It was Tuesday evening of this week, I used to be on the street for work. To kill time whereas sitting on the bar ready on dinner, I used to be in my cellphone, flicking and clicking my means by way of the entire posts and tales speculating that Kurt Busch would announce his retirement as a NASCAR Cup Sequence race. On Saturday morning at his hometown racetrack of Las Vegas Motor Speedway, he introduced that he can be stepping away from full-time racing.

The gentleman sitting subsequent to me was completely studying it throughout my shoulder and eventually tapped that shoulder, adopted by a trio of questions.

“Hey man, what number of Cup races has Kurt Busch gained?”

I replied rapidly, “34.”

“Hey man, what number of of these do you assume you had been there for in particular person?”

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I replied simply as rapidly, “Most likely 25 of them.”

“Hey man, for actual, what do you assume occurred extra usually, you seeing Kurt Busch win a race or him cussing you out to your face?”

OK, this one I had to consider. For a protracted whereas. It has been days now since I used to be requested the query and I nonetheless do not know the reply. And that is actually all it’s essential to know concerning the sophisticated, door-to-door twin of the fates that’s the Kurt Busch legacy.

The winner versus the jerk.

For practically 1 / 4 of a century, Busch made his residing in NASCAR’s premier sequence. He has certainly gained 34 races, ranked twenty fifth on the all-time victories checklist, simply forward of NASCAR Corridor of Fame members Fireball Roberts and Dale Jarrett. In his trophy case are victories within the Daytona 500 and Coca-Cola 600. Amongst his non-points-paying triumphs are one every within the NASCAR All-Star Race, Bud Shootout and even an IROC championship. His 28 poles rank twenty eighth all time. His 10,292 laps led rank twenty first. His 339 high 10s rank fifteenth. Busch has gained in all three nationwide sequence, and he has gained at the least one race for all three present producers — Ford, Chevy and Toyota — and he gained 10 races in long-departed Dodge. He gained races driving automobiles owned by Jack Roush, Roger Penske, Tony Stewart, Chip Ganassi and even Michael Jordan.

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— Kurt Busch (@KurtBusch) October 15, 2022

Busch survived the only most nail-biting moments ever seen in a NASCAR championship season finale. In 2004, the primary iteration of the Chase/Playoff period, he coolly shed a snapped-off proper entrance tire and narrowly missed the water barrels on the finish of the Homestead-Miami Speedway pit wall. He ended the race because the champion. He battled with Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson. He banged doorways with Ricky Craven at Darlington in maybe NASCAR’s most thrilling end of this century. He owned Bristol Motor Speedway. Simply 5 months in the past he gained at Kansas Speedway, incomes his thirty fourth win at age 43. Heck, he has gone NHRA Professional Inventory racing and gained 2014 Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Yr.

However yearly and seemingly each nice second of Busch’s inevitably first-ballot NASCAR Corridor of Fame profession has all the time been dogged by a “yeah, however …”

He exploded onto the Cup Sequence scene. Yeah, however the exceptional early success in 2003-04 that led to that Cup title is remembered by many extra for his ongoing feud with Jimmy “Mr. Pleasure” Spencer as it’s for his seven wins over two years.

He gained his Cup title with Roush Racing. Yeah, however his exit from the staff grew to become testy when Roush felt as if Busch hadn’t given him truthful warning concerning the racer’s departure for Penske Racing, and he missed what would have been his last races with Roush after he was parked by NASCAR for a DUI quotation and ensuing altercation with police in Phoenix.

He gained 10 races for Roger Penske. Yeah, however after he was fined $50,000 for screaming at ESPN pit reporter Dr. Jerry Punch, The Captain had seen sufficient and so they parted methods.

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He landed with Phoenix Racing and embraced the underdog function, even operating Ricky Bobby’s “ME” cougar paint scheme at Talladega. Yeah, however he was additionally positioned on probation for an incident with Ryan Newman at Darlington and the next week obtained a one-race suspension when he responded to a query from reporter Bob Pockrass about his conduct whereas on probation by saying, “It refrains me from not beating the s— out of you proper now since you ask me silly questions.”

