NASCAR CEO speaks after Kyle Busch dies at 41

[0:06] good afternoon everybody um we wanted to provide our thoughts on yesterday's tragic loss [0:12] of kyle bush and here to do that is nascar ceo steve o'donnell we know there may be specific [0:17] health related questions from yesterday we do not have answers for those but we did want to start [0:24] this weekend talking about the legacy of kirk kyle bush so we have steve here to do that so steve [0:31] can you help us do that please thanks mike um so i've spent 31 years in this sport and kyle bush [0:39] has been part of my life for for 25 years watching him come into the sport as a as a teenager i think [0:46] all of us would agree full of talent full of fire didn't give a damn was going to push us and i think [0:53] we all love that spirit and over those years i think everything you saw on the track was one thing but [1:00] there was so much more to kyle bush that i think it's important for for people maybe even new to [1:04] the sport to understand so folks will often ask me when i'm around you know what's nascar like [1:11] and my best description of nascar is it's like a family reunion every week and those of you who have [1:18] gone to family reunions you know that from time to time families don't get along but at the end of [1:24] the day everybody knows that they're all part of the family if you look at our drivers but just as [1:33] equally when you when you think about family um that includes everybody in this room media team [1:39] owners drivers sponsors we're all part of that group when we think about that family reunion and [1:45] when you think about drivers in particular you get to watch drivers come into the sport young hungry [1:53] hopefully you see them win and you see them grow up and you see them learn you also get a chance [1:59] uh when you're in some of our positions to watch drivers off the track get to see them maybe find [2:07] a friend a girlfriend becomes a wife uh they become fathers they have kids they start families and you [2:16] celebrate all that together because each and every weekend we are together and and and we're there to [2:21] celebrate it and that's what this sport is and kyle bush lived just about every chapter of what you can do [2:29] in nascar what most people saw rowdy is fierce he's competitive always good for a great quote my [2:39] favorite interview kyle bush ever gave and i wish i could do it every weekend and i know most of you [2:45] probably hated it but everything's great and he just kept saying it over and over and over again [2:52] that's kyle one of my favorite moments as well back in texas you know he would challenge nascar on some [2:59] rules um maybe spun out maybe hit the wall decided that we needed to take him to the care center laid [3:07] flat out on a pit cart made fun of us i was mad at the time but i looked back and that was damn funny [3:12] and that was kyle um always good to egg on the fans played that played that uh villain and and was a [3:22] winner and the iconic bow i think we're all gonna remember as well so his stats speak for themselves [3:28] right he's a two-time champion he's won more national series races than anyone in our history [3:34] and no doubt first ballot hall of famer for for sure but what few people saw um was what kyle also [3:43] did off the track because he didn't talk about it a lot and you know one of those examples i'd give to [3:49] all of you is uh everybody knows and and i hope he doesn't mind me sharing this but you know daniel suarez [3:55] comes over from mexico learning english learning how to race at the national series level struggling [4:02] received a call every week from kyle bush never talked about it just how do i make you better [4:07] how do i keep things going kyle bush started a truck series team that we all know was hugely successful [4:14] and that's wins on the racetrack but what people new to the sport don't know is if you go up and down [4:20] pit road on sunday you're going to see a lot of people that came through that what you're also going [4:24] to see is a lot of people behind the wheel on sunday who came through that he gave people a [4:28] chance he started the bundle of joy foundation with samantha because he knew how difficult it [4:34] was to start a family and he wanted to spread that message and yet had time to be a philanthropist [4:38] off the track i think we all saw right when he won last week at dover um the quote from victory lane [4:46] um it's tough to to watch right it's it's telling um but what i look back on is a text from kyle tuesday [4:53] as only kyle could do and i keep looking at it and he said hey man what do you think about an over 40 [5:00] rule to be able to compete in all the truck series races next year and i said you know [5:07] we put that rule in place because you're winning so much but when we looked about it and we had a [5:13] meeting wednesday internal and we said well damn that's actually good we need kyle in the truck series [5:18] and it was twofold because he knew he could help the series but i think one day had a dream to race [5:23] against his son in a national series event and that was kyle always thinking about the sport and going [5:29] forward so you know i want to recognize in a few folks we're obviously thinking about as an industry [5:35] and first and foremost everyone at richard childress racing judy and richard mike and ali verlander mike [5:43] you know i i don't know how he's dealing he he working with kyle through the truck series working [5:49] at rcr a great human being and our thoughts are certainly with them but all of the team back at [5:56] the shop those who are working on engineering the crew members excuse me who put those cars together [6:02] each and every week those guys lost a teammate and that's not lost on us that we're thinking about all [6:08] of them you know the sport and all of us um grew up and and watched kyle be a racer but we watched him [6:16] become a husband and a and a father the same way we watched him become a champion and we all did that [6:22] as a family we're all part of that kyle's parents kurt samantha's parents all thinking