Category: Racing

NASCAR Superlatives 2019: We polled drivers to see what they think of each other

“His ability to link cuss words together is phenomenal,” Jimmie Johnson said about one driver.

There is only so much NASCAR fans can learn about drivers through social media and brief interviews at the race tracks.

Posting more than race or sponsorship information or making a sly on-camera joke helps. But it’s still challenging to get a sense of what they’re really like, unless you’re at the track regularly.

But many of the drivers know each other fairly well, and some are actually pretty good friends and hang out beyond NASCAR race weekends. So For The Win conducted its annual NASCAR Superlatives investigation to see what some of these drivers really think of each other.

“So Clint Bowyer wins goofball, again and again and again and again?” Brad Keselowski joked.

Answering these questions, 11 drivers shared some funny and quirky details about their peers and their personalities.

Answers have been lightly condensed and edited for clarity.

1. If you’re having a party, who’s the first driver you invite?

Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. and Ryan Blaney (Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

Clint Bowyer: None. Wouldn’t be a very a good party if you invited my peers to it. That’s rude. None of ‘em know how to party! Most of them aren’t old enough to drink anymore, so it’s out of control.

Jimmie Johnson: Probably Clint, and then my teammates. [Alex Bowman] had a hell of a party after his first win.

Brad Keselowski: Ryan Blaney, he’s a good party dude. He brings in a good crowd.

Kyle Larson: Ricky Stenhouse. He’s one of my best friends, and he’s really wild right now.

Joey Logano: Typically — not that we’re partiers in any way — I’d invite Brad because our families are all friends, and [Corey] LaJoie because we grew up together, and we’re all friends.

Denny Hamlin: Kyle Larson.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.: Larson, just because we’re great friends and have a lot of fun together.

Ryan Blaney: My buddies, Bubba [Wallace] and Chase [Elliott].

Landon Cassill: Corey LaJoie, we have fun.

Alex Bowman: I don’t have any friends. It’d be Clint Bowyer, but he probably wouldn’t come to my party. [Yells to Bowyer across the room.] We’re trying to decide if you would come to my party or not!

Bowyer: Hell yeah!

Bowman: Well, Clint’s coming to the party then.

Bowyer: Are you old enough to drink?

Bowman: Last week, I turned 21, so we’re good.

Bowyer: Oh my god. Are you really serious? Did you really just turn 21?

Bowman: No, I’m 26. Come on now.

2. Which driver is most likely to be cause “The Big One” at Daytona or Talladega?

Cars wreck during “The Big One” at the 2019 Daytona 500. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)

Johnson: I think we’re all capable of it. I’ve caused plenty.

Bowyer: History would show, in recent years, it would be Ricky Stenhouse.

Larson: Ricky. Whatever, we’ll still party after.

Hamlin: I love him, but I’ve gotta say Ricky.

Stenhouse: We’ve all done it. I would always say Jamie McMurray back in the day.

Erik Jones: I’ve caused The Big One. We all have at some point.

Keselowski: That’s pretty easy for me, William Byron.

Bowman: Keselowski.

3. Which driver is most likely to apologize for wrecking you?

Hamlin: Probably Brad Keselowski.

Keselowski: Probably Clint Bowyer.

Bowyer: None of them. It’s not worth the breath. It’s something you just do because it’s the right thing to do. It means nothing. They’re still going to want you to have a bad day.

Larson: Ricky, just because we’re friends.

Jones: No one, to be honest.

Logano: Only saying this because it’s the freshest, but [Daniel] Suárez just did. He apologized pretty quickly, which, I knew it wasn’t on purpose. He’s was mature enough to admit fault.

Bowman: Byron.

Stenhouse: Blaney always apologizes. I’ll apologize if I’m in the wrong.

Cassill: None of them.

Johnson: Teammates obviously because of the relationship and dialogue. Over the years, I would say [Matt] Kenseth and I had a really good dialogue to work through issues. I had a dust-up with Blaney earlier this year, and it took a long time before we finally sat down and talked. And I just think the longer the relationship, the longer drivers have been around, the sooner that stuff happens.

