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The Rotunda
Monday, July 7, 2025

Brothers Busch Need the Off-Season to Reflect and Rethink

There are no two more polarizing figures in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series than Kyle and Kurt Busch. Both have their own legions of fans who gobble up merchandise left and right and show up at the racetrack each weekend to show their support for their favorite drivers. They also have multitudes of detractors who shower them with boos, jeers and the occasional middle finger. Don't get me wrong, both Kyle and Kurt are extremely talented behind the wheel. They both have double digit victories in the Sprint Cup series. Kyle alone has over 100 wins combined in Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series competitions. He's only 26. Kurt won the Sprint Cup championship in 2004.

Again, I take nothing away from these guys and their ability to drive the wheels off of a race car. That much has been proven. I do, however, take exception to most of the ill-mannered, ill-tempered, make-you-want-to-slap-them escapades that both Busch brothers engage in on and off the track. The laundry list of run-ins with other drivers and clashes with the media and the law is too extensive to list here. The 2011 season in particular was chock full of "Busch-isms," but one incident that happened at the season-ending race at Homestead-Miami Speedway caught a lot of people's attention.

The elder Busch, Kurt, fell out of the race on the third lap when his transmission broke. As Busch pulled into the garage he was blocked by another vehicle. In-car cameras caught Busch shooting the bird at someone, presumably the other driver. A video that surfaced on YouTube showed Busch waiting to be interviewed by ESPN's Dr. Jerry Punch. In the video, Punch tells Busch that part of his transmission might have been run over by championship contender Tony Stewart, punching a hole in the grill on Stewart's car. Busch, obviously displeased with his current situation, went off on Punch, going so far as to tell someone to "get this mother f----- out of my face." The f-bombs continued to fly as Punch waited to go live with Kurt. Finally, after several tense minutes and several more choice four letter words from Busch, Punch decided to walk away without the interview. A $50,000 fine (chump change to NASCAR drivers) was levied against Kurt for his actions.

Should Punch have worded what he said differently? Maybe. Could he have waited some more time to let Busch cool off? Maybe, but ESPN wanted a live interview. All in all, Punch showed a great amount of restraint during those few minutes. Busch has since apologized, but still, that incident in itself encapsulates what it is like to be on the receiving end of a Kurt Busch tirade. Over the past few seasons, he has subjected his team and crew chiefs to radio blowups that makes Tom Cruise in "Tropic Thunder" look tame. On-track incidents with Jimmie Johnson also caused quite a stir among fans, drivers and media members alike.

Kyle, on the other hand, was ticketed in North Carolina last May for going 128 mph in a 45 mph zone. An incident with Richard Childress Racing driver Kevin Harvick at Darlington and receiving a punch from Childress himself at Kansas got things started. The final straw was Busch intentionally wrecking truck series championship contender Ron Hornaday at Texas earlier this month. The intentional wreck (which happened under caution) ended Hornaday's chances at a title.

NASCAR parked Kyle for the remainder of the weekend at Texas, forcing him to sit out both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup races. More trouble followed when Kyle's primary sponsor, Mars, Inc., decided to remove their colors from his car for the remaining two races of the season. Kyle's job security was also called into question, but team owner Joe Gibbs has pretty much cast away all of those suspicions. Kyle is quite simply too valuable of an asset right now to let go.

The Busch brothers finished in the last two spots in the 2011 Chase for Sprint Cup, Kurt in 11th and Kyle 12th. As a result, both will not be attending this year's Sprint Cup Awards Ceremony, which will be held in Las Vegas this Friday. The real kicker is that Vegas is their hometown. Ouch. Talk about not being able to go to the party.

They both can get angry and frustrated and let it show on the racetrack and off. They both still have to learn how to harness that anger and frustration, channel it and use it to their advantage instead of shooting themselves in the foot each and every time. I might get criticized for the comparison, but Dale Earnhardt Sr. was silver-tongued enough that when he wrecked other competitors on the track, he could climb out of the car and crack jokes about it and make everything almost alright. The Busch brothers don't seem to grasp that concept. It's high time they started.

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