Kurt Busch's relationship with his brother & how he overcame obstacles | Waltrip Unfiltered Podcast

hello and welcome to Waltrip unfiltered it's my podcast I'm so thankful that you joined us and I'm really happy to bring to you one of my favorite racers and all the garage area and listen to Kurt Busch and his stories about showing up a NASCAR in the early 2000s winning a championship then leading Penske Racing to go out and figure out who he was it's gonna be so cool to listen to Kurt stories emotional very well thought out his plan what is that plan and how does it work can't wait to listen to him share those details with us so listen to this also what you got to do is go to the official Fox Sports youtube channel and watch us you can see full video of Waltrip unfiltered the podcast you can also tell your friends since I see you're watching you can tell your friends that they can go to their favorite podcast app and add Walter fun filters they can also give us a rating give us a five star rating about the content and what you're gonna see and I know I'll get a 5 star today because you're gonna love getting to know Kurt Busch great for a great play man thanks for coming by this is awesome yeah this is fun I have no idea with the podcast and everything that's going on and and everybody at Fox hears like oh my gosh we should have put you to work all day long no I came in from Mikey yeah the podcast is something that we've done this year and it's been so cool we're buddies so I'm I know a lot about you and it's interesting our friendship over the years but when you have guys like Christopher Bell and Justin Halley some of these kids even Corey Lajoie and Matt DiBenedetto you just you get to know them and learn so much about them and it's just a great chance for me to appreciate even more people struggles their challenges and what all they went through to get to the Cup Series no I agree 100% when you have a nice setting where you can talk and not have a timeline the kids and their stories are the same as ours yeah on how you have to work your way up and get beat down and then come back up again and then you said Matt DiBenedetto yeah I don't know if I've ever said his last name right so thank you yeah you just you have to learn this on TV you have to slow it down because you want to be like DiBenedetto but it's DiBenedetto with another top five that's right was that impressive or what thanks you know this weekend what a what a struggle it was or a challenge it was I watch the race closely and I looked at one of your tweets here you said let's go to the Bible here this must be the truth I read it on the internet I came from my Sochi but it says unravelled like a ball of yarn at the end disappointed to run like we didn't not have that great of a finish I paraphrase because I don't have my glasses on I get it I saw you up front how does tell the fans how does one fall apart on you like that yeah it was unraveling like a ball of yarn that is a very polite way to shorten it up with all the four-letter words yes that we're going across the radio I am I was given the opportunity to pit or not to pit I don't like that when I'm in the car and we're at the end of the race if we're gonna pit tell me if we're staying out tell me and so Matt McCall and I had to go through another speed bump or a learning curve and he goes hey we're running sixth if you think you can restart on the outside lane stay out all right so now I'm counting cars ahead of me and what's the spotter doing that's kind of his he's a counter too right yes and we're all together on it and right at the last second Erik Jones is coming in yes and he peels back out and I was wanting to stay out but he crosses over the orange box I somehow miss this this voodoo orange box I guess the orange boxes if you commit to pit road you can't touch the orange box but if you bail out and cross back over the orange box now you're back out on track and it's okay it's not a penalty I just want to tell you that's weird dude I'm like I texted Steve O'Donnell I said I understand the call you guys made but that orange box it's it's voodoo we got to simplify it so I because I was counting cars in front of me and then we made the wrong car adjustment and I smack the right rear on the fence and then I went from about 6 to 18 mm-hmm so call it a 12-point loss now that's yarn unraveling yeah we do radio sweetheart here on Wednesday any any chance kurtal making appearance it's normal normal for me so like if it was extreme yeah maybe right no this was just straight-up four-letter words not directed at anybody and it was all driver I'm the one that had the steering wheel I could have chose to stay out I could have kept the car off the fence but I didn't and that sounds like a driver on Monday are we allowed to cuss on that's basically what went down and the best that happened to me and the most energetic I think I've seen you in forever well maybe not forever you're you're cool dude was Kentucky when you you were able to celebrate that victory and you used a four-letter word there that that just summed it all up hell yeah those fans what's I've got so many questions one of which I get we ask our fans of Chuckies your home state it is and and what a crazy great race it was now I want to give a shout out to the fans when I was interviewed by NBC right at the start/finish line I didn't know that it tuned into the loudspeakers for all the fans so literally there's 70,000 people listening in to that interviewed I just went hell yeah whoo Kentucky and did you hear him yeah it's like I felt like I was Steven Tyler at a concert like yeah we love you Kentucky and everybody's going nuts in and that was the emotions of winning and feeling it on then the crew guys are going bananas you know I did the stage dive with them and you got to route them to victory lane that look like old school I thought that was David Pearson when he was driving to Victory Lane in Daytona that year it was perfect they planned it I didn't know what was going down they just start piling on the car and one guy he's got his right foot wrapped around my left leg like it's getting intimate right yeah that's a that's an interesting victory celebrate but you never saw that command gets worse gets worse I had to reach underneath his leg to kind of get to the switches to fire the car back up oh yeah any brush anything weird it's okay we're winners yeah we're winners you are winners and Kentucky was awesome we needed that CJ bring me that tweet I like Curt thank you for being here with us we asked fans to send in Twitter questions for us we're both of you with hashtag ask Mikey and the first one we like that came in was from chase Williams chase underscore WI L 72 he wants to know what's your most memorable race so far in your career all time what's your most favorite that you