Joe Gibbs Tells His Favorite Kyle Busch Stories

After the heartbreaking loss the NASCAR community experienced last week in the passing of Kyle Busch, Coach Joe Gibbs came into the media center to share his condolences and favorite Kyle Busch stories. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

This past weekend, team owner coach Joe Gibbs took to the media center to tell his favorite Kyle Bush stories, and frankly, it was too good not to share. For PRN's Garage Pass, this is Andrew Curlin.

SPEAKER_04 0:17

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SPEAKER_03 0:48

One of the most healing things for me that I found this past weekend after the tragic loss of Kyle Bush was telling stories about him, laughing at the good memories and the moments that he's had over the years, reminiscing on the crazy finishes that we've seen, and just keeping his spirit alive through stories. And no one did that better this past weekend than his former team owner, Coach Joe Gibbs, who stopped by the Media Center for just about 30 minutes, and he talked about Kyle Bush and told stories for 20 straight minutes before he even took questions. And he just had the room at his fingertips, and we were all enthralled by his memory of Kyle and some of the behind-the-scenes moments that we didn't hear until now. It was a beautiful tribute. I wanted you to hear it in full. So here's Coach Joe Gibbs from the Media Center this past weekend, and his tribute to Kyle Bush. Take a listen.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

Just a terrible time, obviously, uh for all of us and the NASCAR family. And so uh a few thoughts I had. First was just for Sam and Brexton and Lennox, Tommy Gay, just for that family. Um our focus and uh is gonna be for the future for them because we're gonna be there. And so whatever they need, we want to be a part of that. And so we just try and just encourage the Sam and everything that she's gonna go through. Our family's kind of gone through this, and so it's just it's uh honestly, it's the worst thing that could happen in life, and so we just want to encourage them. Secondly, I just want to say that for Richard and RCR, we just wanted to work in concert with them. And I reached out to Richard and told him that we just want to be together on this. We feel so, so much hurt for him and RCR. Just a terrible thing to happen to them and what's happened to him also in the past, and so we just really want to do anything we can to encourage RCR, and we want to work together as we go forward with this with them. The first time I heard about Kyle Bush, Coy was my son was racing trucks, and I I forget where they were, it was like someplace, Nashville or someplace, I don't know where it was. And so I called him to kind of see how it was going after practice, and he said, hey, he said, Dad, he said, there's a 16-year-old here, and said he's two set two seconds faster than anybody. He said, I hope to kick him out. And actually, what happened, it was true. It was Kyle Bush, and they kicked him out. He was too young to be there and was so fast. So that was the first time that you you kind of hear about Kyle. Um, and when you think about everything that he accomplished, uh, 63 cup wins, 234 wins against all three series and two championships, it's just a uh a phenomenal talent. Okay, and so there were really kind of three different things I was kind of mentioned to y'all that um that as I thought about Kyle and everything that I got to experience with him and we got to experience with him, not just me, but everybody at our our race team. Uh the very first thing was that wreck, the crash in 2015. And so I think it said a lot about Kyle, because uh, you know, he'd been around a lot of athletes I have in football and what have you. And when they get a serious injury, that can really affect you, you know, about your thoughts going forward. And so that night after that wreck, I went to the hospital there where they had him, and at that point he was on a gurney, and um the doctor was there, Sam was there, everybody was kind of there, and Kyle was raving at the doctor. He was going, get me in there, fix this. I want to get back to racing. And so I don't know if he was drugged up some or not, but that was his that was his approach. And honestly, his foot was, I thought, for us, the most, the thing that we were worried about the most, because his foot was really in a bad situation. So they fixed the you know, uh, put the rod in his leg uh that night, and then we flew him back to here to Anderson, and he did his foot, and there was a lot to that, a lot of screws and all kinds of stuff. So you're kind of worried about that. Obviously, that's your you know, your breaking foot and everything. So I gave him one day, I went over to the house. And so I walk into the house, and he already had a trampoline type deal, and he's doing pull-ups on this thing. You know what I mean? So I'm standing there talking to him, and then he goes, watch this. And he started wiggling his toes at the end of the cast. And I went like this, I went, Hey, are you supposed to be doing that? He goes, No, they told me not to do that. I said, quit doing that. But I just wanted to make a point to y'all, when you think about that, here's an athlete really getting hurt, both both of his legs and you know his his one leg and his foot. And for him to come back through that process, he was after it honestly every single day in rehab. He came back in 11 weeks. And so I'm sitting on the um the box at Sonoma when he came back. That was a road race. That's what we were really worried about because of his foot and the pressure and everything. So we're just hoping somehow he can get through this. And I was sitting up there with some of the Mars people, and I remember that. And at the end of that race, when he came across that finish line and won that race, they were crying, everybody was crying. And so when you think about that, he came back in 11 weeks, he won five races in the championship. So I just think as far as courage and determination and a desire to win, I gotta tell you, I'm not sure how many people could have or athletes could have gone through that and handled it that way. So the one thing I always felt about Kyle, that guy had great courage. He was not afraid of almost anything. And he had a burning desire to race. It was just inside of him. So that's the first thing I was going to mention. The second thing is I honestly feel like if some of you heard that interview with Adam, his crew chief for our period of time there at Joe Gibbs Race and Adam Stevens, I think he had the best description of Kyle. And he said it was like a freight train. This thing is going, and you can get on, and there's gonna be a big parse on the ride. And if you get in the way, you're gonna get run over, okay? And so I thought that was a great description of him, you know, and a bunch of us got on board. I know we did at our race team, and you know, it was full bore. He's going. And there's be some good things in there, and then uh every now and then he's gonna run over a few things and cross the line. And that passion and everything came out in so many different ways. Honestly, I I may have a hundred cowbush stories, and so, but I'll just give you one that kind of says a lot about him. We were at Loudon, New Hampshire, and he finished second. And so I kind of slid over to where they're interviewing people there, you know, because sometimes, I guess sometimes there might be something I could have to handle afterwards. And so I slid over there, and his interview was absolutely great. And so I said, Well, gosh, you know, he must be happy. You know, he finished second, so he's probably happy. He walked 10 yards to me. I was standing there, and he went just like this. He went, Your cars suck. And he kept and he kept right on walking. And I honest, some of you heard it because I I was I was nervous. The press heard that. You know what I mean? And so those are examples of just his passion for things. It happened one other time. I'll give you one other quick one. We're at Indy, and if you guys probably remember this, it was about the second or third restart. We had great cars. Both of us, both of us. Um Martin was in, you know, um uh on the front row with Kyle, and that was our Alliance car Martin was in. And so they restarted, it's probably the two best cars. Martin got down on the curb, some of you maybe remember this, and he shot up and just took Kyle out, put him right in the wall. So again, I knew this was gonna be, this is not gonna be good, our alliance car. And so I go over to where they're interviewing of the press, and again, Kyle handled it pretty good. And then he walked to me and he goes just like this, there's your alliance car. And he just kept walking. Um I mean, the passion that he had, and um all of us experienced that, and I I think that's just that was him. And I just admired that part of him so much. Did it carry him too far sometimes? Yeah, but the way he came across, but all of us saw that. And you guys probably witnessed, you probably have all of you, a lot of Kyle Bush stories. But then the third thing I was wanted to mention because there's a part of him that I just I just really admired, and that was kind of highlighted in several things with his personality and the way he dealt with things. One of those is you guys may know, we do a Christmas video. And when JD was here, he and Dave Alpern were Sal and Pern, you know, and they were the you know, this wild video and all kinds of stupid stuff. They had all kinds of skits and everything. And I'm gonna tell you that Kyle Bush, he loved that. Every single thing we asked him to do. At one point, they had these uh plastic gloves and they shoved it down over their head.