about you for [6:31] sure and samantha brexton and lennox are not just family of a nascar legend they are part of the nascar [6:41] family and they always will be because that's what family does and when i talked about the family reunion [6:48] part and i just i think personally about kyle bush and nascar and to me kyle bush just defines what [6:56] it means to be a racer in nascar everything about it the fire the greatness the heart that sometimes [7:03] you rarely saw the sport was truly lucky to have him and i believe i can speak for everybody in the [7:11] sport and i'll just say this for me personally the family reunions um week to week are just not going [7:19] to be the same without him but we're going to do our damn best to continue his legacy and support [7:24] his family so with that i'm happy to take any questions if you have one please raise your hand [7:30] and we'll get your mic we'll start here to jordan jordan bianchi the athletic you talked a lot about [7:39] things that you remember about kyle but what was the one personal moment or interaction that you had [7:44] with him that stands out you know i think throughout your career jordan yeah you have highs and lows right [7:53] and you you battle it out and you think i'm gonna win this one and you know get the one up but [7:58] he was always that same guy who you know didn't change and at the end of the day cared about the [8:04] sport and i learned throughout my career that people with passion and people who care about the sport are [8:11] the ones you need to listen to and he was always that guy at the end of the day he would always have an [8:18] opinion but it came from a place of somehow trying to improve the sport the race car the interaction [8:24] at the track um but i think probably just embracing the fans and and what happened at the racetrack he [8:31] leaned into it man and for drivers who are coming up in this system uh you gotta connect with race fans [8:38] kyle bush did that and that's the essence of of who we are in your opening remarks you said that kyle got [8:45] to live just about every chapter of his career that he could in nascar can you expand upon that and [8:50] what you meant i think uh i think what i meant jordan is um you know wednesday a lot of us were in the [8:59] hall of fame voting and you you think about the future and i think about kyle's future and the ability [9:07] for all of us to to sit in that room and celebrate him and listen to him speak and and talk about that [9:12] final chapter and see his kids maybe one day race and continue and it makes me really sad not to [9:20] not to see the end of that chapter matt weaver motorsport.com um he was a guy kyle that you guys [9:31] at times had to suspend had to fine he frequently bucked the system he was a rebel and i know that at [9:40] times that is not always comfortable for us or for you guys as a sanctioning body but in hindsight [9:46] having that that story written now how important is it for the sport to have characters like rowdy [9:53] kyle bush rowdy to be that kind of personality in nascar yeah matt think think about um how we [10:00] launched this season and i talked about maybe we lost our way a little bit and weren't as proud of [10:06] who we are and i think i said and sorry for kids but you know the sport's a badass sport kyle bush to me [10:14] is an american badass behind the wheel who you want to be um and and i think when you look back at all [10:22] those things that's part of being a race car driver that's part of representing this sport we're not [10:26] always going to agree if we did i think people would be really bored um and um you know we certainly had [10:33] our battles right but uh i'd give a lot of money to have a few more battles going forward dustin [10:48] dustin long usa sports um steve what are the plans of the tributes maybe we'll see from the drivers [10:57] whether individually or coordinated uh this weekend and what are things tribute wise that the fans [11:06] uh can or may be able to participate in whether sunday or throughout the weekend yeah so first and [11:14] foremost our responsibility is to make sure that uh kyle's family is okay with with what we may or may [11:20] not want to do and and then the folks at rcr so we have had some of those conversations um early this [11:27] morning and then as our industry does really well we got on the phone with all of our cup drivers [11:34] all the owners uh the racetrack our broadcast partners and threw out some ideas for them to react to [11:43] we got some great ideas from the drivers as well some will probably do some individual things which is [11:48] fantastic because you know they'll they all look up to kyle right so we have a number of items um that [11:56] are in the works that our fans will be able to look at celebrate kyle it won't just be this weekend [12:02] um you know he's gonna be part of our sport forever um but i think this industry um will do um will do [12:10] what's needed to honor his legacy uh throughout the weekend steve steve understanding what mike said [12:17] about the health um leading up to this is there anything at all that you can share in terms of of [12:24] what might have happened um and did you was he sick at before this this happened anything at all that [12:30] you can share you know we're 24 hours from getting a phone call um and i don't think it's out of respect [12:38] for the family and they've asked for privacy that i'm not going to address any of that steven behind you [12:47] let me just add on to that however you guys who have known me know that transparency is something that [12:53] we all believe in so in due time i think everyone will be comfortable with where things where things [12:58] stand steve in toronto nascar pole position steve generations ago drivers would come into a race [13:06] weekend and either lose one of their competitors on the racetrack or perhaps in an off-track accident [13:14] of some sort and thankfully this generation of drivers by and large has not had to experience that [13:21] how has nascar in speaking with the drivers made any kind of resources or help available to not only [13:30] help