Tony Stewart Slams Kyle Busch Reaction Ahead of NHRA Race — Nascar News
Tony Stewart blasted the reaction to Kyle Busch’s death ahead of this weekend’s NHRA race, saying people waited too long to care about who Busch was away from the TV lens. His comments landed nearly a month after Busch died and as NASCAR fans gathered at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the first race since the loss.
“I guess the biggest thing in this tragedy that’s happened that pisses me off the most is that now everybody wants to talk about how he was as a person.” Stewart said people had judged Busch by what they saw on TV, then turned around after his death to talk about him differently.
Stewart’s anger over Busch
“Outside of that, all they wanted to do is judge what they saw on TV.” He added, “That’s the way every one of us are judged by what they see on TV and then once you die, they want to talk about how good a person you were.” The criticism was blunt and personal, aimed at people he felt waited until Busch was gone to offer a fuller view of him.
“Should’ve given him a chance to learn him as a person before they judged him in the first place.” Stewart said he knew how Busch was, and he drew a line between that knowledge and the public reaction that followed the death.
Charlotte Motor Speedway response
At Charlotte Motor Speedway, fans gathered for the first race since Busch’s death, while tributes, warnings, flashbacks, memories, stories, highlights, and comments from Samantha and Brexton had already started to build around the loss. Stewart’s remarks pushed the focus back onto the way Busch had been viewed while he was alive.
“So, right now, I don’t care about educating everybody about how Kyle Busch was.” He went further: “The fact that they all want to learn now, they’re the a--holes for not taking the time to learn him and accept him for who he was back then.”
Aug. 16, 2015 memory
The history between the two men stretches back to Aug. 16, 2015, when Stewart and Busch stood together before the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan. Stewart was identified in a photo caption as the driver of the No. 20 The Home Depot Toyota, and Busch as the driver of the No. 18 M&M's Toyota.
The public reaction now runs through that old image and the new grief around Busch’s death. Stewart’s outburst made the divide plain: he wanted Busch understood as a person when he was alive, not turned into one after the fact.
