“I had him!” recalled Dale Jr. Having grown up watching the Intimidator duke it out on the track, it was only time before Junior would want to beat his father at his own game. The thrilling 1999 IROC race in Michigan, where Dale Sr. just managed to beat his son at the finish line, is forever remembered in racing history as one of the most incredible finishes. The Intimidator raced Junior to the line in a photographic finish with just a 0.007-second difference. This legendary duel is a moment that countless Earnhardt fans wish they could have captured in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Well, Kyle Busch had a shot at recreating this moment. Yesterday, we saw the Millbridge Raceway witnessing yet another father-son duo racing against each other! Although the 39-year-old NASCAR Cup Series star doesn’t have a background in dirt racing, Kyle Busch has recently started exploring this discipline as his son advances in the local dirt racing scene.

Brexton Busch knew Wednesday night’s race in Salisbury would be full of in-the-moment lessons on track, and he was hopeful he could beat his dad head-to-head.”Tonight is definitely a learning lesson,” the younger Busch said prior to the race. “It’ll be very big if I can beat him on the first night.”

Yesterday, on the Millbridge race track, the older Busch took off from the fifth position with his son. Brexton began in seventh place, closely trailing him right from the start. On Lap 14 of the 20-lap race, Tyler Lupton, who was leading, spun out while navigating through slower cars. And that resulted in a caution flag. It meant that B-Rex and Rowdy would have a chance of going bumper-to-bumper.

Speaking about racing against his son for the first time, Kyle Busch said, “Yeah, it was pretty good. I was able to start in front of Brexton and stayed in front of him there for the whole race. But apparently you were right on my tail tank. He was close, so I didn’t know. I had no visual, but I’ll take your word for it. If he would have got to my left rear and showed me the car, I would have run the high side to see if there was anything on the high side because I’m like, okay. I already lost the bottom so I got to give him room on the bottom. Let’s see if there’s anything on the high side to keep him back there. But he might have passed me, so who knows? So this night was just really fun. Great experience for me to be able to race against my son. That’s pretty cool. Nine years old, hanging with the boys. the big dogs up front.” 

This incident allowed Kyle Busch to advance to fourth place, while Brexton positioned himself for the upcoming restart in fifth. Although the father-son pair briefly battled for fourth place, Kyle Busch made an impressive leap to second place. With a daring three-wide maneuver in the outside lane on Lap 15. In the No. 51 Lucas Oil-sponsored car, Kyle Busch secured a strong third-place finish, even after Dave Meendering passed him for second. Meanwhile, Brexton Busch crossed the line in sixth place in the No. 18B SERVPRO vehicle, competing against a field of 20 cars.

His son, meanwhile, fared a little worse, finishing in 6th place in the race. Despite this, Rowdy had nothing but support for his young racer. “Almost had me, but finished sixth in his debut race here at Millbridge in the A-Class car, so proud of you and all the things that you’ve done and what you’ve accomplished, so good job, and yeah, just thanks to Lucas Oil and Surf Pro and all the guys at KBM for building us some fast cars and letting us go race and have some fun.” 

While the father-son duo was prepping for the race, Samantha Busch was busy at the White House. However, it didn’t mean she would miss it. “We just finished doing the lunch-in here at the White House. It was absolutely incredible. We got to hear from some amazing speakers. Unfortunately, I won’t have a video of President Trump, because he is set to come on. He’s set to come on in probably 20 to 30 minutes, and this mom will not miss her flight and miss Brexton’s race. Unfortunately, we have to leave which I feel awful for, but Brexton called me this morning and said promise me you will not miss my first race against dad. So as exciting as this was, mom duties come first.” 

With this race, Kyle Busch settled an argument between the two. Just after announcing their plans, B-Rex had posted, “Can’t wait to kick my dad’s butt.” The two-time NASCAR Cup champion responded, “You don’t want the smoke pal. Hope you’re ready to rip the fence.” But that’s just one side of their story. B-Rex has also impacted his father, as he was spotted racing on dirt tracks during the off-season. This year, Rowdy made his debut at the Chili Bowl and participated in several other events to stay competitive before the NASCAR season kicked off.

After triumphing over his son in their initial face-off, Busch is now turning his attention to the upcoming NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway. He aims to secure his fourth career victory driving the No. 8 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing.

Kyle Busch explains the one big regret from his winless streak.

With Martinsville coming in next, Kyle Busch has his mind set on one thing. Getting a win. When you’re on a winless streak for over 60 races, it gets difficult. But that’s not what he regrets. The regret is for his son Brexton, who hasn’t been able to see the Rowdy of old, the driver who holds the record for being the winningest driver in the Xfinity and Truck Series. At the same time, Yung Money is out there getting multiple wins in a single weekend and getting in the Victory Lane.

“It’s tough. It was really hard last year, going winless [for the] first year ever in Cup Series competition. Not being able to score a victory was really hard. So, I don’t know. I look at it through my son’s eyes sometimes, because he talks about how Owen [Kyle Larson’s son] gets to go celebrate with Tiny Kyle [Kyle Larson] and when he wins, he gets to go run out on the racetrack and get a ride to Victory Lane and all that,” Kyle Busch explained. “Brexton, when we were in our highs of 2015, ’16, ’17, ’18 and even some of ’19, we won four or five, six, eight races a year in those years. So, he was too young to really kind of remember it and take part in those, because he wasn’t that perfect age of running out to the track. You know, now that he’s a little bit older, he wants to be a part of that, and I’m not winning as much. So, it is tough. It’s more tough on, probably for me, feeling bad for him, that he doesn’t get to enjoy that as much, and I feel bad for me that I don’t get to enjoy in being able to go to Victory Lane as much as I once did. But life is life.”

In the end, Busch has a simple piece of advice for his son, whenever it comes to racing trouble. “You know I tell him all the time, I’m like you got the Busch blood man, like you’re better than the rest of the guys, you’re good, you’re golden, you don’t need to worry about anything else. Just take that and run with it, you know. He’s bought into that a little bit.”