think about and then I know we usually say we need top three Kurt the top three Kurt Busch moments of your career think about those but let's start with with this one I know the one that you just had in Kentucky had to be special you talked about the celebration the crew was it the best gosh you can't put the word best like kids right attached to a win everyone is special kids yeah I don't have kids yet but I know what you're saying Mike in when you win there's so much that runs through your mind right away and the first thing now being older is appreciating the team and the teamwork when I was younger it was like yeah I did this all on my own yeah pit stops pit stops you know outdrove these guys and then with a sponsorship side of things and the manufacturer everything starts kicking in and I don't know all wins have their significance for different reasons yeah at this point and would I put Kentucky in a top five category I would yes it's helped me now I'm not saying it was bad when I lost to Ricky Craven and the closest finish in NASCAR history at Darlington in 2003 Ricky BB bite zero zero two and I knew that was something special like the feeling of that battle and how the finish ended up and yeah I was second it wasn't a win this one at Kentucky 20:19 I beat my little brother in a brother battle mono e mono like who's gonna lift going through turns three and four and to come out on top of a special finish like that so I get to go to Victory Lane do hot stuff and now you're thinking of all the video reels that are gonna show forever it's like kicks in yeah I won this one that win almost now Trump's the Darlington one of 2003 memories ya value of it right and now if I beat Kyle Larson it could be a little bit of a different feel or you know Harvick or Truex or Logano but beating my little brother that puts it up there yeah the Daytona 500 the photos from that victory lane and and there's just so many memories that you've had people asked me what my favorite win is and you know it's it would be obvious to say one of the Daytona 500s but I have so many mixed emotions about what happened in Daytona the first one obviously losing our friend Dale in the second one I had the dominant car but it rained and you know so I don't have any pictures of taking the checkered flag I was sitting on my pit box when they said I won and and I remember that one that was why do you remember it so well I was second that day and I'm like it isn't even raining outside there's no lightning bolts come on let's go back racing yeah I was the opposite I I'm like okay I've been dominant and I'm I'm winning it can rain and I'm fine with that because you know I've done my job to that point but not great like this emotion of the guy leading this emotion of the guy second I want to compare that to something for you I didn't even think about this until I started doing some research for our chat and Oh 8 at Loudon you did research yeah I noticed too and I did my research you've you've done some really cool things but back to Loudon 2008 the rains came in late and you were leading and I was second and when that when they called that race I'm like damn I've never thought one time about what Kurt Busch thought 2003 when they called that race you sparked back to that moment I did I'm like I've never cared about Kurt's feelings that day but but now I think I'm experiencing everything he felt you know I want to race more I want to go beat that guy they're not amazing like I'm like oh it's raining yeah we should call this and now I'm jumping into what you were feeling to win it it's so unique right and so many different emotions and yet it's being in position to win yeah that's what I always tell crew chief set them with or team members it doesn't matter if it's a gamble on fuel or you know to stay out on a late caution yes fast race cars usually work their way to the top but still about just putting yourself in position to win no matter what yeah I had a another one to finish with you was Phoenix and Oh five and and I had I remember that one yeah dude you ran like Lane five there wasn't a lane well you were up on the wall and three and four that year what happened is Dale jr. had had so much success with Tony Eury jr. at that track and I qualified 30th and I was distraught I'm like that I'm terrible I can't get this it drives me hell I'm just showing it and then I started that race and I said I have to win I have to win for Tony Junior you know how racecar drivers are crazy in their brain mine was I don't care what it takes and for some reason I was able to drive to the front and lead and there you were and and we were matched like I couldn't it was just man for man so close but I couldn't get there now I just love that memory of how hard we race that night we were raced hard I pitted because pfennig thought tires were good for our fast car but again it gets down to track position at the end and why do drivers I don't get this how do we all magically just pick up lap time yeah at the end of the races it's it's bright it's your mind I'm so weird like the pace can be 30 seconds flat and then at the end everybody's running 29 fives yeah where'd all this beep come from I get confused by that was a good battle of because I remember you were in this weird groove doing up there I'm I'm not gonna go up there and try that I gotta stick with the bottom I got a stick with what I know and it was really a cool battle because Phoenix never really has those Lane options yeah and it still doesn't really Betty I want to talk about finish up about Kentucky take us to behind the wheel coming to the green flag you're setting on Row 2 if you can if you can take a very ya know row - yep but but take me through one to go they throw one to go your brain and and and everything that you're sizing up what you see and then conversely how much you saw or predicted how did that all work out if I could drop it back a few laps before that yes please we're running fourth which I didn't know we were fourth at the time we came out on the green flag stops like in eighth and I'm I'm just jamming passing cars just going as hard as I can and they said that the 20 was up ahead and the 18 the 22 they come around man if I could just get a yellow literally the lap before I said that in my mind it never comes either by the way it did and then it did it did because the week before that damn lightning bolt when I was leading the race didn't show up at the right time so I literally asked for something to happen it did something in return maybe it happened yes I was thankful for the yellow you know just one of those freak things with Bubba Wallace got a flat tire in this round and he says I owe them a beer by the way that I don't know if he really anything to do with that but I'll go get the beer from Bubba later but I wasn't thinking that in