Kyle Busch called ‘Michael Jordan of NASCAR’ by – Sports News
Kyle Busch tragically handed away on the age of 41 final Thursday (Image: Getty)
Daniel Suarez fondly described Kyle Busch as “the Michael Jordan of NASCAR” after winning the Coca-Cola 600 in honor of his late mentor.
On Sunday, Suarez struggled to battle back tears upon rising victorious within the rain-shortened NASCAR Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The 34-year-old promptly celebrated his win by pointing towards the sky in a touching tribute to Busch, who died at the age of 41 from pneumonia that had advanced to sepsis.
Speaking to PEOPLE on Tuesday, Suarez conceded that the times following Busch’s premature passing have been “very troublesome for your complete industry,” including himself. “Just a week in the past I used to be hanging out with Kyle and he appeared completely fantastic, and proper now he is not right here with us anymore,” he mentioned. “It’s very surreal how things were happening.”
“Obviously, he was very loved and very respected by the entire NASCAR community. And a lot of people didn’t know this about Kyle, but he was just such a good person and somebody that really loved to help.”
Busch achieved no scarcity of success over his embellished 22-year profession, amassing 63 Cup Series wins, 102 Xfinity Series victories, and 69 Truck Series wins en path to turning into the winningest driver in NASCAR historical past.
Daniel Suarez credited Kyle Busch with mentoring him during the early phases of his NASCAR profession (Image: Getty)
Given Busch’s unimaginable run behind the wheel, Suarez likened the two-time Cup Series champion to 1 of the all-time greats in a completely different sport. “[He’s] the Michael Jordan of NASCAR,” Suarez said of Busch.
“His legacy is going to live forever. He’s broken so many records in the sport, extremely talented driver, very outspoken on the things he believes in and he was always himself. That’s the beautiful about human beings, right, that we all are different, and he never changed. He was always himself.”
Suarez got a front-row seat to Busch’s heroics while serving as his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series — formerly known as the Xfinity Series — from 2015-2016. The Mexican driver asserted he was “very, very blessed” to have raced alongside the NASCAR icon, adding that he “built a great friendship with him throughout the years.
“He didn’t really have to help me, and he gave me a hand when I needed it the most,” Suarez said. “To have a legend like Kyle give me advice pretty much on a weekly basis for an entire year was extremely helpful, and I realized what kind of person he was.”
Recalling the first time he crossed paths with Busch back in 2014, Suarez said: “I was a little bit nervous, right, because Kyle was like a superhero to me. … He was just an amazing person outside the racetrack and on the racetrack, he was a great competitor, obviously. I mean, he’s a legend of the sport.”
Though Suarez admitted that he raced with a “heavy heart” during Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600, the Spire Motorsports star insisted that it was nonetheless “an honor to have the ability to win the race for Kyle this weekend.”
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