Balanced life has Kurt Busch feeling more successful, patient than ever
HAMPTON, Ga. -- Kurt Busch has finally found that all-important balance between life on and off the track.
He now has that missing piece in his personal life to a puzzle was completed after hoisting the Harley J. Earl trophy in Victory Lane following last Sunday’s Daytona 500.
That missing piece? His new bride, Ashley.
Luckily for Busch, it’s Ashley’s competitive background playing polo that has refueled his fire for success.
“It’s amazing,” Busch said. “Since the first day that we met there’s been this instant chemistry and a lot of it has to do with her sports background and being an athlete and jumping out onto the polo field to compete.”
“She’s knows what it takes -- the time, commitment, effort, to be with teammates and to do your homework, do research, watch video,” he added. “To put that full commitment into things has been seamless.”
The 2004 Cup Series champion admitted that he knows he can be pessimistic on occasion, but Ashley has been there to help him kick that habit.
“What’s been tough for me has been -- I got to tell a story about my mom a little earlier -- she just wants her boys to come home safe and it was great to celebrate a win at Daytona,” Busch shared. “My mom is already a little bit apprehensive about Talladega because it’s coming up. She doesn’t like those races. She just feels nervous about them. And that’s the pessimistic side of me that I have and I’m trying to grow away from. Where Ashley says, ‘Be positive. Think good thoughts. Know that you have everything in place to win.’”
Ashley is now the positive light in Busch’s life that he needed in order continue a successful Cup career.
“The power of positivity through Ashley has been incredible,” Busch said. “Her calmness and ability at such a young age to influence me is like a special team member that I never new that I was missing and she’s helped me grow and become stronger on the race track. To have the home life and the time at the track and the celebrations and the fun things that we do, I couldn’t find a better partner in life.”
Busch has been through his share of turbulence throughout his career, but it appears he’s become stronger as a driver and a person because of it.
So with everything going flawlessly both personally and professionally at the moment, what would the 38-year-old Kurt Busch tell the 28-year-old Kurt Busch?
“I think patience is the biggest thing that I would preach,” Busch said. “Putting together a game plan that is a bit more long-term instead of week-to-week or month-to-month, that would be something that I would tell my younger self. It was tough.”
“Slow down and to not push so hard and to not put so much emphasis on one race weekend,” Busch added. “I was such a perfectionist early on in my life, it helped get me to this point. But it also took away some abilities to absorb what was going on around me and to help myself enjoy those moments.”
Calling himself an “outsider,” the Las Vegas native felt the pressure to fit in the NASCAR world, which didn’t allow Busch to live in the moment in his earlier years.
“Moving to the Southeast and trying to fit into the ‘Good ol’ boy southern world’, I was just hell-bent to try and stay (here),” Busch said. “And yet, if I could have told myself, ‘You’ve made it this far, things are going to work out okay, just calm down a little bit. Settle in, this is the final destination of motorsports.’ That is something that I didn’t do early on in my career.”
Surviving the ups-and-downs of a sometimes turbulent career, Busch is a married man, a NASCAR champion and now a Daytona 500 winner. Life is good.
