NASCAR only has a few legendary drivers. Most of them own jaw-dropping numbers of wins and other accolades. But what fans remember most are the iconic narratives behind the legends who clinched those victories. 2015 may have been a long time ago, and Kyle Busch may be separated from his last win by 76 races. But nobody can forget Rowdy’s earth-shattering story of ultimate resurgence ten years ago.

Kyle Busch is still the winningest active driver in the sport, owning 232 victories across all three national series. But out of those 232 victories, one particular win stays close to Rowdy fans’ hearts. That was because of the tremendous challenges that Busch had to overcome to fetch it.

Remembering Kyle Busch’s breathtaking redemption

2015 was not supposed to be Kyle Busch’s year. In February’s Xfinity Series opening race at Daytona, he rammed his car hard into a concrete wall with no SAFER barrier. The 90 MPH impact resulted in a compound fracture of the right leg and a mid-foot fracture of the left foot. Busch made his way to the hospital, and the diagnosis and multiple fractures prompted many veterans to suggest he take the entire year off. Yet Busch’s tenacity knew no bounds.

While preparing for his son Brexton’s birth, he continually worked with physical therapists and doctors to speed up the recovery and rehabilitation process. Busch missed 11 races in the NASCAR Sprint Cup season. But he returned soon, participating in the All-Star weekend in Charlotte in May. “I’ll be sore for a couple of days, just muscles that haven’t been woken up like this in a little while,” Kyle Busch said after finishing 6th from a 19th-place starting position. Clearly, the pain had not subsided.

His biggest test came during the long and tiresome Coca-Cola 600, where he finished 11th. After crashing in the next two races, however, Busch was booked for redemption at Sonoma Raceway. He used strategy and some well-timed caution flags and pitted with 11 laps to go. He restarted 7th, sliced through his competitors, and passed Jimmie Johnson for the lead with five laps left. Four months after his crippling injury, Busch won in Sonoma, a breathtaking memory to cherish ahead of the 2025 Sonoma race.

Kyle Busch also snapped a 46-race winless streak at the time, as his last victory came at Auto Club Speedway in 2014. What is more? He finished 0.232 seconds ahead of his brother Kurt at Sonoma’s finish line. The latter led for 46 laps, but Kurt Busch was too proud of Kyle to worry about his runner-up finish. He reflected on how Kyle won despite his injuries: “To have your leg broken, your foot shattered, to never (before) be injured… I don’t know what that feels like, but I do know that…rehab is very difficult, and it is a mental challenge. And I’m very proud of Kyle for what he’s done to get back in the car as soon as he did get back in the car, and then to be competitive at a track with hard, hard braking and to use his left foot to drive to victory lane.”

That victory was one to go down in NASCAR’s history books. That is even more so as it paved the way to Kyle Busch’s maiden climb to the top in 2015.

A jam-packed year indeed

Well, 2015 was jam-packed for Kyle Busch in various ways. It started with Busch in the hospital bed in February, and ended with him hoisting the highest honor in NASCAR. With the Sonoma trophy, Busch gained two positions in the standings to 37th, 136 points behind 30th-place Cole Whitt. There was a long journey ahead, but Busch was not afraid to tackle it.

Over the next 5 weeks, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver rattled off three consecutive wins. Those came at Kentucky Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In February, he was lying on the ground next to his heavily damaged car at Daytona. But five months later, Busch was kneeling on the IMS frontstretch to kiss the famous bricks. After a second-place finish in Watkins Glen, he locked himself into the 16-race playoffs.

Soon after came the shocker of the 2015 NASCAR season. All the veterans who thought 2015 was not Kyle Busch’s year were left stunned. He won the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, thus sealing the 2015 Sprint Cup title. The ecstasy was audible in his voice after he held off Kevin Harvick: “It’s pretty unbelievable. It’s a dream of a lifetime, a dream come true, it’s something that happens only every so often. I just can’t believe it with everything that happened this year, all the turmoil that I went through, my wife went through, my family went through, and people around me went through. This championship is for these guys, my wife, my family, and everyone who sacrificed to get me here.”

It must be obvious now why fans are still mesmerized by Kyle Busch despite his current winless streak. The legend carved out a place for himself in NASCAR’s history through his 2015 redemption story, something that would be near impossible to replicate in the modern era.