THOUGHTS: Kyle Busch Vegas Post Race Radio Tirade was Pure KFB
LAS VEGAS, Nevada (March 7, 2022) – Following the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, a ton of attention was aimed at comments Kyle Busch made on the radio immediately following the race. As race winner Alex Bowman was preparing to celebrate on the frontstrech, Busch unleashed an expletive laden tirade venting his displeasure on the outcome.
“The same fucking guy who backs into every fucking win that he ever fucking gets backs into another fucking win. Bullshit!”
Alex Bowman and teammates Kyle Larson and William Byron took two tires on the race’s final pitstop, puting the trio at the front of the pack for the final restart.
Bowman and Larson took off like a bat out of hell, and raced neck and neck, with Bowman edging out Larson to win in the green-white-checkered overtime finish.
Kyle Busch had battled from a practice crash on Saturday that forced his team to use the Joe Gibbs Racing backup car, to racing toward his 60th career Cup Series win with three laps to go.
He overcame a near miss early in the race, spinning to avoid a crash between Austin Dillon and Justin Haley, to find himself battling with teammate Martin Truex Jr. through the bulk of stage three.
With three laps to go, a crash involving Erik Jones and Bubba Wallace set up a final round of pit stops and an overtime finish.
Busch, Truex, Chastain, and a host of others dove down pit road and took on four fresh tires for the overtime finish… except for the three Hendrick machines that led at the final restart, with Bowman claiming the checkered flag.
On pit road and in front of the FOX tv camera, Busch thanked his team and sponsors for a job well done overcoming the adversities of the weekend and the resulting fourth place finish.
While Kyle Busch is often criticized for the things he says and does, in this instance I don’t really have a problem with his actions. Putting myself in his shoes, I may have done something very similar. The Busch we heard on the radio was the most honest and open verison we got all day.
The radio interactions are supposed to be between the driver and his team, but NASCAR being what it is, and scanners being a thing… we, the audience, get to eavesdrop into those moments, which are actually quite common throughout the field but amplified when they come from Kyle Busch.
Do I agree with Busch’s take that Bowman backed into the win? Of course not. Bowman, and his Hendrick teammates played the right strategy at the right time and it paid off in spades with a convincing win.
After the race, on pit road, the comments and quotes that Kyle Busch provided to the media hit all the correct notes. Sure, one could call it “fake” given what he said on the radio, but again… I’d rather KFB dispense some anger over the radio than to a crowd of microphones and cameras.
Wait, maybe not. Don’t all those outbursts provide a level of entertainment to the fans at home? I thought we love to hate Busch and like it when he embraces the role of the villian. Imagine how boring if all we got from him week in and week out was the dry, politically correct quotes that he gave on pit road, rather than the spicy rage he shared on the team radio.
Yeah, I’ll take the Busch that entertains anyday, and I’ll watch with popcorn at the ready.
- By: Daniel Vining, Twitter: @danielvining
- Photo: Meg Oliphant/Getty Images
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