4. Who’s definitely not going to apologize for wrecking you?

Kyle Busch (Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports)

Keselowski: Oh, Kyle Busch for sure.

Larson: Probably Joey Logano or Kyle Busch.

Logano: Kyle Busch.

Johnson: [Kevin] Harvick.

Bowman: Newman, I don’t think he really cares.

Stenhouse: Kurt Busch.

Cassill: All of them.

5. Which driver do you think is the worst driver on the street in a regular car?

Keselowski: Only because I’ve heard an account, Denny Hamlin. He admittedly texts and drives a lot. It’s not a talent thing; it’s a focus thing.

Hamlin: Maybe me.

Johnson: The one I’ve experienced is Brian Vickers. We were teammates for a long time, and I literally thought I was going to die riding shotgun with him.

Bowyer: Well, Kyle Busch got caught in his own neighborhood going like 80 miles an hour. That’s pretty dumb. [It was 128 miles per hour in a 45 zone.]

Stenhouse: Clint because I’m going to guess he doesn’t pay a lot of attention.

Larson: Probably Ryan Newman, but I’m not really sure how much time he spends on the road because I think he’s just on his farm. But when I have been on the road with him, he’s pretty crazy.

Jones: I don’t know. I’ve never gotten a ticket in my life.

Bowman: Definitely William Byron because he can’t see over the dash.

6. Which driver has the biggest personality difference between on and off the track?

Joey Logano (Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

Larson: Joey Logano, for sure. In the car, he’s extremely intense. Outside of the car, he’s extremely dorky.

Keselowski: Probably Joey.

Logano: Frickin’ me, that’s for sure. I am definitely that guy. … Brad said me? Hahaha.

Johnson: [Matt] DiBenedetto. He seems so calm, but I’ve heard some radio stuff where he just loses it and gets so emotional and melts down. His ability to link cuss words together is phenomenal. And then outside of the car, he’s so chill.

Bowman: Probably Byron, he’s pretty quiet and then pretty aggressive on the race track.

Blaney: Kyle Busch gets misconstrued a lot. Very fiery personality at the race track. But when he’s away from the race track, I don’t want to say he calms down, but he’s a different person. It’s hard to see personalities at the race track because people are passionate about what they do. It’s a whole different vibe when you’re away from the race track.

Cassill: Kurt Busch is a pretty nice guy off the track. Pretty aggressive on track.

7. Which driver is having the largest impact on the sport this season?

Jimmie Johnson and Chase Elliott (Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

Hamlin: Kyle Busch. He’s the guy that gets the most headlines. A lot of it is because of what he says, and he’s exciting on the race track. He’s our impact player right now.

Larson: Kyle Busch.

Jones: Chase Elliott, he’s the fan favorite right? Lot of fans of his dad and a lot of fans of his now that still come to the track to see him race.

Keselowski: Chase Elliott. Fans really like his last name because it brings back good memories of the past. [When asked if he thinks that draws fans in, he said, “Yes.”]

Logano: Maybe Denny. He’s pretty in-tune with what’s going on, and he’s pretty vocal and getting everyone’s opinions and communicating that [to NASCAR]. I would honestly say me, but Denny too.

Bowman: Jimmie Johnson, seven-time champion has a huge impact on the sport all the time. But at the same time, I feel like Chase Elliott’s the most popular guy right now, so there are a lot of eyes on him.

Blaney: There’s a lot of great personalities — Chase, Bubba, Kyle Busch is really good for the sport. Jimmie still being here is a really big personality for the sport. Those four guys are all really different, but they all impact it in different ways.

Stenhouse: I think Blaney does pretty good all around with fans, with kids, with the podcast he does.

Cassill: Dale Jr. or Kyle Busch.

Johnson: I just feel like Chase. When he’s running well and his victories, I feel like that moves the needle more than anyone with the fans.

Bowyer: It’s Chase Elliott, without a doubt. It beats the hell out of me. Damnedest thing I’ve ever seen.

