Kyle Busch Admits Life-Altering Daytona Wreck had him Questioning “Am I Alive? Am I Awake?”

Kyle Busch is undoubtedly one of Joe Gibbs Racing’s most successful drivers. However, he had not been in championship contention very often. In addition to that, he had often been very aggressive. However, something happened midway through his career and it changed him for the better.

Back in 2015, the then Joe Gibbs Racing driver endured a very hard accident at the Daytona International Speedway. As it turned out, he spun off the track at a fairly high speed and crashed hard into a concrete wall. What made things worse was the fact that he was going at 176 mph at the time of the impact, and it was a head-on hit.

He said afterward, “As I’m sliding toward the inside wall, I’m like: ‘Holy shit, this is fast. I’m like: ‘You’re gonna have to get off the brake pedal so you don’t break your foot.’ So I picked a spot. I was like: ‘Okay, as soon as I hit the grass, I’ve gotta yank my legs back. I can remember every waking detail.”

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What else did Kyle Busch say about his accident in 2015?

The 2.5-mile oval is well-known for pack racing and large wrecks. The trick to conquering it is to draft with the other cars, and Busch was surrounded by Brad Keselowski, Ryan Reed, and Erik Jones. Apparently, a hole opened up in the middle and just past the start-finish line. So, he slipped behind Jones’ rear bumper and began to push, which was a little too early, and resulted in Jones getting loose. The driver spun and Busch tried to avoid him, but Jones overcorrected.

Busch continued, “I was behind my teammate Erik Jones. We were on the inside lane, but we weren’t really going anywhere. I felt stuck, so I was waiting for a hole to open. We were coming into the tri-oval, and I was like: ‘Okay, I see the hole. In that moment, you’re like: ‘Okay, am I breathing? Am I alive? Am I awake?’. Those are the questions you’re asking yourself—you know if you’re there.”

As he spun, Busch ran several scenarios in his head and tried to execute them. Unfortunately, the car was unresponsive, and Busch was simply a passenger. When the car went nose-first into the wall, it clocked 90 mph and the impact broke both his legs. The fact that the car caught fire, was yet another complication. What followed next was a long period of recovery, missing half the season. Despite that, he still managed to win the Cup title that year, amazingly.

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