Samantha Busch opens up about IVF, motherhood and Kyle’s desire to win Daytona 500

If Kyle Busch is NASCAR’s “villain,” his wife, Samantha, should be called the sport’s sweetheart.

The racing couple has been married for 10 years in which Samantha has never failed to crack a smile or open up to fans, even amid a devastating miscarriage last November. While Kyle has been busy winning two Cup championships, Samantha has embarked on her own business ventures and remained active in her husband’s projects, such as the launch of the Rowdy Energy Drink Company this offseason.

She is also authoring a book on her struggle with infertility and starring on CMT’s reality show “Racing Wives.” The day before her husband attempted to capture his first Daytona 500 victory, Samantha spoke with the Observer about life on the road, opening up to her female fan base and parenting a racing-prone 4-year-old, Brexton.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Alex Andrejev: First thing’s first, since I saw the post on Instagram, how did you and Kyle celebrate Valentine’s Day?

Samantha Busch: That’s funny. We’re always super busy, so we actually celebrated Valentine’s Day on February 12th. We went out to dinner. There’s this little restaurant here called The Cellar. It’s really cool. It’s an old house and you walk down to the basement and it’s amazing, so we tend to go there almost every year.

AJ: I can imagine life’s busy, especially this offseason. What has your schedule looked like?

SB: We are usually busy, but this offseason was even busier. On top of him winning, there were obligations that came with that, like appearances and starting an energy drink company, meeting for partnerships, like with Walmart Family Mobile. But it’s exciting to come back and be the defending champion.

AJ: And how does Kyle feel about this weekend?

SB: He’s never won Daytona. This is the one big race he has left to check off on his résumé he says. We’ll see what happens. You never know what happens here. You can have the best car, the best driver, but you get in a wreck, and it is what it is.

AJ: Is Brexton here with you to watch the race?

SB: He is. Him and Kyle are back in the bus right now. It’s been an early morning. They are not early morning people.

AJ: Do you see either of them much when you’re on the road?

SB: We travel full-time with Kyle. I go to all the races. Brexton goes to all of them except like four or five. We joke that we get more downtime on the road than we do at home just because there’s always laundry, or grocery shopping or something that needs to be done. Here we just kind of have our family time.

AJ: How involved are you with Rowdy Energy?

SB: Very involved. I was actually there setting up our stand today. Kyle and I got to create the flavors. Cherry Limeade was his go-to flavor. That’s what he loved as a kid and Strawberry Lemonade was what I loved as a kid, so mine is the pink one with the zero sugar. We each got to see it come to life.

AJ: What other projects are you working on?

SB: I just re-branded my store and went into business with one of my really good friends, so we relaunched our boutique. I run our foundation, which is doing amazing. We pay for couples in the Charlotte-area through the REACH Clinic to afford IVF. What most people don’t know is it’s usually over $20,000 and insurance doesn’t cover (infertility treatment), so to date, we have 25 babies born. We have five more women that are pregnant currently. And I’m writing a book on infertility, which will be published in the spring of next year.

AJ: You’re writing a book? What’s that been like?

SB: It’s kind of therapeutic. I’ve documented it and talked about it so much, but to go through the whole thing in great detail, I’m hoping that it helps bring awareness to the subject and will help women not feel so alone.

AJ: Were you documenting that struggle with infertility as it was happening?

SB: I didn’t really know how to process or handle it seven or eight years ago. It wasn’t as talked about as it is today, so I journaled a lot. It’s really interesting to go back and read what I wrote and put that into the book. I’m hoping that by being so raw and so honest, it’ll really be a good tool for women to see that these feelings are normal. But you can get past feeling embarrassed and here are the questions to ask. Kyle and I are trying for our second child now.

AJ: So could Brexton have a younger brother or sister soon?

SB: Hopefully.

AJ: You were in the show “Racing Wives.” How was that experience?

SB: We’re pretty used to the cameras at this point, but it was really fun and cool to be able to do it with my sister-in-law (Ashley Busch). Brexton also loved it. He made friends with all the guys in the camera crew.

AJ: Was there anything that surprised you about the experience?

SB: The one thing had to do with Kyle’s wreck here in 2015. We’ve always been very open and honest with Brexton about the crash and the fact that Daddy was in a bad accident and had to go to the hospital and use a wheelchair. But Brexton loved the show and we’d let him stay up late to watch “Racing Wives.” There was a clip of the accident in one of the episodes and that was the first time he really saw it. He started asking a lot of questions about it, so we kind of had to go through that with him.

AJ: Did it scare him? Does he want to race?

SB: Oh, yeah, he wants to race. He’s already talking about getting a green-and-orange car.

AJ: Why green and orange?

SB: Don’t know. Those are just his favorite colors. We’ll support him.

This story was originally published February 16, 2020 at 3:00 AM with the headline "Samantha Busch opens up about IVF, motherhood and Kyle’s desire to win Daytona 500."

Alexandra Andrejev

The Charlotte Observer

NASCAR and Charlotte FC beat reporter Alex Andrejev joined The Observer in January 2020 following an internship at The Washington Post. She is a two-time APSE award winner for her NASCAR beat coverage and National Motorsports Press Association award winner. She is the host of McClatchy’s podcast “Payback” about women’s soccer. Support my work with a digital subscription