Kyle Busch Voted NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver: ‘It’s Really Special’

Knight Theater (Miami) — NASCAR fans honored the late Kyle Busch by voting him as the NASCAR Cup Series Most Popular Driver. Busch, who died suddenly on May 21 from pneumonia complications, was a popular but polarizing figure in the sport as his fiery demeanor made him the favorite of many but also earned his share of people rooting against him. Busch’s widow, Samantha, accepted the honor Tuesday night as part of NASCAR’s annual end-of-the-year awards ceremony. “I want to cry thinking about it,” Samantha Busch told me and others on the red carpet prior to the awards ceremony. “He wanted that award so bad for so many years, and I’m so thrilled that he got it. … For the kids [Brexton and Lennix], it’s really special. “When I told Brexton, I was like, ‘Hey, Dad got it’ and he was like, ‘No way!’ And he was really pumped. So that’s exciting for them.” Chase Elliott — who had won eight consecutive MPD awards — pulled his name off the ballot, just as his father, Bill, did in 2001 when Dale Earnhardt died in the Daytona 500. “He kind of embraced that villain role and maybe people totally didn’t like him, but they sure did make a lot of noise for him. I think we can all agree on that,” Elliott said last month when voting began. “I just felt like because of that, and because of a lot of things that I got the chance to see behind the scenes of things that he did for his fans and how much he cared about the sport and for his supporters, I felt like that he deserved to win that vote. Many current drivers urged their fans to vote for Busch, a two-time Cup champion who earned 63 wins in Cup, 102 in O’Reilly and 69 in trucks. “The coolest thing about it is just how the other drivers came together in order to rally their fans behind him,” Samantha Busch said. “A lot of people see they’re competitors or they don’t like each other. “But at the end of the day, NASCAR is a big family, and just seeing Chase and [Kyle] Larson and all them being like, ‘No, give this to Kyle, give this to Kyle.’ I know he’s up there being like, ‘Well, I finally got it.’” Elliott told me Tuesday morning that he had not yet talked with Samantha about the award, that he wanted to talk to her in-person at a time he felt was right. “I hope our paths can cross to connect and talk about it. And if nothing else, just me express my emotions on Kyle and how much I appreciated his relationship over the years and the respect I feel that we had for one another and a lot of the things I told you guys [in the media],” Elliott said. “It would be really important to tell her, too, at some point in time when the time is appropriate, and I intend on doing that.” Samantha Busch said she loved hearing the stories from other drivers and those in the sport. “He was such a big part of this sport, and it was just beautiful to hear in the last couple months the impact that he had. I hear so many stories… [that] he had that heart,” Samantha Busch said. “And I don’t think a lot of people saw that. “But now that people are talking about it, I’m so glad that people got to see that side of Kyle that I knew so well.” The Cup most popular driver award is presented by the National Motorsports Press Association. Justin Allgaier won the award in the O’Reilly Series and Layne Riggs won in trucks. “There was no Rowdy without the fans,” Samantha said during her acceptance speech. “And there will never be another Rowdy. Because there was truly no one else like Kyle.”