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Kurt Thomas Busch Son of Tom and Gaye Busch, Las Vegas Occupation: NASCAR Nextel Cup Champion Driver Born August 4, 1978 Siblings: Kyle "Shrub" |
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Eva Caroline Bryan Daughter of Gary and Paula Bryan, Chesapeake, Va. Occupation: NASCAR Wife Born: 1977 Siblings: Patrick and ?? |
THE ROAD TO THE ALTAR
The Set Up
Three years ago Kurt Busch was a veterinarian. At least that's what Kurt's spotter, Jeremy Brickhouse, and his then girlfriend told Eva Bryan.
See, Brickhouse had attended junior and senior high school with Eva and he thought Kurt and Eva would be a perfect match. However, he wanted Eva to be interested in Kurt Busch, the man; not Kurt Busch, the race car driver. So he concocted the story that Kurt was a veterinarian.
"She sent these two pictures [to Kurt] of a
bird and a cat," said Brickhouse, who had been Kurt's spotter for 2 1⁄2 years when he introduced him to Eva. "I gave them to him and said, 'Here you go, doctor.' She's always been big into animals, had horses."
Eva actually sent Kurt a photo of her holding her Himalayan cat, Little Peep.
Of course, Brickhouse had to do more than fabricate Kurt's profession. He
also had to convince both Kurt and Eva that they wanted to meet each other. At the time, Eva was still living in her hometown of Norfolk, Va., and working as a customer service representative for First
Virginia Bank [which merged with BB&T shortly before she and Kurt began dating]. Kurt, meanwhile, had decided to forego the dating scene for a while and focus solely on his racing career. But Brickhouse thought Eva was just the person Kurt needed.
"I knew she would straighten him up and show him the right ways of doing things; keep him calm, I guess," Brickhouse said. "I just thought they were a perfect match. She's easy to get along with; Kurt's a super nice guy and he's got a big heart. Each of them won't take any mess from each other, but
yet they'll meet in the middle. It was pretty cool how it worked out."
It was a rocky path, however, to that first date. It took Brickhouse five months to convince Kurt he needed to meet Eva.
The First Date - July 27, 2003, Charlotte, N.C.
Finally, the blind date was set – July 27, 2003. Eva was in the Charlotte, N.C., area that day and she and Brickhouse's girlfriend were to meet the two men at Boardwalk Billy's in the University area, just
north of the city. However, there was one small problem. That day was the date of the race at Pocono, Pa. A race in which Kurt finished in the top three, meaning he was required to go to the media center for
post-race interviews. Then, there was post-race traffic, boarding the plane, and an incident in the parking lot at the airport. All of that combined made Kurt extremely late for his blind date.
"I was in such a hurry when I got off the [team] plane that I threw all my bags in my car, dropped it in drive and took off," Kurt recalled. "There was [crew chief] Pat Tryson rearranging something in his trunk. He had his brief case set out right underneath my right-front tire. It did the thump, thump, Hollywood run over the briefcase thing. I knew exactly what happened at that point. So, now I'm just beside myself, because I'm trying to get to this date that I'm late for. I just ran over this poor guy's briefcase."
When Kurt jumped from his car to check on Tryson, he discovered the thump, thump was an extremely serious one, because Tryson's laptop was in the briefcase.
"I set him back maybe a couple of weeks on information," Kurt commented.
It was about 11 p.m. before Kurt rolled into Boardwalk Billy's, three hours after his scheduled arrival. Now, don't get the impression that Eva had been sitting there waiting for Kurt all of this time, because that wasn't the case.
"I was visiting a friend, I was on vacation, so I didn't have to get up early the next morning," Eva said. "Of course, I made sure I was later than him. So he ended up waiting for me at Boardwalk Billy's."
Kurt noted that Eva was wondering "what the heck a veterinarian does on a Sunday night until 11 o'clock."
"When we weren't there by eight, Brickhouse had covered for me and said things had gotten busy at the animal hospital," Kurt said.
"Of course, she came in, glowing like an angel, and when she first sat down she asked what happened at the animal hospital. I had that puzzled look on my face. I looked over at Brickhouse and he's winking at me."
It was then that highlights of the Pocono race came on the TV in the sports pub. Kurt's veterinarian cover was blown when Eva, among the laughter at the table, looked up and saw Kurt on TV.
"I think he had a guilty conscious, because he told me within 2 minutes after we were introduced what he does," said Eva, who has three older brothers. "Still, I never looked at Kurt like that [a race car driver]. I've never been into racing. I didn't know much about NASCAR, never been to a race, never watched a race on TV. So I still didn't grasp what it meant that he was a NASCAR driver."