A six-month feud with brother Kyle Busch needed to be mounted by Grandma at Thanksgiving. Profanity-laced radio tirades. Having to be pulled off of reporter Joe Menzer at Richmond. Denying he stated one thing on stay TV, being proven the transcript of it after which ripping up the papers and dropping them in entrance Related Press reporter Jenna Fryer’s face.

All of us have these tales. Someplace within the ESPN video library is a clip of Kurt Busch responding to my query a few crash at Darlington with a query about my relationship with my mom. Marty Smith has a clip of him having to elucidate why he and Busch had an altercation within the Michigan Speedway media middle on YouTube.

We’re all grownups. We will take it. I simply by no means found out why we needed to.

In 2010, I wrote a narrative for ESPN the Journal the place I sat down the Busch brothers collectively, following two years of asking. Kurt satisfied me that he and his little brother had modified their methods. I believed him. However one 12 months later, I wrote a confession and partial retraction. Kurt wasn’t merely unchanged, he was worse. In 2015, his weird relationship with girlfriend Patricia Driscoll led to a high-profile court docket case and accusation of home violence that managed to overshadow that 12 months’s Daytona 500. He was suspended once more, this time solely two days earlier than the Nice American Race. It was embarrassing for the game, so the suspension stood even after it was decided by investigators to not pursue felony prices in opposition to the racer. When he was allowed again what did he do? He gained two races and made the postseason area, regardless of lacking the primary three races of the 12 months.

To be clear, he actually wasn’t alone when it got here to tantrums, even people who crossed the road. Tony Stewart was a stick of dynamite, as is Kevin Harvick, and naturally, brother Kyle. However these others, even Smoke, their rage got here in waves. Kurt Busch was a nonstop tsunami. When it wasn’t, it was a shock. A pleasing one. Even now, as he has mellowed with age, it nonetheless catches one off guard. That is what has all the time made it so maddening when he would crack open the home windows to indicate us all he may very well be a greater particular person. You all the time knew it was going to be slammed shut.

Maybe essentially the most insightful dialog I’ve had a with a inventory automotive racer was an interview I did with Busch smack in the course of these unstable days of the mid-2010s. The story was about the worth of the human behind the wheel versus the machine that racer drove. Does the driving force nonetheless matter within the age of engineering? He was actually good as he defined how he was in a position to wheel the once-lowly like of Phoenix Racing and Furnishings Row Racing into being common contenders. He stated to me: “My street has not been simple. However what it has finished is remind me how a lot enjoyable this may be. And that, in the long run, nobody is holding that steering wheel in his arms however me.”

That very same 12 months I produced a TV sequence wherein trendy racers frolicked with legends of the previous. Busch was on our pilot episode, sitting with Buddy Baker. He was humorous, good, respectful and downright likable. I knew then he can be nice on tv, and when the present networks have put him within the sales space, he has been. However the weekend that the present premiered, he unleashed such a vicious, profanity-laced tantrum over the staff radio that his then-boss, Roger Penske, waited on him within the storage to drag him into the staff hauler and shout him down.

Superb accomplishment*. Ridiculous expertise*. Limitless potential*.

*Yeah, however … *Yeah, however … *Yeah, however …

Him stepping away from full-time racing comes with one other asterisk, though one not of his personal doing, struggling concussion-like signs since a follow crash at Pocono Raceway in late July. However his departure from the storage ignites one other query, new but in addition acquainted. Kurt Busch did a lot. He will likely be a first-ballot NASCAR Corridor of Famer and if I’m lucky sufficient to nonetheless be a voter when he turns into eligible, I’ll vote for him instantly. However I additionally know the query that will likely be raised in that room. It is the query that all the time comes up when his identify is talked about and all the time will.

What might Kurt Busch have actually finished if all of that different stuff hadn’t gotten in the way in which?