Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / NASCAR CEO Steve O'Donnell On The Loss Of Kyle Busch

Transcript

NASCAR CEO Steve O'Donnell On The Loss Of Kyle Busch · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:00
  So I've spent 31 years in this sport and Kyle Busch has been
• 0:04
  part of my life for for 25 years watched him come into the sport
• 0:09
  as a as a teenager. I think all of us would agree
• 0:12
  full of talent, full of fire, didn't give a damn was going to
• 0:16
  push us. And I think we all love that
• 0:18
  spirit. And over those years, I think
• 0:22
  everything you saw on the track was one thing, but there was so
• 0:25
  much more to to Kyle Busch that I think it's important for for
• 0:28
  people maybe even new to the sport to understand.
• 0:31
  So folks will often ask me when I'm around, you know, what's
• 0:34
  NASCAR like? And my best description of
• 0:37
  NASCAR is it's like a family reunion every week.
• 0:42
  And those of you who have gone to family reunions, you know
• 0:45
  that from time to time, families don't get along.
• 0:48
  But at the end of the day, everybody knows that they're all
• 0:50
  part of the family if you look at our drivers.
• 0:57
  But just as equally, when you when you think about family,
• 1:00
  that includes everybody in this room, media, team owners,
• 1:04
  drivers, sponsors, we're all part of that group.
• 1:08
  When we think about that family reunion and when you think about
• 1:11
  drivers in particular, you get to watch drivers come into the
• 1:14
  sport young, hungry, hopefully you see him win and you see him
• 1:20
  grow up and you see him learn. You also get a chance when
• 1:25
  you're in some of our positions to watch drivers off the track,
• 1:29
  get to see him, maybe find a a friend, a girlfriend comes a
• 1:34
  wife, they become fathers, they have kids, they start families.
• 1:40
  And you celebrate all that together because each and every
• 1:43
  weekend we are together and, and, and we're there to
• 1:46
  celebrate it. And that's what this sport is.
• 1:49
  And Kyle Busch lived just about every chapter of what you can do
• 1:54
  in NASCAR, what most people saw, You know, Rowdy, he's fierce,
• 1:59
  he's competitive. Always good for a great quote.
• 2:04
  My favorite interview Kyle Busch ever gave.
• 2:07
  And I wish I could do it every weekend.
• 2:09
  And I know most of you probably hated it, but everything's
• 2:12
  great. And he just kept saying it over
• 2:14
  and over and over again. That's Kyle.
• 2:19
  One of my favorite moments as well.
• 2:20
  Back in Texas, you know, he he would challenge NASCAR on some
• 2:24
  rules, maybe spun out, maybe hit the wall.
• 2:29
  Decided that we needed to take him to the care center.
• 2:31
  Laid flat out on a pic. CART made fun of us.
• 2:34
  I was mad at the time, but I look back and that was damn
• 2:36
  funny. And that was Kyle.
• 2:39
  Always good to egg on the fans played that played that villain
• 2:46
  and and was a winner and the iconic bow.
• 2:49
  I think we're all going to remember as well.
• 2:51
  So you know, his stats speak for themselves, right?
• 2:53
  He's a he's a two time champion. He's won more national series
• 2:57
  races than anyone in our history and no doubt first ballot Hall
• 3:02
  of Famer for for sure. But what few people saw was what
• 3:07
  Kyle also did off the track 'cause he didn't talk about it a
• 3:10
  lot. And you know, one of those
• 3:12
  examples I'd give to all of you is everybody knows and, and I
• 3:16
  hope he doesn't mind me sharing this, but you know, Daniel
• 3:19
  Suarez comes over from Mexico learning English, learning how
• 3:23
  to race at the national series level, struggling, received a
• 3:27
  call every week from Kyle Busch, never talked about it.
• 3:30
  Just how do I make you better? How do I keep things going?
• 3:34
  Kyle Busch started a Truck Series team that we all know was
• 3:37
  hugely successful and that's wins on the racetrack.
