Tony Stewart is not happy with the way some people have reacted to the death of Kyle Busch.
The former NASCAR driver, who won three Cup Series championships, was asked by a reporter a few days ago ahead of an NHRA race in Bristol, Tennessee about how Busch should be remembered. Instead of offering a personal anecdote or description of what kind of man and driver Busch was, Stewart embarked on a rant about how angry he is about how people are talking about Busch now.
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Put more simply, the 55-year-old Stewart wishes that people had said all the nice things they’re saying now about Busch to the driver when he was still alive. Stewart – who earned the nickname “Smoke” and like Busch was a driver with a lot of personality who sometimes rubbed people the wrong way – said people were too quick to judge Busch based on how they saw him through the media.
“I guess the biggest thing in this tragedy that’s happened that’s pissed me off the most is that, now everybody wants to talk about how he was as a person,” Stewart said. “Outside of that, all they wanted to do is judge what they saw on TV. So, it’s frustrating. That’s the way every one of us are judged ‒ by what they see on TV. Then once you die, then they want to talk about how good a person you were. That’s the part that pisses me off the most about it right now.”
Stewart and Busch competed in the Cup Series together from 2005 to 2016. They were teammates together for one season, 2008 at Joe Gibbs Racing, before Stewart left to start his own team ‒ Stewart-Hass Racing. They had some run-ins on the track as competitors, with Busch wrecking Stewart at Las Vegas in 2006, then Stewart turning Busch into the wall on the final lap at Daytona in 2009.
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The NASCAR world was stunned when Busch died on May 21 at the age of 41 due to complications from severe pneumonia that progressed into sepsis. Many of Busch’s old rivals, from Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano to Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr., have spoken fondly about him in the days and weeks since his death, but Stewart didn’t seem to have an interest in publicly eulogizing Busch.
“Should’ve given him a chance to learn him as a person before they judged him in the first place,” Stewart said. “So, right now, I don’t care about educating everybody about how Kyle Busch was. I know who Kyle Busch was.
“The fact that they all want to learn now, they’re the (expletives) for not taking the time to learn him and accept him for who he was back then. You want to wait until the guy dies and now all of sudden care about who he was as a person? That’s the part that pisses me off about everybody.”
In his retirement from NASCAR, Stewart has competed in NHRA and also dabbled in other forms of racing. He returned to NASCAR competition for the first time since 2016 at Daytona this year, running in a RAM Truck for Kaulig.
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Last month, Stewart was photographed while wearing a hat with Busch’s No. 8 on it at the Potomac Nationals at Maryland International Raceway.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tony Stewart slams public reaction following Kyle Busch’s death
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