CONCORD, N.C. — Kyle Busch never stopped trying to find additional opportunities to compete in NASCAR. It’s how the legendary driver amassed 234 NASCAR National Series victories, an all-time record, over his illustrious career. On Thursday, Busch lost his life at the age of 41 after a severe illness caused him to be admitted to the hospital.
On Friday evening, NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell conducted a press conference in the Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Center, where he shared his personal reflections on Busch as a racer and his life away from the track. Amid the press conference, O’Donnell dropped an interesting nugget.
According to O’Donnell, earlier this week, Busch, who won last weekend’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event at Dover Motor Speedway, had texted him and proposed an over-40-year-old rule, which would allow the elder statesmen of the NASCAR Cup Series to compete full-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
“I think we all saw last week when he won at Dover, the quote from Victory Lane, it’s tough to watch. It’s telling. But what I look back on is a text from Kyle Tuesday, as only Kyle could do — and I keep looking at it — and he said: Hey, man, what do you think about an over-40 rule to be able to compete in all the Truck Series races next year?” O’Donnell said.
NASCAR originally placed limits on NASCAR Cup Series drivers in the lower two National Series divisions due to Busch being far too dominant in those series. However, O’Donnell says that NASCAR was leaning toward making a change in Busch’s favor following the text message.
“I said, you know, we put that rule in place because you were winning so much, but when we looked about it and had a meeting Wednesday internally, we thought, damn, that’s actually good. We need Kyle in the Truck Series,” O’Donnell explained. “It was twofold. He knew he could help the series, but I think one day had a dream to race against his son in a national series event. That was Kyle, always thinking about the sport and going forward.”
Unfortunately, Busch will never have the chance to see the over-40 rule through, and his shocking death robbed the world of the chance of seeing him compete against his son, Brexton, in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series someday. Still, Busch may have influenced the NASCAR rule book one last time in his final days.