the car alright so to your question fourth with a green white checker here we go I look in the mirror spotter said it right at the same time he says 42 is behind you and he's gonna roll with you now that had to be great right well I'm like wait a minute he had roll with me earlier this year like three four wide at Charlotte earlier this year at the all-star race when he won yes that's the first thing that went through my mind and then I said you know what self if he said it he's gonna go with you so I trusted but don't you wonder sometimes if the spotter just says it or do you think that that was said I'm going with you I didn't second guess if he wouldn't have now I'm gonna have to second-guess it in the future so Larson's gonna roll with me that means I don't have to look in the mirror I have no reason to look backwards nice so Kyle's on the inside Logano is on the outside then you got Eric Jones who's a teammate with my little brother man those two are gonna probably hook up and go but if I've got Larson behind me I'm gonna dispose of this 22 Logano as quick as I can and so with the restart we were going up through the gears Logano tried to jump like he did at Michigan where he went before the zone try to do it again but they didn't do anything to his little brother was on him so Kyle held him up from the left side I had Larson pushing me from the back and I was able to get around the 22 pretty clean and down the back straightaway turn Larson behind me I didn't look in the mirror again but now we're down back straight oh it's me in the 18 and we drove down into turn three and I'm just staring at his door like I'm not lifting because I got to stay on him for the side draft yeah and we drove all the way and we had to kind of crack the throttle before the turn four wall and so we both kind of checked each other up off of four but then I got the side draft man I wanted to be clear I didn't quite get clear going into turn one and he actually rubbed our left rear fender now I smell smoke oh yeah the car yeah oh come on wait a minute it's only a mile to go maybe the tire will hold out down into turn one we're wide open and this this corner is easier at Kentucky now to hold it wide open and I have to stay side drafting on his on his right rear so I draft him pulling ahead now he's on my left rear I knew he'd be there I knew I wouldn't have enough momentum to clear him same thing into turn three no just stared at his door to make sure I stayed on him to side draft him and my backup plan if Kasey chopped me was it just roster throw him right we both would erect we both would have been in the grass it would have been the old fight but but you're telling others you're telling all the things in your brain that was an option that was an option be the option a he's gonna I know and I'm gonna time it just right and I'm gonna come off of four with the momentum and have just enough back at the line to beat him yeah that was plan a and it worked out it was beautiful to to watch that track just had such great racing and I had let me tell you real quick sad sad star story I don't use the P word ever package page y'all aren't racing packages your racing car cars yeah and it just drives me crazy all to talk another thing that drives me crazy I don't like it when it's called VHT or p j1 I like traction compound because that's what it is and if you're a novice viewer and you turn on they're talking pj1 VHT I'm like what are the traction compound that they lay down in a corner I did that I like that but I digress talking talking about the package like don't do that y'all racing cars and by the way the race is on Sunday the cup races like I'm a fan now I'm not doing you know the Fox broadcast I'm just sitting at home or at the track watching you guys I'm finding the ones on Sunday way more entertaining than the ones on Saturday I like what I'm seeing on Sunday afternoon with the with the rules and the 2019 cars raft is much more insane and more intense that's what I was getting to more strategic how did how did you what if that we hear about weight and you can't pass in that wake how did you how were you able to keep that nose right on your brother with all that wake off turn 2 when you were heading down to turn 3 and what made you think that it wasn't just gonna go blow if it just washed out on me it washed out because I was too aggressive I didn't care on that side of it but the track nighttime the last run and the grip level in the tires it's as if the two cars up in front have the clean air soon as your third so like we're side by side I think it's clean air on both third he's he's thirty-year and the things just sliding all around so I felt like if I get hold to the outside I could stay that close to wide open and it worked out how many of those guys on that team that you took to Victory Lane were going there for the first time in in their row I know that was Matt McCall's first crew chief and by the way don't we have a crew chief Twitter question you have driven to the one about nine different crews yeah that quantity quantity of crew cheese so it's that a good thing like here that I you know it's understandable we've been a little volatile through years ladies I just want to win yeah do you can you name all nine of them and and talk about how many of them you got their first win for so the amount of crew guys I want to say is at least 25 guys that were in victory lane for their first time yeah and then back at the shop I need to get another body count of guys it was that many years for the one car and also just that many new guys that were part of it and that's the most gratifying and satisfying part of taking a new team to Victory Lane has all the new emotions for everybody and you know I pop their cherry yeah they're always gonna remember that first win right it's a victory lane with Kurt Busch and what how was it for Matt I mean from talking you talked about the thunderstorm and the lightning bolt and the call at Daytona and the frustration and the emotion one week later he's redeemed but yet we were all so unlike an alternative strategy ended up working out when the plan in our favor with the yellow at the end but that's again you got to put yourself in position for it and Matt was great he handled it like a champ I mean his wife was sending out tweets on do a bit don't pit Daytona and did you see him on Twitter with this just a straight answers yeah and that's how that emotion and that little bit of extra energy that we took to Kentucky it was a chip on our shoulder yeah we should have a win but yet the Kentucky package was sent what we ran it Michigan a few weeks before that and we finished second it was really really close and so it just everything was lining up for the right reasons and McCall is a good dude you know he doesn't get rattled very easy and yet we still