Denny Hamlin has revealed his favorite memory of the late, great NASCAR champion Kyle Busch.
Busch tragically passed away at the age of 41 on Thursday, with the NASCAR community still reeling from the shocking news.
Hamlin paid tribute to Busch on Thursday night as the news emerged, with the two having spent 15 years together as teammates at Joe Gibbs Racing.
Hamlin also appeared on ABC News on Friday to discuss Busch's passing and his NASCAR legacy, and the 45-year-old found some time to recall his favorite memory of his former teammate.
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Denny Hamlin's favorite Kyle Busch memory
“My first memory with him and my favourite is we are at a test, very first time he was my teammate,” Hamlin recalled.
“And he said, he walked over my stall and he says, ‘We're gonna see how good you really are.’
“I said, ‘All right.’ He was coming over from Hendrick Motorsports and at that time we were going to be testing with the same race team, and we just kept getting in the car, he would go P1, I'd up him and make a quicker lap, he’d go out, he’d make a quicker lap, and we just kept going like three or four times overtaking each other.
“And I knew right then, I was like, ‘Okay, this guy's gonna push me pretty hard to get the best out of me.’”
Kyle Busch 'most gifted and talented race car driver'
Continuing further, Hamlin revealed that he doesn’t believe he would be the driver he is today were it not for Busch.
“My strengths right now is mile-and-a-half race tracks, it’s because of Kyle Busch,” he added.
“I got to watch him and study him. He was just a master at getting speed out of race cars on those types of race tracks.
“I just was in awe of his talent, and to me personally, I feel like he's the most gifted and talented race car driver that ever stepped in a car.”
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