12-Year-Old David Owens Jr. will be “Riding Shotgun with Kyle Busch Motorsports” at Bristol

Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) is pleased to announce that 12-year-old David Owens Jr. from Nashville, Tenn. has been selected as the winner of the “Riding Shotgun with Kyle Busch Motorsports” essay contest for Bristol Motor Speedway. Owens Jr.’s name and picture will adorn the area above the passenger side window of Kyle Busch’s No. 18 Dollar General Tundra for the O’Reilly Auto Parts 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race Wednesday, Aug. 24.

Owens Jr., a student at DuPont Hadley Middle School in Old Hickory, Tenn., had his essay selected as the winner among submissions from children age 5-12 for the Bristol race. The contest called for children to write an essay of 150 words or less that described an experience and/or achievement that occurred within the past 12 months that affected their lives in a positive way. Owens Jr. described how due to a heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot he was unable to race quarter midget cars like he had always dreamed of. To fulfill his racing fix, he turned to racing radio-controlled (R/C) vehicles. After winning his first R/C race on March 5, he described how happy he was to finally experience victory, even though it wasn’t in a quarter midget. In the closing sentence of his essay he declared, “Even though I have a heart disease, I can still be a winner.”

A motivational letter that Kyle Busch received during the off season from Kyle Savoie (sa-VOY), a 12-year old fan, inspired Busch to develop a program that recognizes children for experiences and achievements that have had a positive effect on their lives. To recognize Savoie for inspiring the contest, a decal with his name and picture adorned the area above the passenger window of the No. 18 Dollar General Toyota Tundra driven by Busch in the season-opening race at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 18.

Bristol Motor Speedway is the sixth of 10 races throughout the 2011 season that an essay contest winner will follow in Savoie’s footsteps and “Ride Shotgun” with Kyle Busch Motorsports. The remaining races scheduled are Chicagoland Speedway (Sep. 16), Talladega Superspeedway (Oct. 22), Texas Motor Speedway (Nov. 4) and Homestead-Miami Speedway (Nov. 18).

For more details on the “Riding Shotgun with Kyle Busch Motorsports” essay contest, go to www.kylebuschmotorsports.com/ridingshotgun.

Kyle Busch Motorsports PR