Kyle Busch has no regrets after guitar-smashing incident at Nashville
Joe Gibbs Racing's Kyle Busch is ninth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings heading into Sunday's LifeLock 400 at Michigan International Speedway.
// David Griffin, NASCAR Scene
BROOKLYN, Mich. – Kyle Busch continued to stir the pot on Friday, saying he didn’t regret smashing the trophy guitar after winning the Nationwide Series race at Nashville last weekend and added a shot at Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s fans.
“A lot of people enjoyed it,” Busch said of the reaction to the incident. “A lot of people hated it. I guess those are the ones with 88s tattooed on their arms, or maybe still 8s [Earnhardt Jr.’s current and former car numbers].
“I got no issues with Junior; it’s his fans that are crazy.”
Busch, speaking at Michigan International Speedway, said he never thought the guitar smash “would get that much attention” and added “it certainly drew the ire of the fans.”
He also seemed to take a jab at guitar artist Sam Bass, who smiled for pictures with Busch in victory lane but later said publicly that he was shocked and heartbroken over his broken artwork.
“I said I was going to buy two guitars after the race, but I didn’t know it was going to be in the spirit of both of Sam Bass’s personalities,” Busch said.
Busch said all the uproar about the incident “made me think about it, but in the end, I’m kind of like, no, I don’t regret it. It was fun, and while I was doing it was fun.”
Of all the feedback he received to his face, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver said only one comment was anything but positive. He said a fan in Berlin, Mich., told him not to break any more guitars.
“Everybody else out there, 99.9 percent of them were for it,” Busch said. “They thought it was great. … [Team President] J.D. Gibbs told me he thought it was cool, and his kids were blown away by it. They thought it was awesome.”
Busch said he’d heard comments comparing his guitar smash to breaking the Daytona 500 trophy and Martinsville grandfather clock, but he dismissed that talk and said the guitar’s rock-and-roll connection was unique.
But asked again about all the attention he gets every week for his various comments or antics, Busch smiled.
“Sounds to me like most popular driver award goes to Kyle Busch this year,” he joked.