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Kyle Busch silences his critics with second NASCAR title: ‘This one feels like the first’

“You know Kyle likes to prove people wrong,” Samantha Busch said about Kyle.

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Kyle Busch couldn’t help but make a sarcastic joke.

“Oh, I won a full-time championship? What do you know?” he said after winning the second NASCAR Cup Series championship of his career Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Busch earned his first title in 2015, but his biggest critics in NASCAR’s fan base said he was not worthy of winning and still question the legitimacy of it because he missed the first 11 races of that Cup season after breaking his right leg and fracturing his left foot in a wreck during the closing laps of the season-opening second-tier XFINITY Series race at Daytona International Speedway.

He didn’t compete in nearly a third of the 2015 season, but NASCAR granted him a waiver allowing him to still be championship eligible. And then he won it all.

“This is great because that always did bother Kyle a little bit,” Samantha Busch, Kyle’s wife, told For The Win and two other media outlets Sunday as the family celebrated his second title. “People were like, ‘That wasn’t real. You didn’t run all the races. It doesn’t count.’ So, now what? He ran all the races this year. He was the regular season’s points champion. …

“It always had a little star by it, I think, for him, so I think this one’s going to take time to set in, and he’s gonna know he did it.”

Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Busch and the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota team not only won the 2019 title, but they also won the Ford EcoBoost 400 when they only had to finish higher than the other championship hopefuls. Martin Truex Jr. finished second, while Kevin Harvick was fourth and Denny Hamlin 10th.

This season, Busch competed in all 36 races and won five. But there are still some peculiar similarities to his 2015 championship run, specifically his winless streaks leading up to victories at Homestead. It all feels “awfully familiar,” he said.

Five years ago after Busch returned from his injuries, he won four-of-five races between June and July, and then he went on a 15-race winless streak until he took the checkered flag in the championship race. Getting off to a comparably hot start, though healthy, he won three-of-five early on — including his 200th win across NASCAR’s three national series — a fourth in June and then rode a 21-race winless streak into Homestead.

“It felt a lot like 2015 to me, aside from the broken leg, obviously,” crew chief Adam Stevens said.

“[We] had a couple races get away from us,” he said, comparing the two championship seasons. “But it wasn’t because we weren’t fast. It wasn’t because we weren’t prepared. They just didn’t go our way.”

Despite being one of the most talented drivers on the track, the winless streak led to Busch being perceived as the underdog against Truex, Hamlin and Harvick, who all won at least one playoff race.

In another similarity to 2015, Samantha said people overlooked her husband in both championship seasons, first because he missed so many races and then because he went more than five months without a trip to Victory Lane.

“You know Kyle likes to prove people wrong,” she said. “I think he took that, internalized it [and] used it to fuel him instead of bring him back.”

A second career championship elevates Busch’s resume to another elite level. He joins seven-time champ Jimmie Johnson as the only active driver with more than one title. He now has 56 career wins, moving him into ninth on the all-time wins list.

This season and its championship finish “certainly reminded” Busch of his 2015 run, he said with a chuckle. Only this time, no one can question it.

“This one feels like the first,” he said. “But getting into next year being two-time is going to be cool. I’m certainly looking forward to that.”

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Kyle Busch found the best way to celebrate his NASCAR title with his 4-year-old son

“That was really awesome,” Kyle Busch said about the moment with his son, Brexton.

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Kyle Busch won his second career NASCAR Cup Series championship Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where he also won the Ford EcoBoost 400.

He beat out runner-up and Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr., while the other two title contenders, Kevin Harvick, who finished fourth, and Denny Hamlin, also a JGR driver, in 10th place. It was Busch’s fifth checkered flag of the season, and he snapped a 21-race streak without a win.

The No. 18 Toyota driver did a burnout on the 1.5-mile track before celebrating with his family, wife Samantha and 4-year-old son, Brexton. And then he took Brexton for a ride.

Samantha seemed to initially object, saying, “No, no,” as Kyle confirmed with NASCAR officials that he would, in fact, be allowed to do this. There’s not a second seat in these cars, so, of course, Busch went particularly slow as they drove around the Homestead track.

