Ryan Blaney recently held back tears as he shared a lighthearted and humorous memory of Kyle Busch, showcasing a side of the late two-time champion that fans rarely got to see on television. Ahead of the Coca-Cola 600 weekend, NASCAR mourned the sudden death of Busch, who passed away at 41 due to severe pneumonia.
While several Cup Series drivers shared their favorite memories of the Richard Childress Racing star, Blaney’s memory transports the garage back to the 2017 NASCAR Awards Banquet.
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During a media interaction at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the Team Penske driver recalled his sophomore year in NASCAR’s premier division, when he ran into Kyle Busch and his wife, Samantha, in a hotel lobby.
“Me and some other drivers were going out to go get some drinks, and we ran into Kyle and Samantha [Busch] at the hotel lobby,” Ryan Blaney said. “And, he’s like, ‘Where are y’all going?’ We said we’re going to go find some drinks and have a good time’, And he’s like, ‘Well, can we come with y’all?’, and we’re like, ‘Yeah, man, like, come on out.'”
Meanwhile, the most unforgettable part of the night came the following morning during an early-morning mandatory NASCAR media appearance, claimed Blaney, holding back his tears.
“We had a media deal, and we’re like, ‘Where’s Kyle at?’ And he’s laying under a table with a tablecloth draped over him and just his feet hanging out in that yellow, M&M suit, and it was just a funny memory, man. He was an all-around good person,” concluded Ryan Blaney.
Ryan Blaney emphasized that beneath the fierce, polarizing “Rowdy” persona that dominated NASCAR headlines for two decades, Kyle Busch was a warm, approachable peer who loved being one of the guys.
Ryan Blaney makes his feelings known on the ‘dogfight’ in new NASCAR championship format
Ryan Blaney offered a realistic perspective on the nature of NASCAR’s championship format, addressing whether any driver in the garage has a realistic shot at running down Tyler Reddick for the regular-season points lead.
In a media availability, Blaney noted Reddick’s dominant stretch and if it’s mathematically possible to catch the points leader in the remaining races left on the schedule. He said via Racer.com:
“Can anybody get there? We’ve got over half the regular season to get there, and maybe it’s possible, maybe not. Then you have all these really close battles. At the top, there are some gaps, but then you get like fifth on back, and it’s a dogfight, and around that cutline is a dogfight.”
Ryan Blaney noted that the true story of the garage is the intense, high-stakes pressure cooker developing further down rather than at the top of the leaderboard.
Edited by Sashwat Deo