SPEAKER_00 12:53

You know what I mean? They got the fingers up like this.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

He was full bore on all that. Whether it was in a car singing all kinds of stupid songs and stuff, he was full bore on all. He had a great sense of humor with things like that. When he was away from the racetrack, he was so funny. And then we had one skit. I always remember it was probably the best one we had. It was Kyle, okay, and we had the young drivers, you know, in Xfinity sitting in front of him. And uh he was he was uh he was gonna do the uh the the uh anger management coach.

SPEAKER_00 13:35

He was the anger management coaching the guys up, and it was all these funny things about you know how to handle things when they don't go wrong.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

Uh so the other part of that, too, that I would just say to you, as we all know in our sport, one of the most important things for a driver at this level is to be able to, you know, represent some of the biggest and best companies in the world. And so, you know, for our sport is different. You have to have, and I don't call them sponsors, I call them partners, great partners. And to be able to keep a great partner for a long period of time with a driver is really, really hard to do because they gotta constantly uh be talking to the top executives in the company, entertaining, signing stuff. It's just non-stop. It's a huge part of our sport that you don't have in other sports. Kyle? Man. Mars, uh, I reached out to Pam, Victoria, William uh this week, and what they really said to me, it was more than a sponsorship, you know, it was a partnership, and they went with him through all of that. And so there was a side of Kyle that was funny, and you get him away from the racetrack, really quick-witted, you know, would say funny things, he could laugh at himself, he would be a part of our funny jokes and stuff that we would have at our complex. And he did a masterful job of you know, keeping our sponsors. I mean, you think about that, five contracts with Mars, one of the biggest, most powerful companies in the world, and it was a personal, it was personal relationships he had with the key partners in that company. So for all those things, uh, and then the other side of that side of Kyle and Sam was bundled of joy, and the fact the way he cared about, you know, others that were going through similar type things that him and Sam had gone through, and the way he kind of reached out with that, and uh, you know, that that all of that tells the side of Kyle that um that uh all of us, I just wanted to kind of mention that because it was so important because that part of him, you know, sometimes uh some people really didn't get to see, but we got to see it. And I would say this um for me and personally, I'll have Kyle Blue's stories forever.

SPEAKER_00 16:30

I can't tell you how many funny things he did and some of the things which shock shock me and everything. And I'm going, what the heck is he doing? You know what I mean? I said, for God's sakes, quit pushing uh the the button on the on the phone.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

You know what I mean? Say that to yourself. Funny things like that. So anyway, I just end with that. Uh this was somebody that we all kind of admired, great athletes that can do things that uh all of the rest of us, you know, you you envision yourself. You know, we admire pro sports because these guys do things that are just we we admire because it's unbelievable the talent that they have. So anyway, that's kind of um stand with the time I have here. Just wanted to share those things with you.

SPEAKER_03 17:27

As if we didn't know it already, Coach further proved how passionate Kyle Bush was as a race car driver through these difficult times. Everybody at PRN, including myself, continue to give our thoughts and prayers to the Bush family, Samantha, Braxton, Lennox, Kyle's parents, Kurt, and everyone else involved. If you have more tributes like this, if you have stories like this, please share them. To me, at least, that's the best therapy it is, is keeping Kyle's memory alive. He was a special individual, and there's no replacing the great Kyle Bush. For PRN's Garage Pass, this is Andrew Curland.

SPEAKER_02 18:10

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