Harvick and his 7-year-old son Keelan have also been known to celebrate together with a quick ride. But this is a great way for Busch to celebrate a championship and make it extra special for Brexton.

“That was really awesome,” Busch said in his post-race press conference.

“Brexton actually came to me — I don’t know if he got the idea from somebody else or if he just remembered it from Keelan doing it with Kevin — and said, ‘Dad, can I go for a ride with you?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, hell, I’m good with it!’

“So we asked the NASCAR guys, and they radioed up to the tower, and we got approval to be able to do that. So that was really, really special for me and Brexton to be able to take in that moment and go for a ride around the track.”

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After 14 years, Denny Hamlin is ready for his moment in NASCAR’s title race

Denny Hamlin’s confidence is at an all-time high ahead of NASCAR’s championship race.

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Denny Hamlin’s confidence is peaking.

One strong performance in the 36th and final race of the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season stands between him and his first career championship after 14 years at the sport’s highest level. He won his sixth race of the year six days ago at ISM Raceway near Phoenix to secure his place among the final Championship 4 contenders.

Ahead of Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Hamlin is excited but not nervous. He’s relaxed and actually feels like he already won.

“We won Homestead last week,” Hamlin said Thursday. “That was our win-or-go-home race. We performed at an incredibly high level. We have now a free weekend to go out there and have fun and keep doing what we’ve been doing. We’ll have a chance by the end of the night because we have all year long as long as we do the same thing.”

Hamlin is joined in the final four by two Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr., and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick. He doesn’t have win the race to claim the championship; he just has to finish higher than the other three —although the last five champions have also taken the checkered flag.

Hamlin after winning at Phoenix on Sunday to guarantee his spot in the title race. (Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

Hamlin almost didn’t make it

With 19 top-5 finishes so far, Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota has been consistently strong all season. He opened the year with his second Daytona 500 win and took checkered flags at Pocono Raceway, Bristol Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway’s playoff race in October.

But until Sunday, he and his team were on the brink of elimination. He had a poor finish at Texas Motor Speedway two weeks ago and entered the Phoenix race one spot below the four-driver cutoff line. And then he dominated, leading 143 of 312 laps on his way to the win.

“I’ve been eliminated from the playoffs many, many ways,” said Hamlin, who is tied for 22nd on the all-time wins list with 37 and the most successful driver without a title.

“The craziest [expletive] has happened to me to keep me from winning championships. Texas was on me. I was going to hate that I was going to be responsible for ending our chance at a championship.”

Hoping third time’s a charm

This is Hamlin’s third real shot at winning it all. He was the runner-up in 2010 to Jimmie Johnson after the title slipped away in the final two races. He said he wasn’t having any fun by the end of that season.

Then in 2014, he finished third in the standings, behind champion Harvick and Ryan Newman, when his car wasn’t running well. Hamlin said he was just happy to be in contention.

Hamlin at Homestead in 2014. (Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports)

But this year is different in so many ways. He said he’s not angry or stressed like in past playoff or championship-contending years. Everything feels “nicer and friendlier,” and he’s “not as agitated” this time around.

He said his confidence has never been higher — “not even in 2010 when we were really fast every week.”

Bouncing back from a career-low

Hamlin’s six checkered flags this season follow a winless 2018 — a first for him as a full-time Cup driver. He still made the playoffs but finished 11th in the standings.

“If you go through a whole year like he did last year and not win a race, the rumors start,” team owner Joe Gibbs said Friday. “‘Is this guy over the hill?’ I think Denny was fighting through that, saying that’s not the case. …

“I think that we all know that people mature and grow up. Different things happen in their life, and so I think Denny is — I think he’s in a part in his life where he says, ‘I get a second chance really in a lot of ways,’ and he’s making the most of it.”

Hamlin in the garage at Homestead. (Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

This year, Hamlin, who turns 39 Monday, is also paired with a new crew chief, Chris Gabehart, after three seasons with Mike Wheeler, and Gibbs said he noticed the positive effect Gabehart has had on the their driver.

