Prior to the official NASCAR Hall of Fame Induction for the Class of 2026 on Friday, January 23 in Charlotte, Kyle Petty held a Fireside Chat connected to each new member. This year’s inductees are drivers Kurt Busch, Harry Gant and Ray Hendrick who each represented different eras of the sport’s history.
The first chat featured Busch, his dad, Tom, and Mitch Covington of Monster Energy, Busch’s long-time sponsor. As expected, Busch’s younger brother Kyle became part of the conversation with dad providing some interesting insight about his racing sons.
Go-Karts are Tools, not Toys
Kurt Busch, a native of Las Vegas, NV, started out racing a go-kart with a weed whacker motor his dad, Tom, put together. To say it lacked a lot of horsepower would be an understatement.
“When we put that go-kart together, we raced in the cull da sac where we lived,” Tom shared, who was also a driver himself. “It was a road course, figure eight and oval track all in one. The thing I wanted to stress the most is that the go-kart was a tool, not a toy.
“If you wanted to race it, you had to work on it.”
When asked if he had a problem when the brothers raced each other hard during their careers, Tom quipped. “Well, they never cost each other any points.”
To which Kurt responded with a laugh, “See, he glazes right over the All-Star Race because there weren’t any points involved.”
Kurt was referring to the notable 2007 non-points race when he and Kyle got crashed each other out of the race. This resulted in the two not speaking to each other for over a year. It took a while, but Kurt finally came clean about the incident and the two mended fences.
Go-Kart Battle and Career Rise
Kyle is eight years younger than his older brother and is also known as a hard-nosed driver. A two-time NASCAR Cup Series Champion himself with 63 wins, he realizes the significance of his big brother’s accomplishments.
“It’s huge because it culminates the accomplishments of his career,” Kyle said on the pre-induction red carpet. “Then making it from Las Vegas, coming up through the ranks and making it to the Truck Series for a year showing what the Busch family is all about. His passion for how to drive really come to life when he got to the Cup Series.
“His NCS Championship (2004) and Daytona 500 win (2017) will all resonate in the Hall of Fame. My favorite stories are us running the go-karts against each other, which we only did one time. We grew up having only one kart to share so we didn’t have to race against each other.
“We saw another one at swap meet, bought it and worked on it. We only raced each other on time, because…”
Kurt interrupted him to say…”I’m 12, and he’s six. He’s six years younger, not many people realize that. So think about this happening.
Kyle picked up the story…”We’re out there running and dad gives us the one to go signal. Kurt had a little bit of a lead on me and we’re going into Turn 3. So, I put my nose in there to pass him and get up on his tire, into the back of his engine and knock the carburetor clear off.
“So, I go around his inside and made it back to finish line to win the race and he got a DNF.”
Working is What Busch Did to Win
That mentality Tom created carried over to Dwarf Cars, Late Models and such during Busch’s beginning days. Those early days led to Busch becoming a 1999 NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour Champion using four different engine suppliers.
After a Rookie of the Year honors in Trucks, Busch jumped right to Cup and set the world on fire. In addition to his NCS accomplishments of 34 wins, he was also the 2003 IROC Champion and 2014 Indianapolis 500 Rookie of Year.
And to think, it all started on a cull da sac with a weed whacker motor he rode to Hall of Fame honors.
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