have to make mistakes to learn and we're trying to do that at the right rate and and still produce the results and we've had a very good consistent year and so I'm happy for Matt and all of our crew guys and the question of crew chiefs and all nine I missed one the other day they did ask me and it was Johnny Kloss Mayer was my lead engineer who filled in for Tony Gibson ah at Pocono in 2016 but with the first win way back with Jimmy pfennig mm-hmm at Roush Racing Jimmy taught me the most Jimmy Fenner taught me the most about how to race wind race when it's important to go hard and when it's not and he made me the the champion that I am Jimmy was the best yeah you know everybody's been great though over the years I want to race with Rory McCauley right away at Penske Pat Reisen came over and we ran really good in oh seven together before the the car tomorrow and we were there winning a no.9 together then steve Addington mm-hmm came on board so what are we up to one two three four Addington and I ran really good on Atlanta and the mile and a half for a few years we won Sonoma and Dover together and then I didn't win at Phoenix racing we were close to win in Sonoma with Nick Harrison which you know rest in peace neck we can talk about him and a little bit I'm gonna miss neck with furniture row man we gave away so many races we should have won a lot there in 2013 I just remember when you showed up with that Furniture Row cart Michigan and it looked like it was broken oh we had it slammed to the ground who engineered that out that was Koper yeah that was he's ahead of his time there right yeah when mr. Hendrick stops by and finds Barney visser on pit road and says you're winning the arms race yeah I remember Barney he was just glowing for half a year after that what so hey 2014 was a Daniel canosa 2015 with Tony Gibson Clough iron 16 and then I'm with Billy Scott last year at Bristol I think I got them all and then now we've got Matt McCall yeah he's a racer I used to drive I look somebody out again know what y'all come up was good I'm so really good results a lot of good teams a lot of good people right on and and it's it's been a heck of a ride you mentioned our buddy Nick Harrison that past Saturday night we woke up with that that terrible news on Sunday morning you drove to Victory Lane with him in James's Xfinity car you said you didn't win for for James but you did the Xfinity and I loved your tweet and I want to I want to read it we all lost a friend last night we love you Nick Harrison you're a leader and a great friend all Nick really helped me rebuild my career when I was at a low point r.i.p nick and and a great picture of the victory and in daytona talk about that the low point and you had driven for Roush and and Pinsky and now you're looking at you know I'm going to drive for James and a mile on my way out did you ever wonder what the future might hold after you left Penske and you wound up at James's so that situation and everything went down at Penske I was up in arms with the performance of our cars and we had finished 11th and points two years in a row and it was like no concern of fixing the issues I mean we ran out of gas while leading at Phoenix in that November race you know we went to homestead and it was a with boyar on basically a heads up race whoever finishes in front of who is gonna be 10th overall and 10th kind of can salvage a year the food things a hell of a lot better than 11th 11th just socks the wrist pin on the driveshaft exactly what happened to Bowman's car this weekend happened to mine on lap three of the race at Homestead mm-hmm now it didn't blow through the oil tank it just shot the wrist pin out through the drive shaft tunnel into the car hit the roof of the car like it could have came there gonna hit my leg and now we're laps down and I'm just pissed not everything that added up to that moment and it's like guy says the cars are not where they need to be and they're like well we don't think you're where you need to be we're having this discussion and there's no leaves on the trees like it's December this is getting really weird and we both said hello we're out I I went out on a journey because I was getting paid really well at Penske mm-hmm we're winning races but Renate contention to win championships and I screwed up I'll go find a ride later well the first guys that call was Felix ibadis talked to him you know he said hey I'll call James Finch I called Richard Childress I'm went to drive to level cross North Carolina met with Richard Petty sat in his offices about driving for him and at the end of it I chose my own therapy path I said you know I was a young guy 22 years old and plopped into Roush top to your equipment right away everybody always says man if I knew now what I knew then how good could I be right that's like I want to take this knowledge and start over Wow so you did know now what you didn't know then I don't know if I know what I knew what I was even doing then but you knew thing was new and you knew that you needed to be new and it was definitely then to make now happen that's profound I actually turned down an offer from Richard Petty Motorsports Richard bought me a dry form and then that was when he went in the news to say Kurt was unspun servile and like that didn't happen but I can't rebuke the king and I wanted to go with James Finch James soon says hey you drive my car we split the purse alright handshake done did you did you that was gonna cover my costs and I was gonna break even that year if we split the first right and away we went yeah and so I with with that I bought a Chevy truck from City Chevrolet from Rick Hendrick it was a used truck out of the used truck department I drove down to South Carolina three times a week went to Finch a shot hung out with Nick Harrison that whole gang and did it old school went to the Peach Pit restaurant yeah where Pearson would go and anybody in South Carolina that was a racer libby's there's a bar down there that all the guys would go to after five o'clock and just did it old school and put myself on a path to work my way back up and that's what Phoenix racing was about and Nick Harrison believed in me I believed in him and we had some fun races together how cool is it is it to listen to Nick talk about sterling and the fun that they had and and I know y'all got some great stories I'm just I'm thankful that that you're my guest today with the fact that we lost a buddy over the weekend and we can celebrate right now and smile over I wrote on my Twitter like Nick always made me smile and and I just think that's a great thing to say about a person Nick had comedy relief but also the old school know we're gonna be serious when we're working yes and 5 o'clock rolls around we're still going to get our work done and then we'll go get a beer yeah Nick was like a