Always rowdy.
NASCAR is in Nashville tonight for the Cracker Barrel 400, and of course the loss of Kyle Busch last week is still weighing heavy on everyone’s minds.
Nashville is a track where Busch had success during his legendary career (although there aren’t many tracks where he didn’t have success), including two wins in Music City while racing in what’s now known as the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.
His first win in Nashville came during an O’Reilly race way back in 2009. And as is tradition at Nashville Superspeedway, the winner was presented with a custom hand-painted Gibson Les Paul Guitar.
The guitar was designed by legendary artist Sam Bass, who was NASCAR’s first officially-licensed artist and designed paint schemes, race program covers, and painted numerous NASCAR paintings over the course of his career. The trophy was truly a one-of-a-kind work of art – which is why many were horrified when Busch went full rock ‘n roll during his victory lane celebration and promptly smashed the guitar on the ground, shattering it into tiny pieces.
Busch said that he wanted to break the guitar so that he could give a piece to all of his team members, but at the time many called the celebration disrespectful to smash a piece of art like that.
The track announcer, Joe Williams, refused to interview Busch after his celebration. Sam Bass even expressed his disappointment at seeing his work destroyed like that. And the next week, Busch was defiant when asked about the rockstar move:
“I never thought it would get that much attention, but certainly drew the ire of the fans. You know, it is what it is. I thought it was a neat idea to share the guitar with the whole team and in the spirit of rock and roll, smash it up, bang it up, whatever. A lot of people enjoyed it, thought it was different, sport’s not so vanilla. A lot of people hated it. I guess those are the ones with 88s tattooed on their arms. Or maybe still 8s, I don’t know which.”
Classic Kyle.
Well Busch never publicly apologized for the incident, but he did attempt to make amends with those who were upset. Following the race, he ordered and paid for two replica guitars from Bass, one for himself and one for his crew chief. And he also donated 162 guitars to Metro Nashville Public Schools.
And in 2021, Busch scored his second O’Reilly Series win in Nashville – his 100th career O’Reilly Series win – and was given another guitar. Naturally, all eyes were on the celebration to see whether he would once again smash the trophy to smithereens. But Busch had matured by then, and while he teased the crowd by raising the guitar over his head like he was going to smash another one, he then shook his head and smiled while keeping the guitar safe in his arms.
What a fake out.
With NASCAR back in Nashville this weekend, there have been some fans who are hoping to see the winners smash their guitar trophies as a tribute to Kyle. So far nobody’s done it, but I guess we’ll see tonight whether the winner decides to pull the Busch smash.
