Kyle Busch used his February accident at Daytona as motivation all year long.
That included his recovery from initial surgery on his broken right leg and fractured left foot, his three months of rehab, the birth of his son, his four wins and ultimately, the Sprint Cup championship.
Busch talked about the season that was, particularly Sunday’s championship-winning race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, in a new post on Derek Jeter’s The Players Tribune.
Here’s an excerpt from Busch’s first-person story, but it’s what follows that will catch you by surprise. As the old saying goes, wait for it … wait for it:
“When we got to about lap 200, we had a pit stop — the final green flag stop of the night — and I had momentum. I was behind Brad Keselowski for the lead, but I had gapped Kevin Harvick, who I was racing for the title at that point.
“As I kept distancing myself from Kevin, it started to look like I might be able to win the whole race. Kyle Larson joined us in the lead, and we were all separated by about one second, with Kevin still trailing behind. I was perfectly fine with how things were going. If I held position, I had the championship.”
Then, as late broadcaster Paul Harvey used to say, Kyle revealed the rest of the story of how he won the 2015 crown:
He started singing son Brexton’s favorite kiddie song:
“I could feel like pressure coming on so … Well, I started singing the theme song from my son’s favorite learning game, VocabuLarry.
“Who’s that swingin’ up and down?
(Laaaa-rry!)
Join him as he has some fun
(Laaaa-rry!)
Look at Larry, he’s so bright
(Laaaa-ry!)
Learns new words and gets them right.
Busch then added, “Look, what can I say? It kept me focused.”
We’re not sure if Busch’s singing made it across his team radio, or if it just stayed inside his car. But if a copy exists,, somewhere, somehow, somebody HOPEFULLY has a tape of this. It would be an instant classic.
Follow @JerryBonkowski
