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The Passing Of The Great Kyle Busch | Charlie Marlow Show · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:00
  Hey everybody, Charlie Marlow here.
• 0:02
  Obviously super sad day in the NASCAR world, the racing world,
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  the sports world, just the world with the passing yesterday on
• 0:10
  Thursday of a true icon, Kyle Busch at the age of 41.
• 0:15
  Now remember a couple weeks ago, Watkins Glen, he asked for a
• 0:18
  doctor after the race, said after the fact that he was
• 0:21
  having a bunch of coughing issues.
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  But then last week racing at Dover, he won the truck race on
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  Friday. And I watched that, that whole
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  press conference and it was, it was classic Kyle Busch.
• 0:35
  It's, it's so sad right now, but the fact that he won his last
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  weekend and he was having a lot of fun in that press conference.
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  He was joking around. I know he said you never know
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  when you're going to get your last win.
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  And unfortunately that was his, his last win.
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  It was his 69th truck win and he he had some fun per usual and
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  joked around about 69. He had everybody laughing in the
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  in the press room there. But just the fact that the
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  pictures and videos coming out from the last couple days for me
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  as a guy who's basically right around Kyle Busch's age, I'll be
• 1:14
  44 next week. But I also have two kids, a boy
• 1:18
  and a girl. Not the same order.
• 1:20
  I know Braxton, I believe turned 11 very recently.
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  What a couple couple three days ago, you saw the pictures of
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  Kyle Busch celebrating Braxton's 11th birthday and smiling as a
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  family. And then his daughter, I believe
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  is 4 just turned 4. So I mean, I have AI have an 8
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  year old daughter and a son that's about to be 5.
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  And we'll, we'll talk about all the racing aspects of that.
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  But man. And, and whether you loved Kyle
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  Busch, hated him as a race or you respected him and he played
• 1:53
  that villain role so well, especially earlier early in his
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  career. But on a human level, you just
• 2:00
  think about the dad and the husband to Samantha and the fact
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  that you have these two beautiful young kids.
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  We all know about Braxton and hopefully he becomes an amazing,
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  amazing race. He already is at 11 years old.
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  But you just think about the loss from a family standpoint,
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  on a human level of his family. It's just it it, it again really
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  hits me as a guy who's about the same age as Kyle Busch, also
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  with, with two kids, a boy and a girl.
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  And, and, and I'll get back to that.
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  That's that's the most important part.
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  But just such a loss also in the racing community in NASCAR, he
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  was a larger than life personality.
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  He was so talented, so good. I mean, they changed the rules,
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  multiple rules about what, how young you could race and how
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  many races you could do and what is now the O'Reilly Series and
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  the Truck Series because he won frickin everything.
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  So I said what, 69 Truck wins? I think 102, don't quote me, 102
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  or so O'Reilly wins. And what was he?
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  What was he at Cup? Was it, was it 60, 60 something?
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  And that's with on the Cup level not having great success the
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  last several years. And that's why there was so much
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  frustration with with Kyle the last couple years with RCR and
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  the cars not not running great even at the tail end of his JGR
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  days. That's why I think it was so
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  cool that he was able to win his last weekend, even though it was
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  a truck race. And you can remember the last
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  time, the last weekend you saw Kyle Busch, he won in the
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  trucks. And for me, for me, I mean, I
• 3:43
  feel very blessed I was able to to be at his last Cup win, which
• 3:48
  was was here in Saint Louis. It was what, 2023?
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  That was the second year of the Cup race in Saint Louis.
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  And he won three races that year with RCR with his first year.
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  That was his first year and his last Cup win was here in Saint
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  Louis, Madison, Illinois, across the river Illinois, but the
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  Worldwide Technology Raceway with the Enjoy Illinois 300 and
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  you know, just a, just a couple couple stories.
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  I always tell people like I'm relatively new to the NASCAR
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  world. I've really been covering NASCAR
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  with Kenny Nonstop the last five seasons, really 4 1/2 years.
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  But I covered a lot of NASCAR when I when I worked in Michigan
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  in Lansing in 2006, 2007, and at the time they had two Cup races.
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  So we covered all the races at Michigan International Speedway.
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  And so Kyle's just starting to be a superstar there.
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  I think his first Cup win was 2005.
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  But I remember we were all interviewing Kyle Busch back
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  then. It was either O6O7.
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  I know he became a fan at the time.
