The wife and son of the late Steve Byrnes showed up at the NASCAR Hall of Fame on Tuesday expecting to take a photo with Matt Kenseth. The one-year anniversary of Kenseth’s win at Bristol Motor Speedway – the ‘Food City 500 in Support of Steve Byrnes and Stand Up To Cancer’ – was approaching, so they didn’t have reason to suspect an ulterior motive. But Karen Byrnes and her seventh-grader son Bryson were surprised with a pair of gifts upon their arrival. Kenseth presented them with a replica sword given to the winner of the Bristol race along with a framed picture of the #20 team in victory lane holding up signs in support of Steve, a beloved FOX Sports announcer who died two days after the event.
Bryson, a well-spoken young man who seemed comfortable addressing reporters Tuesday, has dreams of becoming a college football announcer if his own football career doesn’t work out (last season he played both center and defensive end on his middle school team). He said all the outpouring of support for his father has been ‘overwhelming and kind of magical to see.’
Karen Byrnes said the last year has been ‘bittersweet.’ She and Bryson have been supported in many ways by the NASCAR community, but they’ve also lived through many firsts – the first Father’s Day without Steve, the first Christmas, the first Easter. And this month, they’ll mark Steve’s birthday (April 14) and the anniversary of his death (April 21).
‘Those are challenging times,’ she said. ‘But we’ve tried to be purposeful in also living, too. (We’re) moving forward and experiencing life because I think we do a disservice to him by not going out and living life.’(USA Today)
