"He was learning to walk again" - When Samantha Busch silenced the doubters of Kyle Busch’s championship

Samantha Busch once detailed the struggle her husband Kyle Busch went through while battling the Cup Series championship in the 2015 NASCAR season. He suffered a major crash at the start of the year that put him out of racing. The severity of the crash had put him in a very difficult position, which made the simplest tasks complicated for him.

During the season-opening Xfinity Series race in 2015, Busch suffered a major head-on impact with the wall in a multi-car crash. Shortly after, he was seen lying outside with the medical staff around him. The heavy impact from the crash had left him with a broken leg. He remained out of racing for a large part of the season, recovering.

Despite winning the championship later that year, there were many criticisms surrounding him. Some felt that he did not deserve the title because of missing out a huge chunk of the season. However, his wife, Samantha Busch revealed how he painfully made his recovery to get behind the wheel once again. Samantha said via USA Today,

"When people say he doesn’t deserve this, I’m sorry – he kicked butt and he had 11 less races to do it. That’s why I get so frustrated. This wasn’t a vacation for us. He wasn’t sitting there just like, ‘Oh, I’m going to stay at home and have a margarita on the beach.’"

Samantha Busch further revealed that Kyle Busch had to learn to walk again because of the severity of his injury.

"He was learning to walk again. He worked his butt off. His physical therapist would leave and he’d be like, ‘Ok, get my (stretching) bands, we’re going to do more. I gotta get back early."

Kyle Busch returned to racing at Charlotte that year, round 12 that season. He later won at Sonoma and then was at Daytona once again, finishing 17th. Following that race, he won the next three rounds. He remained incredibly consistent and won at Homestead-Miami to mark his first Cup Series championship.

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Kyle Busch speculated that his racing career was over after the injury

Understandably, Kyle Busch was in a tough spot after the crash. During a phase of his recovery, the Las Vegas native estimated that his racing career was perhaps over because of the bad shape his body was in. In April 2015, Kyle Busch said via USA Today,

"I'm thinking to myself, 'Man, I'm done. There's no way I'm going to be able to come back from this. This hurts."

This crash, as mentioned, happened in the Xfinity Series. He missed the Daytona 500 and the following 10 rounds of the championship that year and still managed to win with multiple race wins.

More impressively, he next participated in Xfinity at Michigan. This was his first race in the series since the crash, and clinched the win, showcasing a strong recovery. Kyle Busch kept racing and won his second Cup Series championship in the 2019 season. He currently competes for Richard Childress Racing in the 2025 season.