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  I don't know if he still continued to be, but I remember
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  him saying he had become a fan of Michigan football, University
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  of Michigan. He had went and visited practice
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  and that was Michigan. That was when they had and Mike
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  Hart and Mario Manningham and Chad Henney, O6 or O7 it was.
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  And that's, that's just what I remember from talking to him
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  back then. And he's just kind of coming up
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  because that was, if it was O 6, he'd have been what he'd have
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  been in like 20. He died at 41.
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  So he'd have been about 21 years old.
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  And then I got to do a a Zoom interview with Kyle in 2024
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  because he was doing interviews for for Saint Louis Media
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  because he had won the race the year before at Worldwide
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  Technology Raceway. It just happened to be that that
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  interview took place right after the fight with Ricky Stenhouse
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  Junior. So we talked about Saint Louis,
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  we talked about his season, but we really got into that that
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  fight, which was what at North Wilkesboro.
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  So this was 2024. And again, that was just like a
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  1012 minute Zoom interview, but I remember talking to him then.
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  And then also, I believe it was last year or the year before
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  where he got wrecked out in Saint Louis as well.
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  And we talked with him at the we're outside the Media Center
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  when he had been cleared from the infield care center.
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  So I mean, we talked about his family, the most important
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  thing. I mean, his legacy.
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  People know way, way more than me about about that.
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  But it's just obviously amazing. One of the most talented racers
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  of all time. I mean, all the wins that I
• 6:35
  mentioned speak for themselves and or speak for itself.
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  And yesterday. So when I saw the news, when I
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  saw the news on Twitter and then I was texting with Kenny Wallace
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  about something else. And I, I won't, I won't share
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  all of this, but obviously I think you guys all know the, the
• 6:54
  NASCAR community is so close, especially in Charlotte and, and
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  Kenny's there right now. But everybody knowing each other
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  and their kids know each other and their families and they go
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  to school together and the shops are relatively close.
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  And Kenny had texted me yesterday basically saying that
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  it's looking really bad. It's looking really bad for Kyle
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  Busch. That was earlier in the day and
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  then randomly I was I was going to dinner and to see a show.
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  I don't ever go see musicals, but with my father-in-law and
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  his wife and, and we were going to see MJ, the Michael Jackson
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  musical. And as I'm driving to dinner, I
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  see on on X the NASCAR official post that Kyle Busch has has
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  died at the age of 41. And it was so weird.
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  I mean, it's just so shocking. I know we had Greg Biffle last
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  year and he was retired in a different fashion in the plane
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  crash. But I mean, during the season
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  and a guy who's so young and it happened so suddenly.
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  I know he was he was feeling some sickness a couple weeks
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  ago. But to go to that, from that to,
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  to dying in in less than two weeks.
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  And you saw the pictures of, of him with the Andretti's at the
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  go Kart spot and you saw the picture of him at his son
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  Braxton's birthday party. And I, I saw a report that he
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  basically was in the simulator and he just kind of was
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  unresponsive. And, and we'll know, we'll know
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  more. There's no reason to jump to
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  conclusions. And I think people know some
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  things of what's happened, but they're waiting for the official
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  announcements and, and statements because right now,
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  what's most important, you know, whoever announces that, whether
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  it's a hospital, doctors, the family, I mean, we'll, we'll
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  find out exactly what happened. But it's just so, so tragic.
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  And you just so again, last night, I'm out to dinner with my
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  family. We're watching this MJ the
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  musical. But really all I could think
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  about, like you go into the bathroom, you're looking at your
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  phone intermission, you're looking at your phone.
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  Like all, all you can really do is just go through all the
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  tributes on social media and the pictures and the videos of Kyle
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  Busch. It's just so shocking.
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  I got a buddy here who's a huge Kyle Busch fan.
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  His son loves Kyle Busch and he and I are texting and he's just
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  like, I can't even believe this. I can't believe this is
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  happening. And so there's so many layers to
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  this and another thing. And I won't even, I won't even
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  be able to get to all the things I was thinking of saying.
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  I didn't make notes or anything. But Kyle Busch was such a
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  personality in NASCAR also, which NASCAR is so lacking.
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  In the last several years, we've talked about this a lot.
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  I always say that like Denny Hamlin is the straw that stirs
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  the drink and Kyle Busch is number 2.
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  What was #2 and that's without even running good the last three
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  years or so. But the fact that he played that
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  villain role so well early on. And you need, you need the
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  heroes, you need the villains. He was, he was so good.