Gabehart, 38, “brings out the best” in him, whether he’s a calming voice of reason or pumping him up moments before a green flag flies, Hamlin said.

Even Busch detects the chemistry between Hamlin and Gabehart, who was once a mechanical engineer for Kyle Busch Motorsports.

“Something’s a little bit different with Denny,” Busch said Thursday. “[Gabehart has] done a really, really good job of whether you want to say flipping Denny into the right frame of mind or whatever. But he’s just been a really good leader, and Denny’s been a good listener.”

Hamlin vs. the NASCAR champions

Under NASCAR’s current playoff format, this is Hamlin’s second appearance in the Championship 4 after 2014. But that’s nothing compared with Harvick, Busch and Truex, who are also all past champs.

Hamlin, Harvick, Truex and Busch at media day Thursday. (Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

Harvick won his title in 2014 and has made it to the final four in five of the last six years. Same goes for Busch, the 2015 champ, but his five appearances have been consecutive since his title season. And Truex made it in four of the last five years, winning it all in 2017.

But Hamlin knows how to win at Homestead. In 14 starts, he has two wins — the other three have one each — and was the last driver finish first without winning it all (2013). He’s also earned four top-5 finishes and nine top 10s.

He’ll start on the pole Sunday, followed by Harvick, Truex, Busch and the rest of the 40-car field.

“I’m excited because I know I’ve got the opportunity, a really, really good, legit opportunity to go out there and get it done,” Hamlin said. “I’m just going to do the same things, prepare the same way that I have all year. I know that will give me a chance.

“At some point in the race, I’m going to have an opportunity to take control and win the race. As long as I continue to do that, I’ll live with the result, win or lose.”

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Tony Stewart and Joe Gibbs swap ridiculous stories from when they raced together

Like the times Joe Gibbs would try to stop Tony Stewart from breaking TVs after a bad race…

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Tony Stewart and Joe Gibbs go way back.

Stewart started his NASCAR Cup Series career racing for the Pro Football Hall of Famer in 1999 and continued competing for Joe Gibbs Racing through the 2008 season, winning two of his three career championships in the No. 20 car.

After 10 seasons working together with a relationship that has lasted much longer, the 2020 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductees have some incredible stories about each other.

As two NASCAR team owners with championship-contending drivers, they shared the stage Friday at Homestead-Miami Speedway ahead of Sunday’s Cup Series title race when Gibbs drivers Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick will race to win it all.

They also shared some of those stories about their days working together.

When Tony Stewart would take his anger out on the TVs…

During Friday’s press conference, Gibbs, who’s a few days away from 79th birthday, was asked about scolding his drivers, particularly Hamlin, who crashed his car during practice for the 2019 Daytona 500.

Hamlin recalled Thursday that the former Washington Redskins coach was “furious” and told Hamlin he was paying for the wrecked car. Luckily, Hamlin ended up winning the Daytona 500, so Gibbs eventually forgave him.

As Gibbs explained how he remembers that moment, Stewart chimed in at one point (around the 11-minute mark):

Gibbs: I don’t think I’ve ever penalized anybody for anything, but I threaten them every now and then.

Stewart: That’s not true.

Gibbs: On second thought, there is a driver I’ve worked with where we —

Stewart: I had to pay for two TVs in the lounge of the trailer that I broke.

Gibbs: I used to try and get to the hauler as fast as I could if he had a bad night because he was going to tear up the inside of the hauler.

Stewart: I feel like I got pretty good odds out of it because I think I broke five TVs before he finally said, “If you break another one, this one’s coming out of your paycheck.”

Gibbs: Hey, listen. I got him at Richmond one time. I beat him in there real quick. And you were ticked off. And he’s in there all flustered and everything, and he goes like — they usually turn to me after tearing stuff up — he goes, “I oughta go out there and kick his ass [the driver he was mad at].” And I went like this, I started to go, “OK, I think you should!” Hoping somebody will put a lump on you.

Stewart: See, as a good owner you should have thought of that first, and I would have saved the trailer.