• 3:40
  But what people new to the sport don't know is if you go up and
• 3:45
  down Pit Rd. on Sunday, you're going to see a lot of people
• 3:47
  that came through that. What you're also going to see is
• 3:49
  a lot of people behind the wheel on Sunday who came through that.
• 3:52
  He gave people a chance. He started the Bundle of Joy
• 3:55
  Foundation with Samantha because he knew how difficult it was to
• 3:59
  start a family and he wanted to spread that message and yet had
• 4:02
  time to be a philanthropist off the track.
• 4:06
  I think we all saw right when he won last week at Dover, the
• 4:09
  quote from Victory Lane. It's tough to to watch, right?
• 4:13
  It's it's telling. But what I look back on is text
• 4:17
  from Kyle Tuesday as only Kyle could do.
• 4:20
  And I, I keep looking at it and he said, hey, man, what do you
• 4:23
  think about an over 40 rule to be able to compete in all the
• 4:27
  Truck Series races next year? And I said, you know, we put
• 4:32
  that rule in place because you're winning so much.
• 4:36
  But when we looked about it and we had a meeting Wednesday
• 4:39
  internal and we said, well damn, that's actually good.
• 4:41
  We need Kyle and the Truck Series.
• 4:43
  And it was twofold 'cause he knew he could help the series,
• 4:46
  but I think one day had a dream to race against his son in a
• 4:49
  national series event. And and that was Kyle always
• 4:52
  thinking about the sport and and going forward.
• 4:55
  So, you know, I want to recognize and a few folks we're
• 4:58
  obviously thinking about as an industry and first and foremost,
• 5:00
  everyone at Richard Childers Racing, Judy and Richard, Mike
• 5:05
  and Allie Verlander. Mike, you know, I, I don't know
• 5:09
  how he's dealing. He he working with Kyle through
• 5:13
  the Truck Series, working at RCRA, great human being and our
• 5:17
  thoughts are certainly with them.
• 5:19
  But all of the team back at the shop, those who are working on
• 5:22
  engineering, the crew members, excuse me, who put those cars
• 5:26
  together each and every week. Those guys lost a teammate.
• 5:30
  And that's not lost on us that we're thinking about all of
• 5:32
  them, you know, the sport and all of us grew up and and
• 5:38
  watched Kyle be a racer, but we watched him become a husband and
• 5:43
  A and a father of the same way. We watched him become a
• 5:46
  champion. And, and we all did that as a
• 5:47
  family. We're all part of that.
• 5:51
  Kyle's parents, Kurt, Samantha's parents, all thinking about you
• 5:56
  for sure. And Samantha Braxton and Lennox
• 6:01
  are not just family of a NASCAR legend.
• 6:04
  They are part of the NASCAR family and they always will be
• 6:08
  because that's what family does. And when I talked about the
• 6:12
  family reunion part and I just, I think personally about Kyle
• 6:16
  Busch and NASCAR. And to me, Kyle Busch just
• 6:19
  defines what it means to be a racer in NASCAR.
• 6:23
  Everything about it, the fire, the greatness, the heart that
• 6:27
  sometimes you rarely saw the sport was truly lucky to have
• 6:32
  him. And I, I believe I can speak for
• 6:36
  everybody in the sport. And I'll just say this, for me
• 6:39
  personally, the family reunions week to week are just not going
• 6:44
  to be the same without him. But we're going to do our damn
• 6:46
  best to continue his legacy and support his family.
• 6:50
  So with that, I'm happy to take any questions.
• 6:53
  Jordan Bianchi, the athletic, you talked a lot about things
• 6:56
  that you remember about Kyle, but what was the one personal
• 6:59
  moment or interaction that you had with him that stands out?