Chris Farley just happy making jokes and fun all the time and it made everybody else want to work that much harder around him talk about the knowledge that you brought to Phoenix for James and you know you've driven for a five card team that Jack Roush owned a four car team that that Roger had and and now you're going to and plus those guys you know they're they've been around racing forever and now James has been around racing forever but it's mostly late models and an Xfinity what what did you bring to to Nick and James and that team that made y'all so good I tried to be as consistent as I could in the car and give the feedback like I normally like to give with the handling but also just try to nurse the best finish out of the car and so our goal was to finish 18th each and every week you know it 23rd you know I'm scraping we got 12th I think at Fontana we might have led laps at Bristol Sonoma I want to talk about that we almost won not beat us that's when you're tasting boy you're down I'll say some boyar and I've started to feel the rear end fall I might wait a minute what's going on back there and if I move boy you're out of the way and usually when you move somebody that it's a pretty big moment I guess anomaly you don't really save it if the rear end falls out how how stupid was that and but I felt it like trying to fall out of the back of my I just got a nurse this thing home but you never I mean you didn't lose much ground with your nursing Stewart got by me and I was looking in the mirror for the rest of the game coming but nursed it just enough to bring it home in third and that setup we copied from Penske I had it as best as I had it in my memory had some notes and we copied it the best we could I won the year before it Sonoma with that setup we almost want to get at Sonoma yeah then there's certain tracks where a trend can trump technology follow me like the mile and a half's and some of the short tracks you have different things and approaches that you go Road course yeah it's kind of a trend yeah would you run last year sure work and so it was really neat to almost win that race back to back it sure was let's let's for Nick he was good dude and a great leader and will be missed by so many people after Phoenix racing he went up to RCR spent some time up there won races with Austin Dillon and they were all in victory lane at Daytona with that big win for Roth and the 1 2 3 finish for colleague racing being able to get the victory lane just a week ago and now he's gone I know it's sad we lost a good friend way too early yeah well it's been an interesting ride let's get another Twitter question how about that CJ this is my assistant CJ Curt did you say how does he judge handsome devil over the actually got to hang out on Curt's Motorhome one time and play with his dogs Curt's my favorite now because he asked you and that's Ford over there he's our producer director of toys on it became a guy that's Spencer Spencer the camera guy that's a and this is our plush spock sports studio with the trunk off my bristol car I crashed nice from the Bristol car right I got to keep my eye on him oh he wants your Alabama helmet comes by here and tries to get my Alabama helmet but how about a question you know we had a good question come in from DJ Cummings and he wants to know since you talked about it and after the race in Kentucky did you end up putting the Kentucky trophy on Kyle's kitchen counter at his house the next day ok yeah I was I was full bore I'm gonna just show up Kyle big time right and learning that he took off on the plane without me that's gonna happen though right yeah come on bro I have a half hour with the patients and when I thought about the trophy was in the hall or after the race and they were say oh yeah we're gonna put it up in the shop gonna have for all the crew guys to take pictures and my eyes just leave it with them and then what really made me just decide to leave it Kyle's got to Kentucky trophies my one wouldn't have added up and you don't want your pony to lose a horse race like when ponies lose horse races are just not as fast so I gave respect to the trophy and to my crew guys yeah how'd you get home I thumbed a ride with a victory air one of the last planes to leave with all the bunch of crew members from all different teams yeah we called and they had two seats and they actually did one of the the circles the roundabouts before they took off right big circle victory circle yeah that's awesome let's talk about your little brother for just a bit back in was it Oh seven or ten or eleven you won in his what year was it twelve okay this is our 30 car yeah so let's talk about your little brother for a minute I grew up as a little brother to a pretty famous racer in Oh 12 you drove for Kyle in his Xfinity car and what a dramatic victory I don't think any other driver ever won for Kyle other than you and what a dramatic win that was at Richmond that night when you battled in E all the way to the checkered that one was sweet again with Phoenix racing on the cup side and my little brother gave me a call I said hey I got this sponsor and they want both of us to drive the car every weekend how'd that work out so Monster Energy just so happen to be that sponsor and they were jazzed up they're like if we get both bushes yeah to drive our car every other weekend hell yeah we're all in and it was really neat to work with my little brother with beam as the crew chief and everybody at KBM we had our work cut out for us you know we weren't the big Gibbs mm-hmm you know we weren't the big RCR Penske and Penske in the Xfinity series and we had an engine deal with triad our Toyota and we we had to work hard to make it to make it happen and to get the speed and Richmond was perfect to track where you don't need the full horsepower we had the right pitch strategy and then a late race caution what went through my mind was a race that I lost at Richmond to Mark Martin in an IROC car Wow that's going back a bit it flashed through my mind I was faster than mark but he had me pinned down on the bottom huh and I couldn't get by because I kept can loose and I couldn't get the traction to seal the pass and so when Denny got to me I just acted like I was just pulling over like a Mark Martin move gave him the inside and then came down on I'm sharp in the corner and kept busting him loose yeah so he couldn't complete the pass and so I held him off on the outside from an old finish that I remembered how I lost in that crazy the the data bank that you collect and yours is getting pretty full you showed up there's still some room but yeah you sure showed up in 2001 and I think I have so much I want to talk about so you talked about getting that win for your little brother I grew up in in the shadow of my older brother my career was building and I was trying to