"He's driving with a vengeance": When Rusty Wallace praised Kyle Busch's comeback fight after injury

A decade ago, Rusty Wallace, the 1989 Cup Series champion, supported Kyle Busch's competence and vengeance for a shot at the Cup title after a serious injury.

In 2015, Busch had missed the first 11 races of the Cup Series after breaking his right leg and left foot in a crash during the Xfinity Series opener at Daytona. Many doubted he could return in time to make a serious run at the championship. However, the then-Joe Gibbs Racing driver came back with more focus after missing nearly a third of the season.

During an interview in late June that year, Wallace commented on the No. 18 team's remarkable four wins in five races.

"He has got pressure on him. We all know the numbers. You got to be in the top 16 in the points (standings) to make the Chase for the championship or you got to win, and if you win, the last criteria is that you at least got to be in the top 30 in points. So he knows this, and everybody says you're not going to make it ever. So then he wins, and it's 'Hey, maybe,'" Rusty Wallace said (via Democrat And Chronicle).

"Now he's just driving with a vengeance to make it into the top 30. Hey, when the human body gets down on their luck man, sometimes you can dig down and find a little extra speed," he added.

Busch won four of five races between late June and early August at Samona, Kentucky, New Hampshire, and Indianapolis. He then pulled off one of the greatest turnarounds in NASCAR and went on to win his first Cup title that season.

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"Gave me that drive" - Kyle Busch on Cup championship after his grueling rehab

Kyle Busch was involved in a multi-car accident at Daytona International Speedway in February of 2015. His No. 54 Toyota slid across the infield grass and slammed into an unprotected concrete interior wall without a SAFER barrier.

The impact caused a compound fracture in his lower right leg and a fracture in his left foot. He had surgery at a Florida hospital, which ruled him out of the Daytona 500 and sidelined him indefinitely. However, the time off gave Busch a new drive, which led to his first championship in the Cup Series.

"Going through the rehab process I think just made me more mentally tough," Kyle Busch said in 2015 (Fox News).

"You don't know how many times I just wanted to stop and just be like, ‘You know what, I'm not going to do the rest today.’ But I powered through it and did what I needed to do, did what I could do. It was just something that pushed me and gave me that drive to be, I guess, the man and person I am right now," he added.

Busch returned in the midseason and collected five wins, 12 top-five finishes, and 16 top-10s in 25 races. The then 30-year-old took the lead with six laps remaining and won the season finale in Homestead, Miami, to take the Cup title home.