his Chevrolet to contend despite a handful of gutsy pit calls the team used out of desperation.
“It’s one for the ages, and with grit and determination we got it done”.
Kevin Harvick finished second in the race and second in the championship standings.
Two laps later, a wreck involving such drivers Dale Earnhardt Jr., Casey Mears, Clint Bowyer, Ty Dillon, Aric Almirolda and Ricky Stenhouse brought out another caution.
Harvick was going for a championship repeat himself, but had no chance of catching Busch on the final restart with seven laps to go.
“It’s pretty unbelievable”, Busch said.
It will simply read, Kyle Busch, 2015 champion.
Joey Logano is out front, no surprise given he’s consistently had one of the best cars in the Chase.
His head-on crash in an Xfinity Series race at Daytona sidelined Busch for the year’s first 11 races.
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“The crew guys raided some buckets of beer and we went to the crew chief’s to celebrate, then I went to sleep for a couple hours until we came (to New York City)”, Busch said Monday morning during a phone interview with the Review-Journal shortly after landing in New York and emerging from the Lincoln Tunnel. Earlier last week, Busch spoke to me and JMV about IndyCar and potentially following in brother Kurt’s footsteps in running the Indianapolis 500. He had the one win requirement to make the Chase, but would still have to make the top-30 in points before the 10-race Chase began in Chicago. He also gave every driver in the 43-car field an inscribed carbon fiber box commemorating his last-ever race, similar to the “Petty Blue” money clip Richard Petty gifted drivers (including Gordon) in his last ever race in 1992.