Eva had to drive back to
Norfolk that night, so Kurt rode with her. He then caught a plane back to Charlotte and upon his arrival told Brickhouse, "Man, I like that girl."
The Courtship
Kurt and Eva began seeing each other on a regular basis and he asked her to
attend the 2003 NASCAR Awards Banquet with him in New York City. Even though he finished outside the top 10 in points, he had asked Eva to the banquet and he didn't want to disappoint her.
"He flew up to Virginia to ask me in person to be his date for the banquet," Eva
recalled. "He totally surprised me. I was waiting in a restaurant for my girlfriend to come in. Suddenly, I look up and it was Kurt. He'd gotten with my girlfriend about it, so she was in on it. I had no idea. I thought I was just having dinner with the girls that night."
In 2004, Eva began traveling with Kurt and became a Kurt Busch Inc. employee. That New Year's Eve, the couple hosted a large party and people were congratulating her on her engagement. It, however, was a non-existent engagement.
"I kept thinking, 'Is he going to do it?'" recalled Eva, who keeps detailed notes for Kurt during each race. "Then I got all excited and I thought, 'He's going to pop the question.' But he never did. I was a little disappointed and sad because all of my friends were there, so I decided I would never get my hopes up again."
Busch had something else in mind. In July 2005,
the couple traveled to Europe for a Formula One race – the Hungarian Grand Prix. Since the two would be there on the second anniversary of their meeting, Kurt, the romanticist, planned a special evening in
Prague.
The Proposal - July 27, 2005, Prague, Czech Republic
In June 2005, prior to leaving for Europe, Kurt had traveled to New York on the premise of meeting with some sports agents. Instead, he accomplished his business with the sports agents by phone beforehand, than traveled to the "Big Apple" to purchase an engagement ring. Thus,
the trip to Europe with Eva's uncle and his wife for a Formula One race turned into a romantic weekend in Prague.
"I booked everything," Busch says with a smile. "That's when I found this restaurant that was 800 years old. I requested a private booth in the back. I also arranged
for them to notify the other customers in the restaurant of what activity would happen at our table."
Once they arrived at the restaurant and were seated, Kurt immediately turned his attention to the extensive wine list. However, it wasn't in English and Kurt couldn't read it.
"I am really struggling. I'm nervous and everyone is stalling, yet they're anticipating," Kurt recalled. "[Finally] I just blurted out, 'Bring a bottle of Dom Perignon.' I knew I was starting to struggle with it, so I just needed to do it.
"I was waiting for everything to be perfect, but I was starting to get too nervous. That's when I raised a glass and made a toast. I asked Eva to
stand up with me."
At this time, Eva thought she and Kurt were merely celebrating their second anniversary of when they met. However, after she stood up with Kurt, he took the glass from her hand and sat it on the table.
"I reached into my pocket, went down on one
knee, held both of her hands and asked, 'Eva Caroline Bryan, would you marry me?'" Kurt recounted.
Eva immediately said yes and became teary eyed.
"Kurt
had called my father and asked his permission the day before we left to go to Europe. So that was good. That meant a lot," Eva said.
Quoting Eva's parents on this...
"Kurt is one of the nicest people I've ever met in my life. He gets a bad rap, I'll tell you right now. He's liked and disliked; some people think he's too aggressive sometimes. The one thing I see is when Kurt does something, they crucify him for it. If you see Earnhardt or Martin do something, nobody says a word." ~ Gary Bryan (PilotOnline.com)
"[On Busch's initial visits to Chesapeake] I'd say, 'I can't believe he was here sleeping in our house just last night. After a while, you sort of get used to it. He's a celebrity, but he's still just a person. And we really love the person he is." ~ Paula Bryan (PilotOnline.com)
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The Relationship
For Kurt, it was Eva's "striking beauty and wisdom" that set her apart from other women he had known.
"Mainly, though, because she loves me for who I am, instead of the race car
driver," Kurt said. "We are an on-the-go couple and she has no problem with that type of pace and schedule. We enjoy our dogs [Jim and Ginger] as if they were our children.
"Yet, she lets me go out and do men things. Just to hang with the boys, whether it's fishing or
hunting. She respects the fact that I have a professional job as a race car driver and that there is a lot of time away from home. Those are the times I encourage her to go back with her friends in Virginia, or
to hang out with her friends and go on different trips with them. We both live busy lives. But when we are together, we are inseparable."
