One highlight after Kyle Busch’s NASCAR Cup Series win: A victory lap with his son
After each of his four wins this season, Kyle Busch’s celebration in Victory Lane always included him throwing his 4-year-old son Brexton into the air, a father-son bonding moment.
Busch upped the ante after Sunday’s win in the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway — one that clinched his second NASCAR Cup Series title.
After the celebration and the euphoria and the hugs subsided, Brexton rode shotgun in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota as dad took one last trip around the one-and-a-half mile track to close out South Florida’s 18th consecutive — and, for the moment, final — NASCAR Championship Weekend.
“Brexton actually came to me,” Busch said. “... He said ‘Dad can I go for the ride with you?’ I was like ‘Oh, hell. I’m good with it.’ We asked the NASCAR guys and then they radioed up to the tower and we got approval to do that. That was really, really special for Brexton and me to be able to take in that moment around the track. At first he was sitting down on the floorboard, and I was like ‘You can’t see anything down there. Stand up a little bit.’ He was kneeling and holding onto the bar. I thought that was really, really cool. He got the chance to go around.
“I was smiling the whole damn time.”
Busch for the most part ran a clean race and took advantage of the fact that his fellow Championship 4 competitors — Martin Truex Jr, Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin — each had to overcome a noticeable miscue throughout the race. Busch’s closest competitor by race end, Truex, crossed the finish line about four-and-a-half seconds later.
Busch led for 120 of the 267 laps on Sunday, including the final 45 to claim his second title in five years.
But that 268th lap, the one longer after the race had been decided, will hold equally strong meaning.
“I can’t remember my memories of how old I was when I started remembering things. I hope that he can remember these moments,” Busch said. “Obviously, TV’s really good these days. There’s a lot of good HD coverage. It’s pretty clear. The opportunities of him being on television and him in the car with me and that sort of stuff is special.”
This story was originally published November 17, 2019 at 9:25 PM.
.JPG)