I’ve covered a lot of NASCAR races in my days but I have never been so shocked, stunned, angry, and just plain disgusted as I was at the end of the Federated Auto Parts 300 at the Nashville Superspeedway last Saturday night.
After the little display of disrespectful actions of Kyle Busch in Victory Lane I left the track without staying for the after race activities which I usually do. I just could not get the images of what he did out of my mind.
I stayed in Nashville, at a camp ground, and did not return home until
Monday so I have not had the chance to hear or read of the ordeal, so
all thoughts here are mine and mine alone. No internet, no phone, only
some small talk with a few of my fellow campers. The consensus with the campers is that Kyle should be “Banned for life” from the Nationwide Series. That may be a little much, but some form of punishment should be given to Mr. Busch for his actions.
Here’s what I saw: Kyle had led most all the race and sure enough, won. After the cool down lap he did an extremely long burn out in which he exploded his tires. When he came into the Victory Lane, he popped the clutch and burnt the tires coming into the black and white checkered floor. I was afraid he was going to loose control and possibly hit one of the many people in the small enclosed area. There were children in there as well, They could have been some of the crews children or special guests that are permitted in to the guarded area.
You could tell he was happy and excited to win, as expected. Nashville
is one track that many drivers want to win, one reason is it’s unique
trophy, the hand painted Sam Bass Gibson Les Paul guitar. Sam Bass has thirty years of history painting original art works in NASCAR and his
work is world known. He not only paints the trophy guitar, he designs
paint schemes for racing teams, haulers, helmets, and many other aspects in the racing world.
Kyle got out of his car, with fluid spraying from the team in
celebration and he was handed the guitar while he was standing on his
race car. He held it up high in the air for us photographers to take our
usual photo of the race winner and his newly acquired trophy. He then
jumped down off the car, walked around to the passenger side and acted like he was going to smash the guitar with a fake pump stopping before it actually hit the ground. He then lifted it again over his head but this time, with a very hard swing, he hit the ground with a big thud! Nothing happened. Maybe one little piece flew off. Then he lifted it again with a big swing, crash! He hit it again! Smash! This time, pieces flew everywhere. He traded sides and smashed it again!
One fellow in front of me scrambled picking up some pieces but an
official of the track made him hand them over. I guess the official was
collecting them for Kyle.
I’m a trained photographer and have learned to keep shooting no matter what happens. But in this case, I stood there with my mouth open stunned! I didn’t get one shot of the public smashing! Most of the crowd present in Victory Lane gasped when we saw what we did. A few cheered, but not many. I looked around and saw some with their hands covering their mouths, some with their mouths opened in disbelief. I even saw some crew members covering their mouths. Then I looked over at Sam Bass. He had a forced grin on his face. I felt really bad for him, to be so disrespected by a punk driver like Kyle Busch.
Kyle said he wanted to be able to give each of his crew members a piece of the trophy and he felt like a rock star so he busted it up for his crew to have a small token of the win. Does this mean if he wins at
Martinsville he’s going to bust up the beautiful grandfathers clock
trophy they award the winner for that race? First time that happens I’d
say whoever donates the clock will re-think giving that as the trophy.
Just like Sam Bass ought to re-think putting his heart and sole and many hours of time creating the beautiful guitar for the Nashville
Superspeedway.
Watching the Nashville local news stations Sunday night, sports director from WTVF channel 5, Hope Hines said, “Nashville fans are calling for Kyle to be banned from the track.”
Rudy Kalis, sportscaster from WSMV channel 4 said, “It was a classless
act with fans unhappy and sickened by his action.” He called Kyle Busch a “Spoiled Brat!”
President of the Nashville Superspeedway, Cliff Hines said, “I’m upset
with what he did.” He went on to say, “He should be fined and suspended from Nashville Superspeedway. It was total disrespect for Nashville fans and the Nashville Superspeedway”.
On the news Sam Bass was interviewed where he said, “ I was stunned and shocked, like everybody else. You know, This is a one of a kind, original piece of art. I put a lot of heart and soul into working on these things and working closely with Gibson guitars. It’s just
something I didn’t expect to see. I put hundreds and hundreds of hours
working on these things.”
He was asked if Kyle came up to him or if he went over to Kyle. “No, I
went over to him, he was standing off to the side by himself and I just
wanted to find out what he was thinking”. He told Mr. Bass what has been reported about him telling the crew for the last year, that if he won, they would all get a piece of the trophy.
“If he would have asked me if it was okay to do this before hand, I
would have said, ‘Can’t we do something different?’, because it is my
art work and it takes hours and hours to make it. I don’t see him doing
something like this to any other of his trophies. I take pride in my
work and don’t want to see it destroyed. I know what his intentions were but there were many other ways he could have done it.”
Sam reminded them it was a one of a kind piece of art. He estimated its value at between 25,000 to 30,000 dollars. The guitar was called the top trophy in all sports by Sports Illustrated.
This driver does not have respect for tradition, for veteran drivers, or
for the sport itself. Every time we think Kyle is maturing he does
something to make himself look like an [horse's behind]. This one takes the cake, I’ve lost what little respect I had for Mr. Busch as a driver or as a human being. And no dude, you’re not a *rock star*, you’re just a little rich spoiled driver who has no respect for anything.