“How it all started,” according to Tony Stewart

Before making his NASCAR Cup Series debut, Stewart was splitting his time between the second-tier XFINITY Series (then the Busch Grand National Series) and IndyCar. He said (at the 29:30 mark) after he was injured in an IndyCar race, he was living with his mom and stepdad for a month.

Stewart: My buddies had been calling all day, and it was AJ Foyt and then it was Mario Andretti and then it was Steve Kinser and this and that. None of them were. It was all my buddies saying who they were. So my mom answers the phone, it’s 10 o’clock at night, and my mom goes, “It’s Joe Gibbs.” I’m like, “Oh, great. Sure, here we go. Which one of these [expletive] is it now?” So they hand the phone over to me, and I’m like, “Hey, Joe, how the hell are you?” He goes, “Tony?” And I’m like, “Oh, my god, it really is Joe Gibbs.”

So that’s the way our whole relationship, literally from the first phone call on — because I obviously had to explain to him why I was being an idiot, other than I was heavily medicated. Had to explain to him why I was being the way I was. But that’s the way we’ve always been with each other. We’ve always had fun with each other. But I think as much as we’ve had fun, we’ve always had a high level of respect for each other as well.

Joe Gibbs knew who to call if he couldn’t find Tony Stewart

This one just speaks for itself (around the 30:35 mark).

Gibbs: I’ve got to tell you, I was chasing him all over the place trying to get him signed and trying to get things worked out. I’ve got to tell this. I don’t think you care [about] me telling it.

Stewart: Do you really have to tell this?

Gibbs: So I couldn’t find him lots of times, I would call the girlfriend. I would call the girlfriend, OK, and she would tell me where he was and everything. So about the third time I called the girlfriend, she goes, “That no-good rotten — don’t you ever call this house again.” I went, well, that was done.

Stewart: We were ready to hold auditions again. It was time. What can I say? All right, we need to talk about something now, oh, boy.

Gibbs: We need to get back to racing.

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Kyle Busch says retiring with 1 NASCAR title would ‘suck’ but 5 is ‘still attainable’

He has a chance to win his second NASCAR title this weekend.

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — Kyle Busch doesn’t relive his “what-if” moments and missed opportunities. But he said he’s not where he hoped he’d be after 15 full-time NASCAR Cup Series seasons.

The 34-year-old No. 18 Toyota driver is the 2015 NASCAR champion, he’s tied for ninth on the all-time Cup wins list with 55 and, earlier this season, he earned his 200th checkered flag across NASCAR’s three national series. He’s the most polarizing driver on the track, but his skill is undeniable.

But Busch will never be satisfied — at least, not until his championship total, at a minimum, triples.

“I’m behind for sure — definitely behind and in wins and championships,” Busch said Thursday ahead of the 2019 championship race Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“Why? The list goes on. It’s a pretty long one, so how many can you get now is about where it’s at. If I end with one, that’s gonna suck. If I can only get two, ehh, whatever. But three, four, five — I think five’s still achievable. But when you get to this final race in this moment, this championship format the way that it is, and five years in a row and you only come away with one, that gets pretty defeating.”

Donald Page/Getty Images

Busch isn’t quite there yet, but he clearly holds himself to an exceptionally high standard.

He’s one of four remaining 2019 championship contenders, along with teammates Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr., plus Kevin Harvick. This is the fifth straight year Busch has advanced to the Championship 4 race under the current playoff format, which was implemented in 2014. But he hasn’t won it all since his first title.

To be fair, Jimmie Johnson is the only active driver with more than one championship, and he won his record-tying seventh in 2016. Unprecedentedly, Johnson also won five consecutively, which Busch said is “certainly hard for the rest of us to beat.”

And despite already achieving what is likely enough to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, Busch isn’t impressed. When asked if he ever gives himself credit for winning as regularly as he does, he said, “No, not really.”

Since his 2015 championship, Busch’s best finish in the standings was second to Truex in 2017. He was fourth in 2018 behind champion Joey Logano, Truex and Harvick and third in 2016 after Johnson and Logano.

Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

“Just there’s been too many missed opportunities,” he said, specifically citing 2016.

