Kyle Busch’s Heart Dropped When He Heard About Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Airplane Crash

Kyle Busch’s Heart Dropped When He Heard About Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Airplane Crash

by August 16, 2019 0 comments

BRISTOL, Tenn. – When Kyle Busch heard that Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s airplane had crashed on Thursday at Elizabethton Municipal Airport in Tennessee, his heart, along with the rest of the world’s absolutely dropped.

Earnhardt, his wife Amy, daughter Isla, dog Gus and two pilots, climbed from the fiery crash after his Cessna Citation Latitude slid off the runway and nearly reached the nearby highway. The scene was horrific, but thankfully, no one on the airplane suffered any serious injuries. Busch, who has competed against Earnhardt for most of his career said that his heart dropped after his own pilot told him about the crash. The first thing Busch wanted to know was if there were any survivors.

“It’s scary any time you hear about those things or see those things,” Busch said. “Certainly when I heard about it – my pilot actually called me and was like hey, have you heard this or seen this yet and I was like no, and he explained to me what all happened. As soon as he said (Dale Earnhardt) Jr.’s plane went down, my heart just dropped. My first thing was like well, are there any survivors because you don’t know any of the details originally and then a lot more of the details start coming out and you start hearing things, but it’s a scary situation.”

The 2015 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion actually travels in the same model airplane that Earnhardt does each week. Without knowing any additional details other than what has been reported, Busch spoke very highly about the airplane model.

“With as much as we do travel and things like that – I know Jr. has had his pilots for a long, long time. I don’t know any of the details past what you guys all know because I haven’t spoken to anybody,” Busch said. “It’s just everybody has procedures and protocols and things like that. I feel like Cessna and Textron Aviation – those guys do an amazing job. They actually help me manage my aircraft. I have the exact same plane Dale Jr. has, a Citation Latitude, and it’s been a fantastic aircraft to get me from Point A to Point B and it’s always been there for us and it’s done a phenomenal job, so I’m not sure the details as to what happened if it was whose error or whose accident it was, I don’t know.”

With Busch and his wife Samantha traveling separately on some weekends, he knows that anything is possible, just as if they were to drive to the racetrack separately. However, when an airplane crashes, it can certainly become a tragedy very quickly.

“There’s a lot of airplane flights that happen throughout the days, throughout the years and everything else and there’s a few that have issues and for as many flights that are successful, it’s certainly a tragedy when there’s flights that aren’t a success,” Busch said. “I’m glad that everybody was okay.”

Busch will start Saturday night’s Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway in the 31st position. Although the Las Vegas native didn’t qualify well, he has found a tremendous amount of success at the track, earning eight wins, 11 top-five and 16 top-10 finishes in 28 starts.

The Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race will broadcast live on the NBC Sports Network (NBCSN) and the Performance Racing Network (PRN) at 7:30 p.m. ET.

Photo Credit: Hunter Thomas/TheFourthTurn.com

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