Couldn’t agree more with this writer. Kyle Busch should have been fined big time, plus all points taken away and no longer being allowed to race in Nationwide. I’m sick of this punks action when he wins and his disrespect of what Sam Bass designs and gives as a trophy. If he wanted to share that guitar he could have signed it and handed it a fan standing close by. NASCAR needs to get their head out of the sand and start teaching some of these young drivers that one thing NASCAR is all about is respect. A reader of my newsletter calls him Vile Kyle and she has hit it right on the head…..spoiled brat isn’t even coming close to what this kid is. Great driver but a no body when it comes to respect.
Slam Dunk!!! I also think it was very Disrespectful to Nashville Speedway and Sam Bass. Kyle doesn’t care except for Kyle! This was a very well written story, Great job Steve….
Whats the big deal after all it was his to do with as he saw fit
Steve,
Your article was honest and “on point”. My NASCAR family includes a graphic artist who was shocked and outraged, like we all were, over the destruction of a Sam Bass original. Keep writing, we will keep reading.
Gloria
I agree! He needs punished for his actions!!!
Great article. It’s nice to hear from someone who was actually there. I watched on TV at home and was pretty much shocked as well.
Thanks for writing this.
I like the majority of fans am completly discussed with Kyle Busch’s antics both on and off the racetrack. I am surprised that NASCAR or Joe Gibbs hasn’t taken this jerk to task for his actions which is giving both these organizations a bad rap. Blame the economy for poor ticket sales, after this it will hurt the sport and turn off millions of fans.
You’re right, Kyle isn’t a rock star, KYLE IS A WINNER! The T-shirt selling, OVER-HYPED, OVER-RATED, AVERAGE AT BEST?, ROCK STAR is DALE JR!
Great article Steve! KB continues to show his lack of class and respect for the years of hard work put in by others, so that he can become a millionaire at 23 years of age!
Perfectly written. If Kyle’s grandmother gave him a homemade sweater, he’d probably use it as a dust cloth in front of her.
Oh please, enough with the overreaction about the guitar.
The whole “smashing the guitar” thing has been done for YEARS!
Why is everyone so upset? And what RIGHT do they have to BE upset?
Kyle won the race and therefore won the race trophy. It’s his to do with as he sees fit. If he wants to make a bold statement (not to mention mor ethan a little press) by smashing it to the ground, then by all means let him smash HIS guitar.
It’s not Sam’s, the tracks, the sponsors, mine, yours or anyone else’s say. Maybe next year someone else will win and they can hold it lovingly, thank the sponsors and put in on the mantel. BORING! Will people be talking about the Nationwide Victory Lane 4 days later?!?! I assure you they will not. People LOVE a good story, particularly if they have something to complain about. I say, “Give them something to complain about Kyle!”, it beats anything else out there in the NASCAR world right now.
This has got to be the worst indignity that the sport of NASCAR has yet to suffer. For a driver to trash a trophy is terrible. I follow many types of races, from street racing to Indy to Southern USA NASCAR racing. No other team/driver has ever done something like this to something so hard-earned as far as I have been following. Kids barely out of their teens driving street cars have more maturity than this guy has. Drivers from the Indy races that get paid as much or more than Busch does treat their trophies and commemoratives with more respect. You don’t see them across national news or even local news trashing their trophies so their team can all have a piece of it; instead you see it sitting up in the garages behind glass doors so they call can point and say “hey, I was apart of this team when we won this or that”.
This is an utter disrespect to the race and to the team. If I were a part of his team during this, I would quit immediately after spitting on Kyle’s boots in utter disgust.
I have lost all respect for this guy and I don’t care what his motives are, he should never have done this. I am also one for banning him from NASCAR for life. For all the childish, immature actions that this guy has committed, he should be fired with no other support from anyone.
Show some respect for tradition, Kyle!!!!
This was Kyle’s trophy. It was not a gift, he won it. Mr Bass was paid to produce it for the speedway. Mr. Bass earns a very nice living by producing artwork for NASCAR fans and each piece that is sold becomes the property of the owner to do with it what they want. Kyle has the right to do what he wanted to do and, in fact, made it known in advance what he was going to do if he ever won one. This whole “outrage” thing is a joke. You want the drivers to show emotion but only in a way that you have predetermined is acceptable to you. The solution to your “problem” is to have your favorite driver win every week so Kyle won’t bother you…Oh, wait a minute, you don’t like it when Kyle doesn’t win either because then that “snotty nose little jerk” won’t stop and answer your probing questions. Questions like:” You just ran out of gas with two laps to go after leading all day. How do you feel?”
I agree, Kyle is no rock star. Can we also agree that you’re no journalist?
This dormant shrub showed he’s got the IQ of a jack handle (matches his physique) by trying to break a set-neck guitar, anyone with half a brain knows you’d have to really have a good swing to break a Les Paul – I’ll bet Jimmy Spencer could, but Jimmy’s got way to much respect for traditional things to behave like an anarchist.
I agree. I used to think that Kyle Busch was just immature and bad-mannered, but now I suspect that “Rowdy” Busch is a persona manufactured for marketing purposes. If you’d like to find out why I think that, click on my link to read more.