“There’s a lot of stuff out there that coulda, shoulda, woulda, and it just didn’t happen for whatever reason. And we just got to figure out how to leave all that behind this weekend though and go out there and succeed.”

The 2019 regular-season champ, Busch has four wins so far this season, but he hasn’t been to Victory Lane since June. Between his own skill, the brilliance of crew chief Adam Stevens and the fastest pit crew on the track, he’s still been able to dominate thanks to in-race points earned.

Through 35 races in 2019, he’s led a series-high 1,462 laps (14.64 percent), he has 16 top-5 finishes (45.71 percent) and he didn’t finish just two races.

He said he only briefly enjoys his successes because he’s just so aware of how much more he wants to attain.

“Trust me,” Busch said, “there ain’t gonna be anybody happier than me if we cross the finish line first on Sunday — for at least the first 10 minutes.”

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How Kyle Busch won around $1,000 off his fellow NASCAR drivers

Kyle Busch won an easy bet against his fellow NASCAR championship contenders — with a little trickery.

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — Kyle Busch already beat his fellow NASCAR championship contenders this week and even made some money off of them.

In New York on Tuesday promoting Sunday’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Busch, Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr. and Kevin Harvick were stuck in “heavy traffic” on their way back to their hotel. They were about five miles away but barely moving, so Busch decided to run it.

The No. 18 Toyota driver made a bet that he could arrive at the hotel on foot faster than they could driving. So Busch mapped it out, he changed his shoes and he, along with a cameraman — who works for Pro Sports Management, the company that represents Hamlin — got out of the van and took off running.

Hamlin said Thursday at NASCAR’s championship media day that it was his idea to get his teammate to jog through Midtown Manhattan with the temperature in the mid-30s, joking that he was “just trying to hamper my competition” ahead of NASCAR’s title race.

Busch was going to get a few hundred dollars from them just for doing it, Truex, told For The Win on Thursday at NASCAR’s Media Day, adding that he initially put down $100. But they were going to kick in a few hundred more if he actually won the bet. Truex said he would double his offer while Hamlin’s payout went from $100 to $300.

Sweating and panting by the time he was done, Busch won the race by a lot.

It took him about 20 minutes to get to the hotel, and he FaceTimed with the other drivers still in the van to prove he made it. But that’s when they guessed something was amiss.

“Somebody’s full of [expletive] here,” Hamlin said in a video posted to his social media channels.

Turns out that while the driving route said their hotel was about five miles away, Busch looked at the directions for walking, which dropped the distance to fewer than two miles.

“I’m glad I had a witness go with me, and he’s just as whipped as I am,” Busch told his fellow championship contenders while FaceTiming with them.

“[I was] zig-zagging in and out of traffic, and it was pretty awesome. And I was in the middle of the street for a while.”

Eventually, Hamlin, Truex and Harvick figured out how Busch got the best of them. Obviously, they were in disbelief that Busch ran a 4.5-minute mile in shoes borrowed from the cameraman who tagged along, but not even two miles in 20 minutes makes a lot more sense.

“We just realized we got whamboozled, absolutely whamboozled,” Hamlin said in a video afterward. “We Wazed it at 5.2 miles. That seems like a really long way. However, if you click the ‘walk’ button, he only had to travel 1.8 miles. … He still put a decent pace on it. It is 30-some degrees out here.”

In the end, they combine to owe Busch “about a grand,” Harvick said at media day. But the three NASCAR drivers weren’t the only ones to get in on the bet, Truex told FTW.

During the press conference for the championship drivers Thursday, Busch said Truex still hasn’t paid up yet, and the No. 19 Toyota driver joked he’s “on a payment plan.”

“Although Kyle’s run was impressive, would have been more impressive if he would have had boots on and carrying a camera like the other guy,” Hamlin said.

But in addition to owing Busch money, Harvick had another form of punishment Tuesday as they finished their commute back to the hotel.

“I carried [his] shoes,” Harvick said Thursday of the kicks Busch changed out of. “I felt like I was obligated in losing the bet to carry his shoes back.”

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