Kyle Busch celebrates 10 years

DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 15: Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 M&M's Toyota, prepares to drive in practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 15, 2014 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 15:  Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 M&M's Toyota, prepares to drive in practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 15, 2014 in Daytona Beach, Florida.  (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL – FEBRUARY 15: Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 M&M’s Toyota, prepares to drive in practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 15, 2014 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. –In the same year Toyota was making its debut in the truck series, Kyle Busch ran his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. Since then, Busch has completed nine full seasons at NASCAR’s highest level.

“It doesn’t feel like 10 years at all, but yet when you look back at life outside of racing you think, ‘Okay, I was 18 when I came in here — holy crap a lot of things have gone on and changed over 10 years.'” Busch said. “It certainly seems like a whole different world, not only me in it, but just a whole different world in general.”

As Busch sees it, one of the biggest changes is the overwhelming, and sometimes intrusive presence of social media.

“I don’t think we had Facebook or Twitter back 10 years ago,” he said. “You could actually go to a bar and not have somebody tweet about it.”

Busch also noted that, after nine seasons, there are plenty of items left on his bucket list.

“There’s certainly a lot of things that I have yet to accomplish that I’m disappointed that I have not accomplished yet — some big wins of the marquis events as well as being able to become a Sprint Cup Series champion,” Busch said.

“The Nationwide Series championship is great, but ultimately what all of us drivers look towards is a Sprint Cup championship. Been an interesting nine years, but we’ll see what happens in the 10th.”

Greg Engle
About Greg Engle 7421 Articles
Greg is a published award winning sportswriter who spent 23 years combined active and active reserve military service, much of that in and around the Special Operations community. Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.