Kyle Busch after finally winning his first NASCAR race of 2020: ‘I was so nervous’

NASCAR’s reigning champ finally won a race in 2020.

Kyle Busch opened the 2020 NASCAR season with an 0-33 record. But Wednesday in a three-day delayed race at Texas Motor Speedway, the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion won the 57th race of his career.

Busch was already knocked out of the postseason, which is currently in the middle of the Round of 8 with an elimination race Sunday at Martinsville Speedway to determine the final Championship 4 drivers. But there’s a huge silver lining for Busch, even if he can’t defend his title.

Now that he has his first win of 2020, 35-year-old Busch has won at least one race in each of his 16 full-time seasons — a streak he previously said was more important to him than winning a third championship.

And afterward, he took his signature bow with the checkered flag in his hand, but that almost didn’t happen.

“I forgot,” Busch told NBC Sports with a smile. “It’s been a really long time.”

After taking his bow, Busch said:

“I was so nervous. I was nervous a little bit the whole last run, but I’ve been in this position so many times, it’s like, ‘Eh.’ The last three laps, though, that’s like winning a championship — that’s how nervous [I] was. And I can’t believe it. But so proud to just be here. …

“We’re ready to fight next year. We’ll be back.”

Busch was able to hold off a hard-charging Joe Gibbs Racing teammate in Martin Truex Jr. while also attempting to save enough fuel to make it to the end of the race and not get stuck in the middle of the 1.5-mile track.

Ultimately, after Busch’s post-race burnout celebration, he said the car did run out of fuel, and it needed a push from a tow truck to get to Victory Lane.

Truex, who is still in the playoffs, finished second, Christopher Bell was third, Ryan Blaney was fourth and playoff driver Alex Bowman rounded out the top-5 finishers. As for the remaining playoff drivers, Brad Keselowski finished sixth, Kurt Busch was seventh, Denny Hamlin was ninth, Joey Logano was 10th and Kevin Harvick was 16th.

When asked how this win compares with the other 56 of his Cup Series career, Busch emphasized the value of his career-long streak:

“They all mean a lot, right? There’s certain circumstances and certain specialties to all of them, but this one means a lot just to keep the 16[-year streak] going, obviously. We’re out of the playoffs, we had nothing to shoot for, everybody thought we were duds, and we don’t ever give up. …

“It means a lot just to keep that winning streak going. That’s the biggest thing I was hoping for and obviously wanting to accomplish this year before the year was out. I can’t say enough about [crew chief] Adam Stevens and [spotter] Tony Hirschman, my pit crew guys and everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing for all their hard work and everything that they do year in and year out.”

Despite the weather pushing the Texas race back from Sunday to Wednesday, the next NASCAR Cup Series race is still scheduled for this upcoming Sunday at Martinsville Speedway. The season finale is November 8 at Phoenix Raceway.

[jwplayer 8V6pmGyi-q2aasYxh]

[vertical-gallery id=955138]

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 tag=421393221]