In the moments after winning the NASCAR Cup race at Nashville last weekend, Denny Hamlin climbed from his car and paid tribute to his former teammate, Kyle Busch, in the most Kyle Busch way.
Busch, a two-time series champion was 41 when he died May 21 after severe pneumonia progressed into sepsis that caused a series of medical complications. He left a legacy in his 22 full Cup seasons as one of the sport’s greatest racers.
“We’ve lost our Kobe Bryant,” Hamlin shared on Instagram that day. “Today we mourn. Forever we remember.”
Busch won 63 Cup races, but he totaled 234 victories across NASCAR’s three national series, with 102 wins and a championship in the Auto Parts Series and 69 Craftsman Truck series wins. He won Cup series titles in 2015 and 2019. A private memorial was held Tuesday for Busch in Charlotte, North Carolina, and a public celebration is being planned. There have been numerous tributes to Busch from his fellow drivers, including a special car decal, a moment of silence before races and the “Rowdy Bow” after wins.
Hamlin put that on display after the Nashville win and did what had been Busch’s signature move after his wins — he folded his right arm across his chest and bowed toward the fans. It is known as the “Rowdy Bow” which plays off Busch’s nickname. That was Hamlin’s 62nd career victory, one win from tying Busch, who was his teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing from 2008-2022.
The Cup series heads to Michigan International Speedway for Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400, the third points race since Busch’s death. Hamlin is the defending champion at MIS, a track where he has three career wins and 20 top-10 finishes. Busch made 37 Cup starts at Michigan, won the Pure Michigan 400 in August 2011 and had 14 top-10 finishes.
“I thought about it and certainly aspired to eventually get there,” Hamlin, 45, said after the Nashville race about his career win total nearly Busch’s total. “I knew my career was going to end before (Busch’s) career was going to end, and we didn’t know what was going to happen, but I had kind of resigned to the fact that I thought we weren’t going to overtake Kyle, and we still might not. We don’t know if this is the last one. We don’t know.
“It just shows how good he was for so long. I saw the stats online where we ran together 500-and-some races, and he finished ahead of me 10 more times than I beat him in the same equipment. He certainly taught me a lot. You see so many tributes and people have stories that you just didn’t know. I didn’t realize just a few months ago he had a Q&A, and he was asked who has he learned the most from teammate-wise, and he said me. That made me feel good. It was an honor to be his teammate for 15 years. He raised my game. Without him as teammate, there’s no way I win the races I win, especially the ones like (Nasvhille).”
Hamlin enters the Michigan race second in points standings trailing Tyler Reddick by 97 points. Through 14 races, Hamlin leads the series with 756 laps led and is second in top-five finishes and second in top-10 finishes.
This is a speedway he has had great success having won the June races at MIS in 2010 and 2011 and then last year. Hamlin also has won a pole at Michigan and has the 20 top-10 finishes that include 13 top-five finishes. Since August 2019, Hamlin has had eight straight top-10 finishes at MIS.
“It’s high speed and turns left, those are the two things we are typically good at,” Hamlin said when asked why he’s had so much success at MIS. “And Michigan has always been a momentum-based racetrack and I feel like that doesn’t relate in a sense of speed, but like the short tracks, the late models I used to run are very momentum based. So I’ve always just been good at keeping high momentum speed up. It’s kind of a hybrid drafting track as well. All of those skills that you have to have just kind of come together and I’ve always been in really fast cars as well. That helps.”
FireKeepers Casino 400
When: 3 p.m. Sunday
Where: Michigan International Speedway, Brooklyn
TV: Amazon Prime
Defending champion: Denny Hamlin
Tickets: Fans can purchase tickets online at mispeedway.com.
achengelis@detroitnews.com
@chengelis
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Denny Hamlin credits Kyle Busch for success, which includes MIS mastery
Reporting by Angelique S. Chengelis, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Angelique S. Chengelis, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
