Kyle Busch: Questioning racing future after injury | Forward Progress

0:01This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required, compatibility and availability varies 18+. hey it's graham our past in-depth guests have shared so many inspirational stories about overcoming adversity and tackling the darkest and most challenging times in their lives we're sharing one of those moments in today's thursday podcast in the hope that it provides a blueprint for any difficulties you might be facing this week kyle bush

0:52Your 2015 crash, take me through what you remember starting with moments before the actual crash. I mean, I remember the whole thing. There was a little bit of grass before the wall, and there was no safer barrier on this inside wall. It was just a hard concrete wall. I kept telling myself as I'm sliding, I'm like, pull your feet back. This is going to hurt. Pull your legs back. Pull your legs back. Anyway, hit the grass. I close up. I tense up. I get my arms tight, my body tight, my head down, and I didn't pull my legs back. I forgot. So I hit the wall at 90 miles an hour, which was 90 G's. The gas pedal, there's a throttle stop on the bottom of it.

1:32Well, it smacked the gas pedal, which smacked my leg, which broke my leg instantly. Like I felt it snap. And then my foot was still on the brake. So while my foot was still on a brake under impact and everything going on, my foot broke. And so finally, when the car comes to a rest and comes to a stop and you kind of like open your eyes just a little bit, like check your surroundings, like, okay, I'm down here by myself. Nobody else is around me. Oh, damn it. There's a fire. So I dropped the window net and I felt my leg just like kind of dangling there. So I'm like, well, I'm, I'm just, I'm going to have to pull myself with my arms and use my left leg.

2:08So I pulled myself with my arms as best I could. And that's when the safety workers got there. and I was yelling at one of the guys like, hey, my legs are broke, I need you to lift me out. My legs are broke, I need you to lift me out. So he got another guy waved over and so the two of them were able to grab me and let me down to the ground and then one of them was holding my leg up while we waited for the ambulance to get there. What are you thinking when you're at the hospital? So the right leg didn't really hurt. I was like, oh, okay, not bad. You're just in, your body's in shock, right? And you have a compound fracture.

2:42Double compound fracture. Which is like, you know, Alex Smith or Joe Theismann. Every stop and go, every speed up and slow down with the ambulance was just excruciating pain in the right leg. Because now I can feel it going back and forth. Were you concerned your career might be over? First of it, I was like, I wonder if I can still race tomorrow. And then I was like, there's no chance I'm going to race tomorrow. So then I was like, damn, I wonder if I'm ever going to race again. You know, and I'm like, man, maybe my career's over. and you just never know. What was your lowest point through that whole process of recovering?

3:17There was a point where I was like, I'm gonna make it back. I'm gonna be fine. But you still have those low moments. It's just you and your wife and your little dog and you're sitting there watching TV and all of a sudden you just start bust out in tears. Those low moments, I think they strengthened myself though too because like once you snap out of that low you're like it where's the therapist let's go you know what I mean so it was a whole wave of emotions that were just weird Sonoma uh take me through that race because that's the one that at Laucous Joe Gibbs your brother um everybody brought up is kind of almost more significant than the championship Yeah, so coming back from injury, being able to get back in the car, you have to stop forcing it so hard.

4:11Like I was wanting to force this movie star type return where I won so early after coming back and it's a miracle or I'm the best there ever was or whatever. So I was like, stop being a dumbass. My leg was fine. I didn't feel anything wrong with my leg, but my left foot, I still had all the plates and the screws in it. So it's still swollen. And I'm like, there is no way I'm going to make the race on Sunday. Like, it's never going to happen. Like, I can't do it. So we didn't have a backup driver, but so I was like, I'm going to have to do it. So I was just powering through the last, I think it was an eight lap run to the finish.

4:47And passing the guy here, there, wherever, and I was able to take the lead. And from there, I just, I ran like hell. Like, legend car race, 1999, Kurt behind me, run like hell. And I remember after taking the checker flag, my foot felt like it was gonna fall off. I mean, it hurts so bad. I had to take my shoe off and just go to victory lane barefoot. And that was it, we won. Although I know the 2019 championship, you might've been able to enjoy it more. Explain the satisfaction of winning the 2015 one. There's fans out there. There's historians of our sport that may or may not say that I should never have been eligible for the championship because I didn't run a full-time season.

5:32I missed 11 races. When I came back, NASCAR was like, yeah, if you make it top 30 in points and get a win, we'll give you a medical waiver. So I got a waiver, and we won the championship. And I remember going through turns three and four, and as I was coming out of four, like there's a tear drop that rolls down my eyes. Tonight he earns his first cup title. Besides my son being born and that emotional time laying in the hospital bed with Samantha in our living room, it was like, wow, this just, I don't know that I've never felt anything like that before. It was crazy. One quick favor before you leave, please consider giving the podcast a rating and review.

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