It was immediately an iconic moment for the Camping World SRX Series.
Joey Logano, calling the race as a color analyst from the ESPN broadcast booth, keyed-up Kyle Busch on Lap 39 of the 100-lap feature at Berlin Raceway as he was actively battling Hélio Castroneves for the second position.
It was the kind of moment that would never happen during a NASCAR Cup Series broadcast but was totally on-brand for the exhibition short track series that drivers routinely participate in purely over a love of the game.
Busch was prepared for television to jump in at some point during the race, but it didn’t seem like the 2015 and 2019 champion was expecting it at that precise moment.
“A little busy right now,” Busch told the 2018 and 2022 Cup Series champion.
Logano responded by telling Busch he would help spot as Castroneves worked his way under and around for second place. Unlike NASCAR races, Camping World SRX races do not feature spotters above the track telling their drivers about track conditions and where the competition is in relation to their car.
Logano asked Busch if he was playing a ‘cat-and-mouse game’ with Castroneves and leader Brad Keselowski. Busch agreed with the assessment but delivered the line of the night to his occasional rival and former teammate.
“You know, hearing you on my radio, it’s f—ing lighting a fire under my a–!”
Logano egged him on with veteran play-by-play man Allen Bestwick holding in a visible laugh on the picture-in-picture screen.
“Well, I’ll be here as long as you need me!”
Busch went on to win the race and said on Saturday morning at Michigan International Speedway that it was a genuinely fun moment for him … even if he didn’t expect it at that moment.
“What the hell,” Busch said on Saturday with a hearty laugh. “That was probably the first thing, but after that, I don’t even remember what he asked me. We were kind of in a little cat-and-mouse game, I guess, and that’s what he brought up with Brad and just kind of trying to figure out how hard to push and what to do at that point in the race knowing there were still a couple cautions coming and trying to take care of the car and pace myself.
“That’s right when Helio was about to head towards the front and take the lead. He nudged me and got by me, so thankfully Joey (Logano) was on my radio, so I can blame him for that.”
Busch said he wishes Logano would have come back on the radio at the end of the race, after he took the lead, over a series of restarts.
“He could have spotted for me and that would have been good.”
Logano says he thought the entire exchange was hilarious.
“I don’t know if he was laughing as much as me,” Logano said. “I shut it off and have fun in these moments. There is a moment and time for me to go to work and be a tough competitor and then there is a time for me to have a lot of fun. When I’m in the booth, I’m having fun.”
Busch did drop the f-bomb, so that part makes SRX CEO Donald Hawk cringe, knowing that could lead to a fine from the Federal Communications Commission on ESPN, but he conceded that it was a great moment for the series.
“That’s SRX unfiltered,” Hawk said. “It’s Kyle Busch, who has a limited filter to start with, but he’s a great guy. It was a heck of a race and we enjoyed it. I was on the radio at the time, and I didn’t hear him, so that’s what I told Kyle too — that I didn’t it.”
Bestwick, who has long been the play-by-play voice of the NASCAR Cup Series for Motor Racing Network, NBC and ESPN over the years, says this is the magic of the Camping World SRX Series.
“We told Kyle ‘we’re coming to you tonight,’ and we let the race get sorted out,” Bestwick said. “But the fact that it was Joey talking to him, and that they have history, it was pure television bliss. That’s the magic of all of this, having fun, and it made for a great television show and a great race.”
“This was just a great night.”
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Matt Weaver covers NASCAR for Sportsnaut.com. Follow Matt Weaver on Twitter, @MattWeaverRA