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Kurt Busch's transformation from troubled to Daytona 500 champ seems complete
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Two years ago, Kurt Busch walked out of Daytona International Speedway at the beginning of the 2015 season in what is now the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series without having run the Daytona 500.
That seems a lifetime ago.
Busch left the 2.5-mile superspeedway Sunday evening as a Daytona 500 champion, his transformation from a frequently troubled, often angry driver into something better, more at ease with himself and all his surroundings, seemingly complete.
Winning the Daytona 500 is not easy.
Just ask Tony Stewart, co-owner of the Stewart-Haas Racing organization that fielded Busch’s winning No. 41 Ford in Sunday’s race. Stewart tried for 17 years to win NASCAR’s biggest race as a driver and never did, finally retiring as a full-time Cup driver at the end of last season.
“If I knew all I had to do to get it done was retire, I would’ve retired a long time ago,” Stewart joked.
Busch knows all about how difficult it is to win the 500 as well. He did it Sunday on his 16th try, and he did it in a way that he may not have been able to do as recently as two years ago – when NASCAR suspended him for the first two races of the 2015 season while he was being investigated for alleged domestic abuse of a former girlfriend.
Busch was cleared of all charges, but could not get back that lost Daytona 500.
Other times over the years, he had come close to winning the race, only to finish second to Michael Waltrip in 2003, runner-up again to Jeff Gordon in 2005 – and then once again in 2008 when he pushed his then-Penske Racing teammate Ryan Newman to the win.
“This place will challenge every emotion,” Busch said. “You have to be humble when you walk through the gates here.”
This time, when Busch walked through the gates earlier in Speedweeks and again prior to Sunday’s race, he did so with a new, more positive attitude.
For that, he mostly credits his wife, the former Ashley Van Metre, whom he married this past off-season. He says she has taught him the power of positive thinking at all times -- a concept that often escaped him in earlier years through a number of run-ins with the media, other drivers and, occasionally, just other people in general.
Busch's new line of thinking was put to the test throughout Sunday’s eventful, sometimes maddening race.
He dodged the wrecks that seemed to be breaking out all around him. He stayed calm and kept his head about him even after an early pit-road penalty cost him dearly in Stage 1 of NASCAR's new three-stage race format.
He even laughed it off when the rear-view mirror fell off his car with 30 laps to go.
“I thought about how Ashley would have handled that, and that’s what she would do,” Busch said.
It all contributed to the bigger picture, which in turn helped lead to the dream outcome 17 years after he first came to Daytona and a mere two years after being told he couldn’t race in the 500.
“I told Kurt it was probably the most patient, best race he’s ever run – so he’s very deserving of this win,” Stewart said.
Perhaps the best indicator that Busch is a changed, better man – and not just a better driver – is the fact that he now seems to believe he’s very deserving, too. Not just of Sunday’s 500 win, but of all the good stuff that life has to offer.
"I feel like experience on the track continues to grow, but I was neglecting experience in life," Busch said. "The different circumstances that were happening, I wasn't learning enough from. My wife Ashley has helped me digest better feelings toward how to approach situations."
It shows -- never more brightly than in Sunday's latest Daytona 500.
Stewart-Haas Racing