them cope with this but also allow them to put a race on on sunday yeah so tom bryant uh who works [13:40] for us has headed up um this initiative and and the good news for the industry is that this has been in [13:45] place for a while um you know we don't ever want to have to use it but we have the resources in place for [13:51] any member to be able to reach out have conversations set up whatever resources are necessary so that that [13:58] is in place um you never have to want to use that but we have any and all resources available to the [14:04] industry and i i feel like i already know what the answer this is and pardon me for asking this but was [14:12] there any consideration to either postponing or not running um can you just address that very quickly [14:20] no i think i think it's a fair question but you know when you look at what minimal conversations [14:26] did take place um between rcr ourselves family it was kyle bush would probably be pretty pissed off [14:35] if we didn't race um so we're going to honor his memory and make sure people know um what he was all [14:40] about thank you claire claire belang i totally understand you're not talking about the help today and [14:50] addressing it um it's such a shock to go from asking for a shot you know to being gone and i'm [14:57] wondering will nascar take a close look at at what happened not looking for answers right now but will [15:03] you do an investigation into helping drivers make sure they're taking care of themselves there is a care [15:08] center at each track uh will you take a very close look at how that could have happened so quickly [15:16] like i said earlier claire now is not the time to talk about that and i think you are [15:21] very familiar with the sport and know that we always do that and we'll continue to do that and [15:26] we'll do what's right by by kyle's family gotcha and then for the fans who are hurting right now [15:33] and as much as anyone in this room and in the industry what do you say to the fans it is nascar will [15:40] go on it always has uh but it is a great loss and what would you like to say straight to the fans [15:46] who are also grieving and you know you wish you could reach out to them but they're not in this [15:50] room today i would say to the fans that i'm one of them and i feel the exact same way that they [15:57] probably do i'm shocked sad wondering what you can do to to help out but i think the best thing that [16:07] i personally can do is talk to you all talk to people who maybe didn't know him about his legacy [16:13] making sure people don't forget making sure his kids knew that it wasn't just his their mom who [16:19] thought uh kyle was great there's a lot of people in this world that wish he was still with us and [16:24] we're going to make sure that uh they're in a good place go to jerry jerry jordan kicking the tires [16:33] on that you uh mentioned a while ago you're we're 24 hours away from the phone call um i think it all [16:41] hit us obviously hard the ones that are in this sport every week for sure what was your reaction [16:47] and your personal thoughts can you share those with uh with everyone you know i'm not gonna get [16:54] too much into the details jerry but um you know got a call about 9 a.m yesterday morning call you don't [17:04] expect that things weren't great um spent the rest of the day and the afternoon with the people i [17:11] thought i should be spending them with in the industry and just tried to be there for him go uh michael [17:18] michael massey front stretch um i know you guys just did the hall of fame voting and you mentioned [17:30] kyle's a first ballot hall of famer any chance and would there be any conversations or anything about [17:37] just adding him alongside the three that just got voted in you know i i don't know i i know that uh [17:45] you know we put that on the list of ideas that we want to look at um i think i said earlier there's [17:51] things we want to do this weekend and then we have a little bit more time to think about you know [17:56] what we could do as as well in the future and and who knows that that could be something we look at [18:00] all right we have uh time for one more and we'll wrap up with greg here hey steve first thanks for [18:07] thanks for doing this i know it's tough um and we appreciate you being here but speaking of tough [18:12] how tough is it i mean we never want this to happen but on a weekend like this when it's memorial day [18:18] and we're we're doing remembrances for for all the veterans who gave us the freedom to be here and to [18:23] be race car drivers and ceos and things how tough does that weigh on this entire process [18:31] oh it's a good question because um this weekend is always one you don't necessarily look forward [18:37] to for what happened right but you look forward to me personally how proud i am of the industry [18:43] of the partnership we have with the military what our industry does to come together to honor those [18:49] who've served uh either in the past or who are currently serving and so you know making sure [18:56] that uh we properly show the respect to kyle and and what he meant you know there's a lot of um his [19:04] values in terms of racing and what he stood for that match in with with what we want to honor this [19:10] weekend as well so i'm confident in the track and our team and the industry that they'll come together [19:16] and do both properly and and showcase the sport for what it is it's one that we believe everyone [19:24] in america should be proud of if they would spend some time thinking about who's in this sport who [19:30] our drivers are what they represent not necessarily just on the track but off the track they're people [19:36] you want to admire people you want to be around and we need to put the focus back on them and showcase [19:42] this great sport well thank you everyone a big media continued here today thank you for being here [19:49] thank you for honoring cause legacy and and providing the coverage to tell the tell his story and steve [19:55] thank you so much for your remarks and your time appreciate everyone have a great weekend