lisa
Cheering for the oldies
I couldn't watch any either. Nope.
Kyle Busch 1985-2026
- Thread starter HoneyBadger
- Start date
Go Panthers
We are the people our parents warned us about
There seems to be a lot of weight being put on an 11 year olds shoulders. I hope people dont push him towards things he doesnt wanna do.
Pretty sure Brexton is wrapped in the arms of his family and the racing world. He comes from a long line of racers and has plenty of knowledgeable people who have his back.
Blaze
The Midnight Rider
It's crazy, here's someone I've been watching on a weekly basis pretty much since he started his full time Busch Series season in 2004, I was 12. I am 34 now, 35 in July, He was a constant fixture of my love of NASCAR for over half my life. Like it's strange, I've never cheered for him, in fact he pissed me off a lot. The post are here, you can easily see me cussing and bitching about him in a lot of the race threads from the 2010s. But that's because he made me feel something. When I tuned in every week for from the time he got to JGR, I knew he was a threat to win. So when the drivers I cheered for would have a battle at the end with him, and beat him, I was happy. So where as much as I loved seeing him struggle these last few years, I also kind of hated it. Because I missed the way I felt after a race where he battled my drivers, rather it was the happiest of them beating him, or the sadness and anger of him beating them, I missed it. So in away, I wanted to see him get back to being that threat, to being someone who pushed my drivers to be better. Now someone who's been a huge part of the sport I love is gone, and gone way to soon. This should've been something we read about when he was in his 90s and it was just from the passage of time. I wanted to see his excitement when Brexton won his first Truck race, or his first Cup race. He didn't deserve to go out like this. 
This is pretty much exactly how I felt when Dale Sr. passed away when I was 15 years old. It was such a weird feeling, and I had no idea how to process it.It's crazy, here's someone I've been watching on a weekly basis pretty much since he started his full time Busch Series season in 2004, I was 12. I am 34 now, 35 in July, He was a constant fixture of my love of NASCAR for over half my life. Like it's strange, I've never cheered for him, in fact he pissed me off a lot. The post are here, you can easily see me cussing and bitching about him in a lot of the race threads from the 2010s. But that's because he made me feel something. When I tuned in every week for from the time he got to JGR, I knew he was a threat to win. So when the drivers I cheered for would have a battle at the end with him, and beat him, I was happy. So where as much as I loved seeing him struggle these last few years, I also kind of hated it. Because I missed the way I felt after a race where he battled my drivers, rather it was the happiest of them beating him, or the sadness and anger of him beating them, I missed it. So in away, I wanted to see him get back to being that threat, to being someone who pushed my drivers to be better. Now someone who's been a huge part of the sport I love is gone, and gone way to soon. This should've been something we read about when he was in his 90s and it was just from the passage of time. I wanted to see his excitement when Brexton won his first Truck race, or his first Cup race. He didn't deserve to go out like this.
Sr. had been my archnemesis (inherited from Dad) since I first started watching NASCAR as a little boy. I had just started to come around to him a bit the year prior, when he got what would be his last win at Talladega. Then, in the blink of an eye, he was just...gone.
Blaze
The Midnight Rider
One of the beautiful things about racing (and honestly any form of sports or entertainment) is how you just grow a connection to the people, rather its as a fan, or not a fan(I don't wanna use the word hater). So yeah it's difficult to process. With this, I've seen it put best by someone else, and why this seems harder than most NASCAR deaths to process. You're use to them dying from a racing accident (thankfully not so use to that anymore), or maybe some sort of aviation crash. So that makes more sense in away. It's just as sad and heartbreaking. But not as hard to process and understand.This is pretty much exactly how I felt when Dale Sr. passed away when I was 15 years old. It was such a weird feeling, and I had no idea how to process it.
Sr. had been my archnemesis (inherited from Dad) since I first started watching NASCAR as a little boy. I had just started to come around to him a bit the year prior, when he got what would be his last win at Talladega. Then, in the blink of an eye, he was just...gone.
Yep. This one's been even tougher for me to process than Kobe Bryant's or even Dale Sr.'s deaths.
I've told my Kyle Busch story on here before, but I loved him at Hendrick when he first came to Cup. I was hyped when he first went to Gibbs and then quickly soured on him once he had established himself as Public Enemy No. 1. He made me a Kevin Harvick fan after their dust-up at Darlington in 2011 and Harvick's hilarious post-race and subsequent Trackside interviews, which I still go back and watch every now and then. (I then became a Jr. fan towards the end of the Coke 600 later that month.)
I liked Kyle again when he decided to get back in a Chevy and join forces with Richard Childress (who I had stopped liking prior to that), his archnemesis, a man who once gripped 'im up in a vicious vise grip headlock and busted 'im up real good (I kid, I kid, just messing around one last time).
I loved hearing the crowd cheer for Kyle when he got his first win with RCR at that last Fontana race. Fontana was one of my favorite tracks and was also where he got his first Cup win back in 2005 that I was similarly happy about. It was just a really nice full circle moment.
I know he loved messing with the fans and playing the villain role, but I'm glad he got to hear a crowd cheering for him again before he left us. As you alluded to, he should have gotten to hear that for a long time. Alas, tomorrow was no more promised to him than it is to any of the rest of us. It doesn't make sense, and for me, it still doesn't feel real. Sadly, that's how life and death are at times - sometimes, it just doesn't seem fair or make sense.
