Written by Sean McKean
On Sundays, one can find Kyle Busch racing in the NASCAR Cup Series – where he’s garnered two championships and 63 victories. In the Cup Series, Busch is regarded as one of the best at his game.
Away from the Cup circuit, however, the champion still leads a busy life. On top of his Xfinity and Truck starts, Busch occasionally partakes in the short track scene in 600-winged dirt cars. One track he commons in particular is Millbridge Speedway in Salisbury, North Carolina – a one-sixth-mile, single-grooved dirt oval.
The 600-winged event on 26 March was one Kyle Busch partook in, but for the first time, it also featured his son, Brexton. At nine years old, Brexton has accumulated over 100 victories in vehicle classes such as Bandoleros, junior sprint cars and micros. On this late-March night, though, Brexton made his 600-winged debut alongside his first time racing his father.
In an interview with DIVEBOMB, Kyle speaks on how special it is to be racing against his own son for the first time.
“I would say that it’s a pretty special moment,” Kyle said.
“Obviously, racing against your son is pretty cool. I wouldn’t say we ever really circled a date on the calendar or said, ‘Hey, we’re going to do this here,’ it just sort of happened. For his progress of what he’s done in racing so far and all the things he’s raced and being able to get to his points, I love this 600-winged class in Millbridge, and now he’s old enough to run it, so here we go, we run in the same place together.”
Although Brexton has enjoyed great success in junior classes on his way up the ladder, hopping into the 600-winged class will almost certainly be a greater challenge. However, Kyle still keeps realistic expectations.
“I think he’ll do okay, we’re not expecting him to go out and win [on] night one, but there’s a lot of really good competition out there. This Millbridge race track is very tough. It’s really hard to pass at times and there’s not multiple grooves, so you have to work your way around traffic and move some of the racers off the bottom to get by them,” Kyle stated.
Come the fall of the chequered flag, Joey Robinson won the main event whilst Kyle came home in third – having battled Dave Meendering hard for the final spot at the end. Brexton came home in sixth.
Although it is still early in Brexton’s career – given that he’s a NASCAR champion’s son – discussions around his possible interest in the NASCAR pathway have already arisen. Kyle speaks on Brexton’s definite interest in climbing up the ladder.
“As Brexton moves up, he wants to race in NASCAR, so that’s sort of the game,” he said. “He wants to get into legends cars, late models and all the way up to the Cup Series, so we’ll see how he ends up. He’s obviously talented enough at it and does a good job where he could certainly get to that point, so it would be exciting to see him reach his goals and get all the way to the top.”
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