get better and make it a NASCAR and he was sort of at the peak and then at some point we sort of transitioned and you know I was running better and he would went to do TV we never were we never raced hard together I guess and I have so much respect for him has there been times that with your little brother success that you ever felt like you were in his shadow does that make sense yeah I think there was the the switch or a flip flop so to speak of my success of being a champion early I think was his rookie year Oh for he might have been Rookie no.5 caramely I think was over four so there he is Rookie of the Year you know in all the pictures and everything right over next to Big Brother champ who's champion and it all had a perfect timeline going and the race wins that I had and the amount of years of experience I knew who's gonna take them a little bit to get caught up oh seven we wrecked each other at the all-star race that was a fun moment I got to tell you a quick story about that grandma I just jump in and settle that one out of it yeah what do you got oh yeah this is pretty funny so I wasn't being smartass I promise but we are doing inside Winston Cup racing or whatever it was called you know on Speed Channel and so they come to me you guys go down into turn one and you crash he got loose right under you yeah yeah clear oh yeah he definitely screwed up so listen to this we're on the show Monday night you know and I'm I like to have fun and they came to me and they said you know whose fault was this Mike I said looks like to me as mr. mrs. bushes and and I guess people took that as like well they didn't discipline them or what I meant they had y'all you know they they're your they're the reason why you're on earth and so who's else fault could it be it was just add parents so the funny part a couple weeks later I'm standing on my bus at Michigan I'll never forget this and I'm in the door and Benito my bus driver he's there and I'm like what do you want for lunch bah bah bah and your dad comes walking by and he's like yeah you think you're a real cute son but don't you think you're something you're funny aren't you my dad was barking oh yeah walking by never stopped he just Bartlett yelled at me the whole way and when he got gone I said Benito who was that man that just cussed me out I had no idea and he said that's mr. Bush Oh oh yeah I think your ma a couple weeks later I didn't mean anything by that but I was pretty funny but yes it's a tough job in a commentator it is you got to come up with some creative content or you won't have a job yeah to be a professional analyst and really dissect oh yeah and you know this because I'm the first one to tell you you are an analyst now you work for Fox we had some fun in the booth together yeah it's it's a whole different game when you have sometimes this people's livelihood on the line on if if they made a mistake or their sponsors are in or out and if you call it the right way or the wrong way when I was talking up one kid it at pocono during the race and then he spun out on me I was like oh I talked I talked to Andrew Johnson yeah Brandon I talked up the racing action we would see it a cago I think I'm like these guys are gonna be two three four why it's gonna be crazy I threw the green flag and Sheldon Creed started on the Pope drove off and left everybody not one damn caution I'm like silly start the second tried to sell it in and they started wrecking that's like see I told you they was gonna rare was so the rack and the all-star race was my little brother how did that affect y'all's relationship that's something you just like I wrecked my brother once and we just said I said I screwed up my fault and we moved on how was that conversation after that crash it wasn't good in all honesty he starts chirping that it was my fault and then I got into other things that you know my image in the sport gave him a bad foot to stand on when he came in you know with my different run-ins with different drivers which there was one Jimmy Spencer yeah and I'm like wait a minute probably it's fine just chill out we're gonna be okay and he was still in the on the gas mode you know how when drivers come in and there's no patience level and you're not able to absorb the things around you and so he was on the gas hard then the best worst-case scenario the car tomorrow mm-hmm 2008 he won like eight races that year with Addington you know should have won the championship and that was the switchover for us it literally happened over a decade ago with that car tomorrow because at Penske do we were fumbling around running 16th 18th and it was a tough tough 2008 so then we had to rebuild at Penske to get our car tomorrow right but meanwhile that's that's the beginning for for Kyle just this track this win this moment and I'm sitting there going ah I was agitated that I didn't have the car of tomorrow science down and we weren't where we needed to be and then 2012 happened and it was the right timing for us to race together to be together at Kyle Busch Motorsports yeah and to win that race and the monster sponsorship to kind of kick things off and and then it kind of turned sideways a little bit after that you know with the way that monster was wanting to go forward hang out with me a little bit more so than than Kyle and yet so then we got through that path and right I'd say right now our relationships been the best that it's ever been with age with accomplishments satisfaction with life and it takes that time Conlon are seven years apart mm-hmm and a lot of people forget about you know I'm at different fan events or different speaking engagements and when I tell people that were seven years apart people are floored by that because they're all asking hey did you recommend here your BMX bike you know did you recommend the go kart as different they know I'm a little older by now seven years apart um I'm running truck series and he's just getting established in legend cars yeah when you elected to go job for two it was there ever a moment where you thought I might just do TV I think I think I'd be fun or were you gonna race something in 2019 no matter what I had a really good commitment for monster there man we love your racing we love your your brand aura and what you helped us do at the tracks with our distributors or wholesalers the fans and I told them because they told me that like you can only really race for stewart-haas Gibbs or Hendrick that's that's who monster want they want to stay with a top-tier team and I told him I said follow me I got a plan we're gonna make that one car a winner and it's that much more gratifying to know that I was taking a step beyond my normal capacity of getting that program to be a winning program then now it takes the next step I wanna make these guys championship contenders talk about your teammate