Kyle Busch is busy. But it\u2019s a different kind of busy these days for the 40-year-old.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have 16 different schedules on our calendar,\u201d Busch tells RACER.<\/p>\n
The \u2018we\u2019 is the Busch family. A two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, Busch has his job on the weekends and then weekly responsibilities with Richard Childress Racing, Chevrolet, and sponsors, as well as time with his family. Samantha Busch, his wife, has a podcast and runs their foundation. Brexton, Busch\u2019s son (main image), who is 10, has been climbing the racing ladder in recent years, including racing against dad, and daughter Lennix, who is three, has taken up gymnastics and karate.<\/p>\n
Busch has been sharing insights into the active lifestyle of his family, supported by sponsor StarKist.<\/p>\n
On one hand, the busyness helps keep Busch from getting too caught up with what happens on Sundays. It\u2019s been two years since Busch last won a Cup Series race in the No. 8 Chevrolet, and Childress continues to search for the keys to success. But on the other hand, Busch having so many outside activities does not take away from his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cSunday is my priority,\u201d says Busch. \u201cIt has to be my No. 1 because if I\u2019m not successful on Sunday, none of this other stuff happens and is possible. But being able to be busy and being able to put the focus on the Sunday stuff, meeting with Randall [Burnett, crew chief], all those guys during the week, I bet you I have worked more in the last three years than I did in the previous 15 altogether, and the results aren\u2019t there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy? I don\u2019t know. I wish I had a magic wand. It\u2019s just not there. But that is definitely at the front of our minds.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was a time when Busch kept busy on NASCAR race weekends. Busch was one of the Cup Series drivers who loved being able to compete in the Craftsman Truck and Xfinity Series events, which meant a weekend full of different practices, qualifying, and two or three races. NASCAR changed the driver eligibility years ago, which limits the number of races Cup Series drivers can compete in, and Busch was one of the biggest ones affected.<\/p>\n
NASCAR’s rulebook allows Cup Series drivers with more than three years of experience to run five Craftsman Truck Series races per season, and Busch ran those earlier this year. There is also a five-race limit for the Xfinity Series, but Busch didn\u2019t have any of those on his schedule this year. It is the first time since 2022 that he didn\u2019t run a race in the series.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, Busch racing alongside Brexton, and also discovering his appreciation for other racing series such as legend cars and dirt, has helped fill the void. At least during the week.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would much rather be racing 10 or 12 races in the Truck Series or 10 and 15 races in the Xfinity Series, and then the Cup Series schedule,\u201d Busch says. \u201cIn a perfect world, that\u2019s what I would be doing. I would certainly like it if it were more the way of the old days.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brexton is now the third-generation Busch race car driver. He was born in 2015, the same year Kyle Busch won his first Cup Series championship, and back when Busch was routinely winning. But now, Brexton sees how much Owen Larson gets to celebrate with his dad, Kyle Larson, and it\u2019s brought a bit of jealousy.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s jealous of the fact that, \u2018Man, my dad is one of the greatest, but now he\u2019s not winning,\u201d Busch says. \u201cSo, he misses that, and he doesn\u2019t remember the days when he was getting thrown up in the air. I wish I were winning as much as I was then. Trust me, he\u2019d be bragging to all the kids in the playground and telling them who the best is if we were still doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
There has been plenty of winning from Brexton, and the father and son are now to the point of being able to compete with each other. It\u2019s more than Busch ever could have imagined when his son was born.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he was four or five years old, it wasn\u2019t on our radar to put him in a race car yet,\u201d Busch says. \u201cThen COVID happened, and Samantha said, \u2018You need to find something to do. Get out of the house.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
It started by watching go-karts. Greg Ives, the former Hendrick Motorsports crew chief, had a spare kart that Brexton began to practice with, and soon Busch was making the investment in a kart of Brexton\u2019s own. And he never anticipated how quickly Brexton was going to take to it all.<\/p>\n
The younger Busch will run full-time legend cars next year, as well as continuing his micro sprint car racing. In two years, the path would be late models and other programs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In other words, Busch is going to continue to be as busy as ever for the foreseeable future.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSamantha said it the other night, \u2018You are never complimentary of him,\u2019 and I said, \u2018Yes, I am,\u2019\u201d says Busch. \u201cI tell him when he does a good job. I tell him that when he finished third, it was a great race, and you probably would have run eighth with the car he had. So, I give him compliments that he\u2019s outperforming his equipment. But then there are other times when he wants it to come more easily. He thinks he\u2019s won it before, so he should win every time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018Bro, you have to be the driving force to win. It\u2019s not going to fall into your lap.\u2019 I see him sometimes take it for granted when he chills and doesn\u2019t really push the envelope against the competition to strive for more. He\u2019s sort of content in a spot and lets things open up for him. Where a lot of times, you have to make those open. Trust me, everybody was always trying to pull my rope. There are a couple of times I\u2019m trying to push his.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kyle Busch is busy. But it\u2019s a different kind of busy these days for the 40-year-old. \u201cWe have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[425,99],"class_list":["post-134440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}