In the end, they did become friends… but not without some major friction on the track.
It’s been nearly three months now since NASCAR legend Kyle Busch sadly passed away at the age of 41, on May 21st, 2026, due to pneumonia that progressed into sepsis. It was very sudden, and he left behind his wife, Samantha, and two children, Brexton (11) and Lennix (4), as well as his parents and fellow race car driver in his brother, Kurt Busch.
And today is being referred to as “Kyle Busch Day” around the motorsports world, because he drove the No. 18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing before moving to the No. 8 car at Richard Childress Racing.
So it was only fitting that one of his longtime rivals, who eventually became his friend, is Dale Earnhardt Jr, get in on it and share a story about how they finally buried the hatchet, so to speak. NASCAR fans know that Kyle and Jr. were rivals back in the day when they were both still full-time Cup Series drivers, and their animosity really stemmed from the infamous 2008 race at Richmond. They were battling for the lead during the last laps, and Busch spun Dale Jr. out during his first year at Hendrick Motorsports.
He was literally on track to end a two-year winless streak, so obviously, he was really upset about it, and later that year during the fall race at Richmond, Jr. returned the favor and spun Busch out.
Busch has made comments about him over the years, and in terms of fan perception back then, they definitely contrasted each other and remained rivals for many years. Eventually, after Jr. retired, they seemed to reconcile and even become friendly, and Jr. had Busch on his podcast a while back and they hashed it out. Jr. shared a beautiful tribute to Kyle the day he passed.
And Jr. explained that he is very thankful that they got time in April of 2018 to discuss all of the years of friction during an episode of his Dale Jr. Download podcast:
“The thing I think I’m most thankful for is, it actually happened in this room. Me and him doing that podcast together.”
For years, they were bitter rivals, but when they sat down to talk it all out, they came to an understanding that it wasn’t personal, and Jr. says it “erased” all of the “animosity and frustration” they had towards each other:
“We really didn’t get along. We totally misunderstood each other pretty pretty badly for a long time. When he came in here and we sat down and neither one of us were really defensive. It was kinda like, man, this is what happened. I did this, you said this, I said that, you know, why did you do that?
And he’d go, ‘Well, I did it because I was thinking this, or I was thinking that.’ And we just had this really great conversation. It really erased all of that animosity and frustration that we had toward each each other.”
Jr. said that Kyle even told him he had wanted to be friends when he first started racing in the Cup Series, and it’s hard not to think how different it all might’ve been for them had they started out as friends instead:
“One of the things that he told me that I didn’t know was he’s like, ‘Man, I really wanted to be friends with you.’ He’s like ‘When I first started coming in here. You know you had your buddies and y’all were always hanging out and he’s like I kind of wanted to be your friend.’
I was like, ‘Man, that would’ve been cool if we could start off on that foot.’ You know, I’m just so glad we were able to do that and he was he was cool to do it.”
Regardless of how they got to that point, it’s important that Kyle and Dale were able to eventually hash out whatever happened between them on the track, and honestly, NASCAR wouldn’t have been the same without these two going at it all the time, so I think it worked out exactly how it was supposed to:
Kyle’s wife, Samantha, also shared a sweet tribue:
Rest in peace, Kyle.
