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Michael McDowell Shares Great Kyle Busch Memories | Matt Weaver Reports · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:00
  How did you again to process the news this week?
• 0:05
  Well, very hard to process. I think everybody was just
• 0:08
  shocked and sad and it didn't feel real at 1st.
• 0:12
  And yeah, it's been a hard few days and, you know, it's so
• 0:18
  unexpected that you don't really know how to process it.
• 0:22
  Michael, were you out the garage area this morning watching this
• 0:25
  car unloaded? And if So, what was that moment
• 0:27
  like? I was not here when they
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  unloaded. Now here we have a few
• 0:32
  appearances this morning. So yeah, I wasn't here when that
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  happened. With your faith and you know,
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  the belief in God and the, you know, being your stature in the
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  garage as well, what message do you have for not only fans, but
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  other drivers and your friends, colleagues out there?
• 0:48
  Yeah, it's super tough. I mean, just because you know
• 0:52
  where you're going and you have faith doesn't make it any easier
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  in times like this, right? Because you think about Samantha
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  and Braxton and Lennox and they still don't have a dad that's
• 1:03
  there today. And so there's but you're where
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  my faith plays into that is knowing 1 is that God loves your
• 1:12
  kids and he loves your wife and he's the ultimate provider.
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  And the second is that this isn't our home.
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  And it's hard to say that in times like this, but nobody
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  leaves here alive. And and so having an eternal
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  perspective allows you to have peace and freedom and knowing
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  that this isn't our home. Favorite memory or experience
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  you have with Tom? You know, he's we're we're the
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  same age, but he came into the sport a few years before me, but
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  I have a lot of lot of memories and that's why I was smiling
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  because there's there's stories that I can't tell you that
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  wouldn't wouldn't be appropriate for this time.
• 1:59
  But I can tell you that in a lot of people have hit it on it this
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  week. It's just Kyle was a fierce
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  competitor. No filter told you exactly how
• 2:08
  he felt. But off the racetrack, he was
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  incredibly generous and still told you exactly how he felt,
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  but was always there to help. And there's been multiple
• 2:18
  situations where he's helped me directly or friends or family.
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  And so, you know, that's the side that not a lot of people
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  see or get to see. But one of the, the memories
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  that I have in my head, last seen memories, I feel like it's
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  just been playing in my, my mind the last two days is at
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  Talladega. Just a few weeks ago, Kyle and
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  Brexton and the kids were all playing basketball and he was
• 2:47
  super competitive. And, and then Joey and his son
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  came over there and my son Lucas was playing with them.
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  And I just have that memory of him playing basketball with him,
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  but also talking trash to Joey, which was a lot of fun because
• 3:04
  you know that they they sort of had their rivalry, right.
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  But the when you're in the driver owner lot and your kids
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  are playing, it's a different environment and it's a different
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  setting. But it was it was just a memory
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  that keeps popping in my head. It just he was at a really
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  special place, I think in life where he was enjoying being a
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  dad and enjoying to have those moments, but still talking trash
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  to Joey. So that played in my head a lot
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  this week. So one of the things that OD
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  talked about yesterday was watching drivers go through
• 3:34
  those chapters of their lives as part of this family experience.
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  The story you just told with Kyle and where he is in that
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  place, how special is it getting to watch like a competitor, you
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  know, become a father, become a husband and have those, you
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  know, special? Experiences, well, you know,
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  I've experienced too, and you know, marriage and kids and
• 3:54
  longevity in the sport really helps with perspective.
• 3:58
  It really does. I mean, on your good days, your
• 4:01
  kids love you. On your bad days, your kids love
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  you and it's just not as big of a deal.
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  And you manage those highs and lows easier, but it also forces
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  you to mature, right? You don't have a choice.
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  You got you have, you have a responsibility and, and so I, I
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  experienced that and went through that transition to where
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  in racing, it's always been about everything's been about
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  me. It's always been about me.
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  And then as you get older in life and you realize that not
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  everything's centered around you, it just helps you to have
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  that perspective and, you know, have some balance in your life
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  is. It going to be a little bit
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  harder to climb into the car when you eventually do this
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  weekend. No, I don't think it's going to
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  be harder to climb into the car. This weekend's harder though, in
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  general. I mean, it just is because I
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  mean, even even this, I don't want to say I was dreading, but
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  I was kind of dreading coming into the Media Center because
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  you know that it's going to be heavy and you know that it's,
• 4:57
  but it's important. And so everything kind of feels
• 5:00
  that way a little bit. But you guys know, race car
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  drivers are are maniacs. I mean, we put the helmet on and
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  everything goes away. I mean, I don't know how to
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  explain it, but it truly does. It really does.
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  Just everything switches off and you just lock in.
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  And so I don't think that that part will be challenging, but
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  you know, I think that the weekend in general will be
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  obviously heavy. This is heavier because of the
• 5:25
  rain and the fact that it seems like we might have to kind of
• 5:27
  sit here in this for a little while.
• 5:29
  Yeah, it is. I mean, just being transparent,
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  I contemplated not coming today not not because of, you know,
• 5:38
  but the weather doesn't look great.
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  Who knows if we'll get the practice or qualifying and, you
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  know, just knowing that it's going to be a heavy day.
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  So, but I think that, you know, one of the things that we talked
• 5:52
  about yesterday was like, maybe the rain is the opportunity for
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  us to share those stories and to honor Kyle and to, you know,
• 6:00
  give insight into maybe things that Rexton and Linux haven't
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  seen or hear from, you know, competitors that maybe they
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  wouldn't have heard otherwise. Did you?
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  Get an opportunity to see the video of the car being unloaded.
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  I did not. No, I did not.
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  What was the most difficult moment for you or what do you
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  think will be difficult? You know, when you climb into
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  the car, you said that's kind of your piece.
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  You guys all focusing in a different way.
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  Have you had a moment where you know sometimes you wake up in
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  the morning, you think this isn't real?
• 6:35
  Yeah, I felt that way. Yeah.
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  I think that for me, the the personal side of it is like
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  every day is a gift. Nothing's guaranteed.
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  And like I said, Kyle and I are the same age and, and when you
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  have kids and a family and you realize how fragile life is, it
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  just makes you reflect on that, of how important it is to enjoy
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  those moments with your kids and your family and not take it for
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  granted, which we all are guilty of doing.
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  And yeah, so I don't know if I answered your question or not,
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  but the the race car part I feel like is the easy part.
• 7:18
  The hard part was leaving the house.