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  And then he gets married, he has kids, he's, he's more likable.
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  And I'm telling you, the first year that I really covered
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  NASCAR first season was 2022. And that's where the biggest
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  storyline the whole year was his free agency last year at JGR and
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  obviously he went to Richard Childress Racing.
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  That was the biggest storyline for the whole year in NASCAR.
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  And I'm telling you, so that year, the next year, he starts
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  winning with RCR and so he goes to Chevy.
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  And I'm telling you because I monitor all these comment
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  sections, whether it's YouTube, podcasts, a lot of the social
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  media, I can't tell you how many people because Kyle Busch in the
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  in the Media Center 2022-2023, he was the show.
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  He was the show. He was funny, he was
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  interesting, not afraid, obviously to to say things to,
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  to go against whether it was NASCAR or what's going on with
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  the Next Gen. car. He was interesting and you need
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  that. And NASCAR lacks the star power
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  and people who are not afraid to rattle the cage and and say
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  interesting things. And I'm telling you again, I
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  can't tell you how many people in the comment section said I
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  used to hate Kyle Busch, Man, I'm starting to like him.
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  And I don't think it was just I don't think it was just going
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  from Toyota to Chevy, but it was more like, man, I used to hate
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  him. He used to be this cocky kid,
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  you know, now he's in his late 30s, early 40s.
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  He's funny, he gets it. I saw so many comments the last
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  two 3-4 going back what, 5 NASCAR seasons back to 2022 and
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  I really started being in this world and I'm not in this world
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  nearly as all these other people.
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  I'm not trying to pretend, but I but I saw so many comments that
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  people like, man, I used to hate Kyle Busch and now I'm really
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  starting to like him. He's really starting to come
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  around. He's saying the right things.
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  He's speaking for us, he's speaking for the fans.
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  I remember there was this one clip we cut and it got over
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  1,000,000 views. And it was Kyle Busch talking
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  about where NASCAR had kind of lost their way with, with the
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  stars of the Earnhardt days, the Rusty Wallace's, the Jeff
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  Gordon's, the Mark Martins, and how how NASCAR wasn't able to
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  take those fans of those drivers when they retired or
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  unfortunately passed away and turn them into drivers of of the
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  new era. And it was just so right on.
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  I mean, Kyle Busch, one of those guys that like everything he
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  said, even if you didn't 100% agree with it, like you
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  respected it and usually it was coming from the right place of
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  competition and NASCAR and what's best for the sport.
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  So I think I've said about everything.
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  I mean, you can't. I mean, you could talk forever
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  about this, but I think we've covered all the bases.
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  Just a true absolute legend Hall of Famer, obviously, I mean one
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  of the icons of the sport. And then man like to watch him
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  as a family man. I'm repeating myself, but again,
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  as a dude my my age, basically I'll be 44 next week with a boy
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  and a girl and just seeing all those pictures, videos him, him
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  dancing with his daughter. That's another thing.
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  You can be a big tough guy, a villain, you can be a NASCAR bad
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  boy. But when you have that daughter,
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  man, it doesn't matter. They'll make you put on the
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  stupid hat, the silly hat or dress and dance with them and
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  they can take the toughest dudes in the world, the best racers in
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  the world and and have them melt.
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  That's what the daughters do to us.
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  And then obviously Braxton, we'll see what happens with
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  Braxton's future. I mean, he seems like he's super
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  talented. You don't want to put too much
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  pressure on him, but there's a kid who obviously can carry on
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  the amazing Bush family legacy if if he so chooses.
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  This is such a blow, obviously to him and his family, but he's
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  got all the talent in the world. No longer unfortunately, has his
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  mentor. But you got Kurt.
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  You got, I mean, you'll have the whole NASCAR community wrapping
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  his arms around Braxton and the whole family moving forward.
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  So here you go. Yeah, respond with your
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  comments. Let me know your your feelings
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  and thoughts on this horrible, horrible day.
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  And it'll be interesting to see the Coke 600.
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  I mean, they'll be obviously tributes all all weekend long,
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  as there should to to the great cow Bush.
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  So that's all I got to say. Just a terrible, shocking couple
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  of days. And it's going to take a long
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  time, I think, for this to really set in that the man is
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  gone because it was so sudden. And he was, I mean, hell, he won
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  a race. He won a NASCAR Trucksters race
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  just last Friday, one week ago today.
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  All right, have a great Memorial Day weekend, everybody.