• 7:05
  You know what I think throughout your career, Jordan, you, you
• 7:08
  have highs and lows, right? And you, you battle it out and
• 7:11
  you think I'm going to win this one and, you know, get the one
• 7:14
  up. But he was always that same guy
• 7:17
  who, you know, didn't change. And at the end of the day, I
• 7:20
  cared about the sport and I learned throughout my career
• 7:23
  that people with passion and people who care about the sport
• 7:27
  are the ones you need to listen to.
• 7:29
  And he was always that guy. At the end of the day.
• 7:33
  He would always have an opinion, but it came from a place of
• 7:37
  somehow trying to improve the sport, the race car, the
• 7:40
  interaction at the track. But I think probably just
• 7:45
  embracing the fans and, and what happened at the racetrack.
• 7:48
  He leaned into it, man. And for drivers who are coming
• 7:51
  up in this system, you got to connect with race fans.
• 7:55
  Kyle Busch did that. And that's the essence of of who
• 7:58
  we are. In your opening remarks, you
• 8:00
  said that Kyle got to live just about every chapter of his
• 8:03
  career that he could in NASCAR. Can you expand upon that and
• 8:06
  what you meant? I think I think what I meant,
• 8:12
  Jordan, is, you know, Wednesday a lot of us were in the Hall of
• 8:16
  Fame voting. And you you think about the
• 8:19
  future and I think about Kyle's future and the ability for all
• 8:24
  of us to to sit in that room and celebrate him and listen to him
• 8:27
  speak and and talk about that final chapter and see his kids
• 8:31
  maybe one day race and continue. And it makes me really sad not
• 8:36
  to not to see the end of that chapter.
• 8:40
  Look up Matt. Mattweavermotorsport.com He was
• 8:46
  a guy, Kyle, that you guys at times had to suspend, had to
• 8:51
  find. He frequently bucked the system.
• 8:55
  He was a rebel. And I know that at times that is
• 8:58
  not always comfortable for us or for you guys as a sanctioning
• 9:01
  body. But in hindsight, having that
• 9:03
  that story written now, how important is it for the sport to
• 9:07
  have characters like Rowdy, Kyle Busch Rowdy to be that kind of
• 9:12
  personality in NASCAR? Yeah, man, think, think about
• 9:16
  how we launched this season and I talked about maybe we lost our
• 9:20
  way a little bit and weren't as proud of who we are.
• 9:23
  And I think I said, and sorry for kids, but you know, the
• 9:27
  sport's a bad ass sport. Kyle Busch to me is an American
• 9:31
  bad ass behind the wheel. Who you want to be and and I
• 9:37
  think when you look back at all those things, that's part of
• 9:40
  being a race car driver, that's part of representing this sport.
• 9:43
  We're not always going to agree. If we did, I think people would
• 9:45
  be really bored. And, you know, we certainly had
• 9:49
  our battles right. But I'd give a lot of money to
• 9:53
  have a few more battles going forward.
• 9:56
  Dustin, Dustin Long, USA Sports Steve, What are the plans of the
• 10:12
  tributes? Maybe we'll see from the drivers
• 10:14
  whether individually or coordinated this weekend and
• 10:18
  what are things tribute wise that the fans can or may be able
• 10:24
  to participate in whether it's Sunday or throughout the
• 10:27
  weekend. Yeah.
• 10:29
  So first and foremost, our responsibility is to make sure
• 10:33
  that Kyle's family is OK with with what we may or may not want
• 10:37
  to do. And and then the folks at RCR.
• 10:39
  So we have had some of those conversations early this
• 10:44
  morning. And then as our industry does
• 10:47
  really well, we got on the phone with all of our Cup drivers, all
• 10:51
  of the owners, the racetrack, our broadcast partners and threw
• 10:57
  out some ideas for them to react to.
• 10:59
  We got some great ideas from the drivers as well.
• 11:03
  Some will probably do some individual things, which is
• 11:05
  fantastic because you know, they all, they all look up to Kyle,
• 11:08
  right? So we have a number of items
• 11:12
  that are in the works that our fans will be able to look at.