Kyle Larson over the last five years I would bat that if you did one of those polls where you said check the most talented racer on the track your brother certainly would have been up there Kyle Larson I think might have won that ballot people just appreciate the way he goes runs of World of Outlaws cars he's fast in the in the Cup cars what was your thinking when you went to Chip Ganassi Racing about Kyle Larson and what have you learned about him since then my thinking was there's no reason to second-guess the teammate over there hi Larsen as a true talent and he's champion in the making and I believe he has all the right tools to make it happen and so that's we're here I come in as a 40 year old working with a mid-twenties kid he's gonna teach me things I I wanted to have that happen for myself and also I wanted to give to him mm-hmm some of the things that I think he's been missing of piecing all the puzzle pieces together right let's just let's face it Larsen's a raw talent and under cars right he's gonna win it if it's not right he'll still find a way to win it but there's patterns in certain races certain tracks and certain things that I'm hopeful to help his knowledge and to get him more comfortable to make him the all-around racer that he can be in the Cup Series you know when I think of you you're your analytical you dig into your car you want to tell people exactly what it's doing here and there and and what degree of wheel you're putting it in and what you could do to get that left front but when I think of Larson I don't even think though I know him I mean we golf together like what what was your setup like I don't know it just didn't handle right is that is that a fair like you guys which when you have diversely different approaches and both have success you can you can and truly build off each other I would guess and that's where I've learned to conscious chill sometimes too and let the talent of the people the crew chief the lead engineer and the people that are on the one car do their job because that's the way Larsen has had success with letting the 42 guys do their thing and but yet I still want to just keep sprinkling in the way I've done things in the past you know get those wins and to get that comfort level of consistency right that's the key thing and that's where I'm hopeful that it all plays out in the right way and we're as strong as we can be when the playoffs start and what six seven weeks Wow seems like it's just around the corner it's real cool to see the momentum of your you're one team what do you got there CJ one more twit question for Kurt absolutely so we have one come in from user handle Prince Philip forsberg scores is the handle on that he says hey Kurt I know you're a big golden Knights in HL fan what's it like being around that hockey atmosphere as another professional athlete that's great I love the question and and um I'm like a sports guy all the way around you know whether it's football basketball big baseball not fanatic for the Chicago Cubs and from my hometown of Las Vegas to have an NHL team a pro team and then the Golden Knights and then with the tragic shooting that happened on 1 October and the way the city rallied around that through sport I love his question because I get pumped up I love going to the to the live games at the t-mobile Arena and feeling the energy from my hometown people your horn was like Larry McReynolds drivers start your engines think Reynolds was epic mine my mentality was what would Gronk do well we're gonna cow ski-doo so I just went after it yeah I almost broke it but yeah it was fun I mean the energy in the atmosphere around Vegas anytime no matter if you're there for a sport or a NASCAR race you know the strip and everything that's going on there's always big excitement there and that that's just who I am it's who that city is and I'm glad that they're having a successful run like they are speaking of Vegas we you and I a few years back with our monster Energy's friends at the Hard Rock Hotel I gave a speech about my book that I wrote for all the all the monster energy salesmen and reps and like it was really cool that you were there to hear my story and another thing that was really cool there's like big burly guys with beards that came up to me after that speech and said man you made me cry that's a quite a story you got there and the the monster folks Mitch Covington and the the guys at monster they have commissioned my book to be a documentary a movie that's gonna come out here in a couple of months and and I know you've seen the movie and and I just wanted to let you know that that your emotion in Vegas and telling me how much you appreciate that story it meant the world to me it's it's a very powerful piece if I could tell it anybody and everybody about it just for a few quick moments when you were on stage and this is all of the national sales people this is three four hundred monster executives from all over and they're they're coaching the sales staff on how the brand is going to look and how our approach needs to go and who you are when you're representing the brand is the same as if you're just walking into the convenience store to drop off a case the monster right and you're up on stage and I'm sitting there with Rodney sax the CEO and everybody we're ready to be entertained right because that's that's what I thought like Mikey's going to go do a stand raise II Mikey yeah he's gonna go do stand-up this is gonna be great I'm like Mikey's got this and as you started this this story starts unravel and I know where you're going and yet you were part of your delivery I think was to create this shakiness in the beginning and some of this lack of confidence and as you start to roll with it I'm sitting at home man Mikey's sideways man somebody's got to go save them and just as I'm starting to settle back and you're you grab a gear you knew exactly what your delivery was and you have got this room's attention now of a story of everything that you had been through the highs the lows and this documentary you're talking about it's called the blink of an eye it truly is one of those historical powerful nascar stories that fit up there in the top with everybody else and your message at the end of it of all of the race losses in even the Daytona 500 win on who you are as a person all the struggles that you've been through it painted this picture that made everybody in that room feel like they were empowered to go and climb the Empire State building with no regret and no remorse and no thought they wanted to go and conquer something after that and that's how I left that room and now it's a documentary you know it's and it's part of monsters heritage of coaching a lot of our young employees and people that come into the system well I appreciate those kind words it was a story that