How would you feel if you practiced for a competition for a long time and at the time of showdown, you were not allowed to participate? Well, this is something Kyle Busch experienced when he was starting in the racing scene.

On a recent episode of “The Residency Podcast,” the host asked Kyle about the time when he was kicked out of a race for being 16.

Future Cup Series Champion Kyle Busch was not allowed to enter a Truck Series race

On the podcast, the host asked, “you were 16, went into NASCAR, and because of the sponsored race by Marlboro they kicked you out of the race and they have changed the rule now that you have to be 18?”

To this, Busch sadly replied, “when I was 16, I got to race six Truck Series races and then we go to California Speedway for the final race of the year. They’re like you got the job for the next year. So I’m like this is great whatever.” 

Kyle was not allowed to race because the sponsor was a tobacco company and he wasn’t 18 then. And no one under the age of 18 could engage in tobacco advertising. Busch looked back on the moment and recalled that he was ready to race, but had to compromise.

He revealed, “We were gonna stomp their butt that weekend. The State Attorney General read a newspaper article that said ‘Kyle Busch 16 year old set to make debut at California Speedway on Marlboro 500 weekend’. Well Marlboro was the sponsor of the IndyCar race at the time, not the NASCAR race that was there, but it was still Marlboro 500 weekend and the advertising of that weekend.”

“State Attorney General was like ‘yeah no no’. I got kicked out!”

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The now #8 driver, who didn’t know this age was the issue, had never met the State Attorney General. So when he was called into the NASCAR Hauler, he thought he was in trouble for going too fast.

Kyle Busch thought he was in trouble because of the France Family

Busch further explained his thought process on the podcast of the time when he was called to the truck. He said, “You’ve kinda heard those stories over the years of the France family. They’re like “hey don’t ruin my show.”

For those who don’t know, NASCAR was founded by Bill France Sr. and to this day it is the France family that owns and runs NASCAR. And Busch thought it was because of them that he couldn’t participate in the race.

However, he eventually got to know and went on to reveal, “I got booted. They said ‘yeah you’re done. We’ll see you when you turn 18. Bye-bye’.”

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