Kyle Busch has won two NASCAR Cup Series championships and 230 races across NASCAR’s top three series. He has raced in the pressure-packed Daytona 500 19 times.
But nothing in Busch’s own career has compared to the nerves he felt watching 9-year-old son Brexton race a Junior Sprint car inside a building in Oklahoma last week, he said.
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“I honestly think the butterflies and the stress are worse,” Busch said. “Because it’s your kid.”
The stakes were high for Brexton: After a disappointing trip to the Tulsa Shootout last year, the Busch family traversed the country to find the best competition and had Brexton racing practically every weekend to prepare for a return to the quarter-mile dirt track inside Tulsa’s sprawling SageNet Center.
This time, despite his dad’s butterflies, everything went according to plan for Brexton. The younger Busch accumulated enough points during qualifier races to put himself on the pole for the feature race, then won it and hoisted the coveted Golden Driller trophy as the champion of his class on Saturday night.
🏆 B-Rex is a Golden Driller Winner!!!@brextonbusch wins the Junior Sprint division at the #TulsaShootout presented by @NosEnergyDrink!@TulsaShootout pic.twitter.com/xeC09rnl59
— FloRacing (@FloRacing) January 5, 2025
“You can go to all the racetracks you want and try to prep all you want,” Kyle said, speaking by phone two days after Brexton’s triumph. “But when it comes to Tulsa and rolling down that ramp, and whether your kid has excitement or nervousness or whatever, it’s all about harnessing that and being able to put that out of your mind and treat it like it’s any other race.”
Busch said the requisite mindset to win Tulsa was similar to the championships he won at Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2015 and 2019, when he was locked in and laser-focused the entire weekend. But like many children, Brexton doesn’t always listen to his dad when advice is offered regarding past experiences.
So Kyle has learned to tweak his approach and simply present a variety of scenarios for Brexton to think about, rather than tell him what is likely to happen.
“Because if it doesn’t happen, then I’m wrong and I’m an idiot,” Kyle said. “Race car drivers are best when they don’t think; they’re best when they just react. A couple years ago, I had him thinking too much. I was like, ‘You have to stop thinking. You just have to do.'”
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The nerves from watching a 9-year-old race are not about Brexton’s skill level nor concern for his safety, but about the unpredictability of other kids. The Busch family was familiar with much of the competition from their cross-country travels, but certainly did not know all 107 Junior Sprint drivers in the Shootout — which is open to anyone who signs up and pays the entry fee.
“The rest of the kids, you have no idea who they are, how good they are, what they’re thinking, how they’re going to react,” Kyle said. “When I go to a Cup race, you race against all these professionals. More often than not, you’re looking at them thinking, ‘OK, how can I beat them?’ not, ‘What crazy move are they going to make that throws me off?’ That’s what concerns me for Brex at times when he goes out on the racetrack.”
Whether Brexton can win races was not a concern; he has now raced 289 times and won 105 of them, including 45 victories in 2024 alone. He’s light years ahead of where Kyle was at this age; after all, the future NASCAR Hall of Famer did not compete in his first race until age 13.
After his latest victory, the biggest of his life, Brexton was given a Burromax electric mini bike as part of his trophy haul — and promptly responded as a typical 9-year-old would.
“My mom is so mad right now about that Burromax!” he said in the victory lane interview. “She hates me on stuff that goes really fast, so she is not going to like this, but I love it!”
Samantha Busch, his mom, promptly refuted that in an interview of her own — “I’m not that strict,” she insisted.
At some point, Brexton will be old enough to join Kyle in the same classes of dirt racing — which Kyle does for fun and to sharpen his skills while Brexton is at the same tracks learning his craft. Kyle himself competed in four categories at the Tulsa Shootout but was disappointed not to make the A-Main in any of them (though he came close in one class and won a pair of heat races).
𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖 🎤 @BrextonBusch has had a Golden Driller on his mind for a long time. On Saturday night, he captured it with the biggest win of his career at the #TulsaShootout. pic.twitter.com/DfOe7wPcxz
— FloRacing (@FloRacing) January 5, 2025
But Brexton will be a spectator next week, when his dad will enter the prestigious Chili Bowl Midget Nationals on that same Tulsa track. It’s another step for Kyle into the dirt world, which was initially sparked by Brexton’s interest. Now it’s progressed to where Chili Bowl broadcaster FloRacing will be a sponsor on Kyle’s car for the event (along with Lucas Oil), and dirt fans often approach Kyle to express their appreciation for the family’s involvement.
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Kyle is a bit apprehensive of how he’ll run in a midget based off a Thanksgiving weekend race in Ventura, Calif. (“I would say we’re gonna suck,” he said.) but is hopeful he can put on a good performance. His goal is to move forward in each race and not get passed, which he would view as being respectable; if he can make the A-Main for his preliminary night on Jan. 17, it would set him up nicely for the main race night on Jan. 18.
“I still like to be out there and doing it even if I’m not great at it,” Busch said. “I’m not Kyle Larson, I’m not Christopher Bell (his fellow NASCAR stars who have excelled on dirt). I get that. Do I want to be? Hell yeah, but I don’t know if I’ll ever be.
“But hopefully, Brexton Busch can be that way — and not only on the dirt, but also on the pavement in NASCAR.”
GO DEEPER
Kyle Busch finds respite from NASCAR in helping son Brexton learn to race
(Top photo of Kyle and Brexton Busch at last year’s Daytona 500: Sean Gardner / Getty Images)