• 11:16
  Celebrate Kyle. It won't just be this weekend.
• 11:19
  You know, he's going to be part of our sport forever, but I
• 11:22
  think this industry will do will do what's needed to honor his
• 11:28
  legacy throughout the weekend. Thank you.
• 11:31
  Go to Steve. Steve understanding what Mike
• 11:33
  said about the health leading up to this.
• 11:37
  Is there anything at all that you can share in terms of of
• 11:40
  what might have happened and did you it was he sick at before
• 11:45
  this this happened? Anything at all that you can
• 11:47
  share? You know, we're 24 hours from
• 11:50
  getting a phone call and I don't think it's out of respect for
• 11:54
  the family and they've asked for privacy that I'm not going to
• 11:57
  address any of that. But Steven behind you, just let
• 12:04
  me just add on to that. However, you guys who have known
• 12:06
  me know that transparency is something that we all believe
• 12:10
  in. So in due time, I think everyone
• 12:12
  will be comfortable with where things where things stand.
• 12:16
  Steven Toronto NASCAR pole position Steve Generations ago
• 12:21
  drivers would come into a race weekend and either lose 1 of
• 12:25
  their competitors on the race track or perhaps in an off track
• 12:30
  accident of some sort and thankfully this generation of
• 12:33
  drivers by and large has not had to experience that.
• 12:38
  How has NASCAR, in speaking with the drivers, made any kind of
• 12:44
  resources or help available to not only help them cope with
• 12:48
  this but also allow them to put a rice on on Sunday?
• 12:55
  Yeah. So Tom Bryant, who works for us,
• 12:57
  has headed up on this initiative.
• 12:59
  And, and the good news for the industry is that this has been
• 13:02
  in place for a while. You know, we don't ever want to
• 13:05
  have to use it, but we have the resources in place for any
• 13:08
  member to be able to reach out, have conversations, set up,
• 13:13
  whatever resources are necessary so that that is in place.
• 13:17
  You never have to want to use that.
• 13:19
  But we have any and all resources available to the
• 13:21
  industry. And I, I feel like I already
• 13:25
  know what the answer to this is and, and pardon me for asking
• 13:28
  this, but was there any consideration to either
• 13:32
  postponing or or not running? Can you just address that very
• 13:37
  quickly? No, I, I think it's a fair
• 13:39
  question. But you know, when you look at
• 13:41
  what minimal conversations did take place between RCR, Sal's
• 13:47
  family, it was Kyle Busch would probably be pretty pissed off if
• 13:51
  we didn't race. So we're going to honor his
• 13:53
  memory and make sure people know what he was all about.
• 13:57
  Thank you. Good, Claire.
• 14:02
  Play me, Lang. I totally understand you're not
• 14:05
  talking about the health today and addressing it.
• 14:08
  And it's such a shock to go from asking for a shot, you know, to
• 14:12
  being gone. And I'm wondering, will NASCAR
• 14:15
  take a close look at at what happened?
• 14:18
  Not looking for answers right now, but will you do an
• 14:20
  investigation into helping drivers make sure they're taking
• 14:24
  care of themselves? There is a care center at each
• 14:26
  track. Will will you take a very close
• 14:28
  look at how that could have happened so quickly?
• 14:33
  But like I said earlier, Claire, now, now is not the time to talk
• 14:36
  about that. And I think you are very
• 14:38
  familiar with the sport and know that we always do that and we'll
• 14:41
  continue to do that and we'll do what's right by by Kyle's
• 14:44
  family. Gotcha.
• 14:45
  And then for the fans who are hurting right now and as much as
• 14:50
  anyone in this room and in the industry, what do you say to the
• 14:54
  fans? It is NASCAR will go on.
• 14:57
  It always has. But it is a great loss.
• 15:00
  And what would you like to say straight to the fans who are
• 15:03
  also grieving? And you know, you wish you could
• 15:05
  reach out to them, but they're not in this room today.
