Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney is wearing a special helmet for the NASCAR Cup race at Iowa Speedway, honoring fallen NASCAR legend Kyle Busch.
Blaney earned pole position for Sunday’s Cup race, and is one of the favorites to claim victory in the 350-lap event.
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The helmet features various highlights from Busch’s historic career, including his unprecedented sweep of all three Bristol races on the same weekend, both his 2015 and 2019 Cup titles, his first NASCAR Cup and O’Reilly wins, his 200th NASCAR win across all three national divisions, and one of Brickyard 400 wins.
When asked by Motorsport.com’s Matt Weaver for the story behind the tribute helmet, Blaney said: “The helmet I have for this weekend, my thought when Kyle passed was I’ve always thought in situations like that, how do you remember somebody and how do you kind of think of all the good that they did in their life and all the success they had?
“I think helmets are a unique thing in our sport. We kind of get to design them. A lot of them have special meaning and this is kind of my best way of showing my respect towards Kyle Busch and respect to the Busch family. And the helmet was — I picked out — I think there’s about seven or eight pictures of some wins of his, some big wins … and each part of the helmet is that scheme that he ran on the car, that’s kind of how it’s broken up. So my painter did a good job of kind of getting pretty imaginative on it.
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“But yeah, I hope to run it for one race and give it to Brexton, the Busch family, and they can do whatever they want with it. So just showing respect and, you know, I’m glad people noticed it.”
Blaney had to battle and pass Busch for his first-ever Cup win at Pocono in 2017, and the two champions had countless great battles over the years.
Kyle Busch and Ryan Blaney during 2019 season
Kyle Busch and Ryan Blaney during 2019 season
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