For Kyle Busch, the plan for his 10-year-old son Brexton is that there is no set plan for his development into an eventual NASCAR driver.
“Right now, NASCAR is the end goal. So, I feel like you have to have some pavement stuff right now.”
Busch discussed the topic with Denny Hamlin on the Actions Detrimental podcast. Hamlin wanted to know what he felt the right path was for a young driver wanting to go NASCAR racing.
“I don’t think there’s a right path,” Busch said. “He’s getting more into the Legend car right now. He turns 10, he can’t race a Legend car until he turns 10. That’s this week, so he’ll actually race his Legend car debut this week at Hickory. There’s a lot more racetracks around our area for Legends cars, pavement racing Legend cars than there are the Dirt Micro.
“…For KBM (Kyle Busch Motorsports), KMB still exists, it’s the Legends cars, the Micros, the Bandoleros. It’s just that stuff that I’ll keep doing with Brex. But the next level, so when he turns 12, it will be Late Model stuff, so getting him into Dirt Late Models, getting him into Pavement Late Models. I’d like to keep him on both, just learning that sense of all the different vehicles that you can drive. Don’t stay in anything too long that you learn those bad habits that keep you good at that, that doesn’t allow you to keep your mind open and fresh to new things.”
Busch went on to say that he wanted to replicate for his son what makes Kyle Larson so great, the comfort in driving any type of race car.
Larson cut his teeth driving Outlaw Karts and then Sprint Cars in California. He did that while racing USAC Midgets as well. Then he made the transition to pavement and that diversity has continued into his professional career, where he races practically everything.
So Busch wants his son to have that experience driving everything because he believes that was the key to his development.
“I just look at Kyle, tiny Kyle, obviously,” Busch said. “The things he can do on dirt at any given time—he can go run NASCAR on Sunday and a sprint car on Monday and win in it. That’s what Larson’s gift is.”
And eventually, Kyle hopes that diversity gets Brexton to racing on Sundays.
“A lot of guys Larson grew up doing the dirt stuff. So, he’s great at the dirt stuff, and he’s obviously great at the NASCAR stuff. I just feel like if you mix in a little bit of the dirt and a little bit of the pavement right now, you can do anything.”
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