• 15:09
  I would say to the fans that I'm one of them and I feel the exact
• 15:13
  same way that they probably do shock, sad, wondering what you
• 15:19
  can do to to help out. But I think the best thing that
• 15:23
  I personally can do is talk to you all.
• 15:26
  Talk to people who maybe didn't know him about his legacy,
• 15:29
  making sure people don't forget, making sure his kids knew that
• 15:34
  wasn't just his, their mom who thought Kyle was great.
• 15:37
  There's a lot of people in this world that wish he was still
• 15:41
  with us, and we're going to make sure that they're in a good
• 15:43
  place. Go to Jerry.
• 15:48
  Jerry Jordan kicking. The tires.
• 15:50
  On it you mentioned a while ago you're we're. 24 hours.
• 15:54
  Away from the phone call, I think it all hit us obviously
• 15:58
  harder. The ones that.
• 15:59
  Are in this sport every week for sure.
• 16:02
  What was your? Reaction and your.
• 16:04
  Personal thoughts. Can you share those with with
• 16:06
  everyone? You know, I'm not going to get
• 16:10
  too much into the details, Jerry, but you know, got a call
• 16:16
  about 9:00 AM yesterday morning. Call, you don't expect that
• 16:21
  Things weren't great. Spent the rest of the day in the
• 16:26
  afternoon with the people I thought I should be spending
• 16:28
  them with in the industry and just tried to be there for him.
• 16:34
  Go, Michael. Michael Massey front stretch.
• 16:44
  I know you guys just did the Hall of Fame voting and you
• 16:46
  mentioned Kyle's a first ballot Hall of Famer.
• 16:49
  Any chance and will there will there be any conversations or
• 16:52
  anything about just adding him alongside the three that just
• 16:56
  got voted in? You know, I, I don't know.
• 17:00
  I, I know that, you know, we put that on the list of ideas that
• 17:04
  we want to look at. I think I said earlier, there's
• 17:07
  things we want to do this weekend and then we have a
• 17:10
  little bit more time to think about, you know, what we could
• 17:13
  do as as well in the future. And, and who knows that that
• 17:16
  could be something we look at. All right.
• 17:19
  We have time for one more and we'll wrap up with Greg here.
• 17:22
  Hey, Steve. First, thanks for thanks for
• 17:24
  doing this. I know it's tough and we
• 17:27
  appreciate you being here. But Speaking of tough, how tough
• 17:29
  is it? I mean, we never want this to
• 17:31
  happen, but on a weekend like this when it's Memorial Day and
• 17:35
  we're we're doing remembrances for, for all the veterans who
• 17:38
  gave us the freedom to be here and to be race car drivers and
• 17:41
  CEOs and things, how, how tough does that weigh on this entire
• 17:45
  process? It's a good question because
• 17:49
  this weekend is always one you don't necessarily look forward
• 17:53
  to for what happened, right? But you look forward to me
• 17:57
  personally, how proud I am of the industry, of the partnership
• 18:01
  we have with the military, what our industry does to come
• 18:04
  together to honor those who served either in the past, who
• 18:08
  are currently serving. And so, you know, making sure
• 18:12
  that we properly show the respect to to Kyle and, and what
• 18:17
  he meant. You know, there's a lot of his
• 18:20
  values in terms of racing and what he stood for that match in
• 18:24
  with, with what we want to honor this weekend as well.
• 18:27
  So I'm confident in the the track and our team and the
• 18:30
  industry that they'll come together and do both properly
• 18:33
  and and showcase the sport for what it is.
• 18:36
  It's one that we believe everyone in America should be
• 18:42
  proud of if they would spend some time thinking about who's
• 18:45
  in the sport, who our drivers are, what they represent, not
• 18:49
  necessarily just on the track, but off the track.
• 18:52
  They're people you want to admire, people you want to be
• 18:54
  around and we need to put the focus back on them and showcase
• 18:58
  this great sport.