On Friday, Kurt Busch was officially named as the driver of the new No. 45 car for 23XI Racing for the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season. The news hit social media like a bomb, as it came at 6PM ET on a Friday — not usually when big stories are broken.
In the fever pace to get the last minute breaking news story out, ESPN made a fatal error.
The Worldwide Leader in Sports sent out a push notification to every user who has their mobile app downloaded on their devices. The fatal error was that the push notification announced Kyle Busch — not his brother Kurt Busch — as the newest driver for Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing team.
Upon receiving the notification himself, Busch decided to have some fun pretending that the false news report was actually fact.
Congratulations to me ? pic.twitter.com/va6JcOTpku
— Kyle Busch (@KyleBusch) August 27, 2021
After pretending that the ESPN notification was correct, Busch then noticed a GIF from his actual team Joe Gibbs Racing, which appeared to be celebrating.
Naturally, they were celebrating the departure of Busch, right?
Are they glad I’m gone? ? pic.twitter.com/3LwDvLpxqq
— Kyle Busch (@KyleBusch) August 27, 2021
After this interaction, Busch did something that he has done a lot of lately on social media. He called a faux press conference to talk about his move to 23XI Racing for the 2022 season.
?PRESS CONFERENCE?
Had to address the news reported earlier by @espn, @23XIRacing @BubbaWallace this is gonna b awesome let’s get to work @Jumpman23 @KingJames @wbpictures ?? #KFBSummer pic.twitter.com/4bo4QrkaBT
— Kyle Busch (@KyleBusch) August 28, 2021
Yikes. I think next time, ESPN will double check to make sure they have the right Busch brother.