was hard to tell but I wanted to tell it to inspire people and to try to make people understand that it doesn't matter doesn't matter how many times you get knocked down as long as you get back up and and did an amazing job well thank you for that that's the story yeah it's been tough but you know look at it it's great where you are now that was 2001 when that tragic day occurred in Daytona think about some of the guys that came to NASCAR along that time you and Kevin raced for Rookie of the Year no one I think yes and then Johnson and Newman Newman both OH - yeah isn't it crazy the the years have gone by and I'm sitting here talking to a 40-year old Kurt Busch and and those guys are still out there contending for wins and winning you and Kurt you and Kevin back-to-back showed up an oath oh one and now you've won in 2019 and that nuts it is it's it's been an amazing ride you know with great teams and great people and the competitors in our era I think it's too early to say it but I think when we look back on different eras and and champions and the wind columns this uh this 2000s group of drivers I think it Jeff Gordon started a new trend for all young drivers to have an opportunity right and his rookie year was 93 94 and I'm like when Tony Stewart came from IndyCar and 99 that started to change daddy that drivers were like first choice draft picks when I was a kid you couldn't get a guy guy you couldn't get in a good car you had to run the Busch Series yeah there weren't jr. Dodson I'm gonna put some kid like Jeff Gordon in his car Jeff Gordon changed the game for sure you know and it opened up the doors for a ton of us to have an opportunity to so you're happily married man you got a great ride you're winning races your wife she's a polo player are you a polo player do y'all do that together how's that work I'll go put around in first gear get on a horse I'll get on the horse those things make me nervous they're so big we went on a trail ride with a few of her friends one time and 3/4 of the way through and it's like the horses know where the barn is no doubt they were in a hurry to get back to the barn it's in 4th gear and I'm clamping on tighter with my ankles well apparently that makes it grab fifth gear I'll try to pull back information so that was really the last trail right but she plays polo at an extreme level yeah and plays with the boys like she's out there elbows out there's way more contact in polo than I thought there would be and I couldn't be more proud of her does it make you nervous she knows her stuff yeah it's like her trusting me in the car making good decisions I trust her out on the polo field and when she rides she rides like an angel she's so elegant its beauty and it's like a piece of art and she got to play with Prince Harry a couple times it she knows their stuff and I'm very proud of her that's awesome I'll tell you the opposite of that I was that they'll shop one day and it was back when he had a shot behind his house and and so they all inspired me in so many different ways but he said let's go ride the fence and he's a farmer and I'm a kid from a city boy from Kentucky I'm like all right let's go ride the fence what's that mean yeah and he said what we're getting you the horse we're gonna get on horses and we're gonna go ride the perimeter of the property he said sometimes a tree will fall down get on the fans got to make sure it's all okay all right let's ride the fence so Buffy was with me and it was me and Dale and Buffy just the three other sudden we all get on these horses and Dale Junior's there this is like ninety nine probably 2000 Dale Junior's there working on his his car and the in the deer head shop his late model or whatever he was driving Jeff Green was there he was driving Devils pushcarts time and we go walking I'm I'm not I'm not liking this horse it seems antsy to me it ain't like you either know and it's not like because I'm fat you know and then what I'm choose got one of them one of the horses got Buffy which would you know that'd be a nice ride huh the horse is happy yeah that's that's a good one to have one yeah the other one's got Dale and he'll kill the horse if it don't act right yeah right and then here my big ass is right no my horse and we go by the shop and you know I see Jeff green we went to high school together I wave at him hey Dale and and we get down to the bottom of the hill and we make a right and as I expected my horse was had an issue and it reared up and when it reared up like I looked for an exit you know I just said I'm I'm bail I'm diving off and so I drove off into the ditch and didn't get hurt and I was so thankful and they're laughing at me and Jeff Green and Dale said you know we saw y'all ride up went right out one second and about a minute later here comes a horse running back without anybody on it and they said I bet that's Michael source so me trying to ride a horse didn't I don't like that I commend you for getting on them with your cut around at first gear and I'll keep it at that yeah well this has been the best thank you for your time thank yous fine yeah I mean so many stories there's only so much time and we're gonna call back up again what I like that night when we were in LA and you said follow me I know a good place to eat dinner and we hadn't really ever I was like oh 10 or 11 maybe yeah it was like a we're on a flight delay right it's like let's go yeah got a steak dinner and had a good time and that that I think put some of the like the racing friction behind us and it was a hell yeah there's the human all in that and that's what helped it I appreciate you buddy yeah buddy so much sir that's fun I told you that was gonna be fun and certainly it was so many great stories from NASCAR champion and Monster Energy race car driver Kurt Busch he's such an interesting character and a guy that I love seeing down in the garage area so you can go to our Twitter page and send those questions in NASCAR on Fox certainly enjoyed your questions you can also go to Instagram we'll show you some videos and some stories there or the Fox Sports YouTube channel and watch a video of today's event man so happy so thankful you tuned in can't wait to see what next week brings [Music]

Channel: NASCAR on FOX

Views: 98,561

Keywords: News, cars, NASCAR, CUP, fox, fox sports, hub, nascar race hub, foxsports.com, racing, video, adam alexander, shannon spake, monster, monster energy, chevy, toyota, ford, kurt busch, michael waltrip, waltrip unfiltered, Kurt, Busch, Kurt Busch's relationship, brother, Kyle Busch, obstacle, obstacles, Episode 23, All-Star crash, All-Star, Nick Harrison, wrecked, Michael, Waltrip, Waltrip Unfiltered Podcast, Audio, Podcast, Audio Podcast, Unfiltered Podcast

Id: Yz0mGFGsAm4

Length: 60min 22sec (3622 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 24 2019