Ever since Kyle Busch died two weeks ago, there have been myriad amazing tributes to the NASCAR legend.
One of these is that a number of drivers have done Busch’s signature bow after winning a race. It started with Ross Chastain doing it after winning the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway and continued through last weekend at Nashville Superspeedway, which ended with Denny Hamlin taking a bow.
But the Rowdy bow hasn’t just been done by winners at the NASCAR national touring series level. Kyle Larson‘s daughter Audrey did it after winning her first dirt race last week. Connor Hall did the same after winning the zMAX CARS Tour race at Langley Speedway last weekend, as did the local winners there as well.
The Rowdy bow has swept the nation, as winners all over have done it following wins to pay their respects to Busch. It’s been wonderful to see, and it shows both what an iconic driver Busch was and what an iconic move his bow was. There’s only one other driver I can think of who had a win celebration that memorable that it was copied all over after their death: Alan Kulwicki and his Polish Victory Lap.
What’s interesting about the move Kulwicki made famous is that he only actually did a Polish Victory Lap twice, whereas we saw Busch take a bow over 200 times. The first time Kulwicki did it was after his first career NASCAR Cup Series win at Phoenix Raceway in 1988, and the second was after he won the Cup championship in 1992.
The move was seen much more often following Kulwicki’s passing on April 1, 1993. Michael Waltrip and Rusty Wallace both did it following wins at Bristol Motor Speedway the weekend Kulwicki died, and Wallace along with other drivers did it after wins for the rest of the 1993 season. To this day, winning drivers from Cup to the local levels can be seen doing Polish Victory Laps. But it’s not really done in tribute to Kulwicki anymore, is it?
Obviously, the drivers who did it in 1993 and for a time after that were doing so in honor of Kulwicki. But somewhere along the way, the Polish Victory Lap went from tribute to tradition. Now, it’s just something drivers do without putting much thought into it, like they would for burnouts and grabbing the checkered flag from the flag stand. You can’t tell me a 12-year-old winning a Legend car race who does a Polish Victory Lap after is doing so as a tribute to Kulwicki; they weren’t even alive when he raced.
Could Busch’s bow end up like that?
For the time being, drivers are doing the bow as a tribute to the two-time Cup champion. Busch had that kind of impact to where drivers at every level and discipline across the nation respect him and want to do the bow to honor him, and I imagine that will continue to be the case for the rest of this season and possibly beyond.
But will the bow be something that drivers continue doing for decades to come? If so, at what point does it stop being a tribute to Busch and transition into being a customary thing that winners do while celebrating?
No disrespect to Kulwicki, but I could see the bow being a tribute to Busch for longer than the Polish Victory Lap was to Kulwicki just because of how well known Busch was even outside of the NASCAR bubble. But even still, as years pass and memories fade, there will probably hit a time at some point over the next 30, 40, 50 years where drivers take a bow after winning without knowing the origins of the move.
That’s just part of the cycle of life. Instead of being depressed by that thought, instead appreciate that Kulwicki and possibly Busch had celebrations so iconic that they outlived them and their own name recognition. That’s a pretty cool legacy to leave behind.
Michael Massie joined Frontstretch in 2017 and has served as the Content Director since 2020.
Massie, a Richmond, Va., native, has covered NASCAR, IndyCar, SRX and the CARS Tour. Outside of motorsports, the Virginia Tech grad and Green Bay Packers minority owner can be seen cheering on his beloved Hokies and Packers.
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