Eva admits it is sometimes difficult for her to realize that it's her husband-to-be driving the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge.
"He's
just my Kurt," Eva commented. "He's very romantic. He's always surprising me. He surprised me with a trip to Bermuda. He'll surprise me with dinners or come home with flowers. Out of the blue, he has shown up with a limo and flowers to take me to dinner in Charlotte."
Eva
said they had been dating for six months when she knew Kurt was the one she wanted to marry, and it was his personality that set him apart from other men she had dated.
"Kurt is so funny and fun," Eva said. "We have the most fun together. He makes me laugh, that is the biggest
thing, his sense of humor.
"Our family values also are the same and that's important to me. We're both very close to our families. My brothers were OK with him, but my cousin, Chris, did not like Kurt at all. He gave Kurt the hardest time, but now they are the best of friends. It took Kurt about a year to win Chris over."
The Wedding Planning (KURT Q&A)
The schedule dictates when we have the wedding. We've got it this year with the off weekend between Pocono and Indianapolis. My fiancée said she wanted a summertime wedding, so that's what Eva will get. The plans are going great. I should have fired the wedding planner three times already, but we still have her. She's doing OK, and we're getting down to it.
Why did you want to fire this...?
"One of the stories is exactly what I talked about with Jeff Wolf (Las Vegas Review-Journal). We go and pay for permits to do everything out on the beach. Then to find out we can't do it out on the beach from environmentalists, that was a tough blow to Eva. To have her crying on my shoulder one night that she didn't quite get her dream wedding out on the beach was tough. I thought that was more the wedding planners fault than anybody's."
How did you choose the location for this...?
"The site is magnificent with the seclusion it has. We were able to meet Dan (Hoffler) through Eva's aunt. She used to work for Dan Hoffler. Eva's cousin is Christopher Forbes from the Forbes Saltwater Taffy. Him and I didn't hit it off well at all in the beginning. He thought I was a racecar driver stealing his cousin. Now we're best friends. Christopher Forbes was a key instrument in introducing me to Dan Hoffler."
The Best Man is this...
It's a good friend of mine from Las Vegas. His name is Jesse Walker, and he's been a crew member on all my teams since 1994. Him and I moved from Vegas together to the Detroit area where we raced a little bit. Then we moved on down to North Carolina together, so we've spent the greater part of the last 12 years together and he'll be my best man. Kyle was in the running there, but he's going to be a groomsman."
Jesse is a bit nervous about this...
"It's going to be fun. He's so nervous. He doesn't know what to say, so the wedding planner is going to come up with some lines for him. He's so nervous that Roger Penske is going to be there and some other people. I told him man it's just me. It's just the good old days. This is probably 10 Daytona 500s going into one weekend here. I'm definitely excited."
The Ceremony - July 27, 2006, Cape Charles, Va.
"It will be the most romantic thing I've ever seen, according to the checkbook." ~ Kurt Busch
Date: Thursday, July 27, 2006
Time: Sunset
Location: Point Farm Estate, Cape Charles, Va.
Best Man: Jesse Spencer
Maid of Honor:
Groomsmen: Kyle Busch,
Bridesmaids:
The couple exchanged traditional vows before 250 guests on the front porch of Point Farm, an estate owned by longtime Bryan family friend Dan Hoffler. NASCAR's motor racing outreach chaplain Dale Beaver presided.
The bride arrived in a white, horse-drawn Cinderella carriage and was walked down the aisle by her father, Gary Bryan, as an eight-piece ensemble played the wedding march.
After the ceremony, guests were to have cocktails inside the Hoffler mansion before heading to the reception, held in a tent overlooking Virginia's Eastern Shore.
The party's theme, "glow," was to be reflected in the chandeliers and candles lining the tent. Wedding planner Janet Bell tells People she worked closely with Bryan to create a "very warm, old-world-type romantic effect, with clean, modern touches. [People, July 27, 2006]
In attendance: Helio Castronoves, Larry and Linda McReynolds, Austin Petty, Montgomery Lee Petty. Stay tuned as this list grows.
Quotes
Kyle Busch: "I get called Kurt all the time and at his own wedding, [Kurt] actually got called 'Kyle' right at the altar."
The Honeymoon
KB: "We'll have three or four days after the wedding to go to a deserted island somewhere and just do nothing for a few days."
Location: Bahamas
Flickr: Kurt and Eva Slideshow
Stay tuned for post wedding updates on this...
