NASCAR has never really lacked rivalries, especially with the competition involved. Furthermore, it only gets more intense whenever Kyle Busch is involved. Over the years, the Richard Childress Racing driver has only added more names to the list of his rivals. Most famously, Brad Keselowski has been one of them. In fact, Rowdy once went all guns blazing in trolling him.
It is no secret how Busch prefers to be the unfiltered, unapologetic, and blunt version of himself. Time and again, he has had something or the other to say about his fellow drivers or the incidents in the NASCAR Cup Series. However, some years back, he left no stone unturned in publicly attacking Keselowski.
Kyle Busch once publicly roasted arch-rival Brad Keselowski with elder brother Kurt Busch adding more spice
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Both Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski know what it takes to win the Cup Series championship. In their bid to win, they have often come across each other’s paths, and let’s just say, it hasn’t ended well. The Busch-Keselowski rivalry was at its peak in 2017 when Martin Truex Jr triumphed as the Cup Series champion.
However, things between Busch and Keselowski were brewing much before it. In the 2012 Cup Series race at Watkins Glen International, Busch spun following contact with Keselowski. In fact, it was the very year the then Team Penske driver won his only championship to date.
😭 STFU https://t.co/EjexBIHWwE
— Kyle Busch (@KyleBusch) September 15, 2017
With Rowdy being himself, he paid back the favor to Keselowski the following year. He crashed into him in an Xfinity Series race at Kansas in 2013. However, it was in 2017 that the rivalry got pretty intense. After both drivers collided at Watkins Glen International, Busch was left fuming after the incident.
In fact, the duo was heavily involved in a war of words in 2017 and it was in November of that year that Busch went full throttle in trolling Keselowski. It was at NASCAR Champion’s Week in Las Vegas when all the play-off drivers participated in a Q&A with Rutledge Wood. When Busch was asked about his gift to Keselowski for Christmas, he had a shocking reply.
He said, “He’s already going to hell, so it’s not like I’ve got to buy him a trip there.” However, there was a bit of humor already to it as elder brother Kurt interrupted before Kyle answered the question. Kurt had then said, “He [Kyle] doesn’t even have to answer it, he doesn’t buy me s**t.” While it was a funny act, the reply from the then-Joe Gibbs Racing driver was brutal.
It is understandable why Busch said so, especially considering how he disliked Keselowski then.
Kyle Busch’s problems with “respect” among the drivers started with Brad Keselowski in 2017
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Earlier this year, Kyle Busch ranted out about the lack of respect among Cup Series drivers. While it may be true, it was not the first time he said that. While speaking to the media before the Cup Series playoff championship final in 2017 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Busch spoke about Brad Keselowski following their bitter history.
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He said, “Sometimes you just don’t like a guy. I never ran into Matt Kenseth. I don’t think Matt Kenseth ever ran into me. There is a respect factor out there on the race track and you can certainly do a better job sometimes when you’re around some of those guys that you may or may not necessarily like. As once a wise man told me, I think it was Chase Elliott, I race those how they race me.”
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Certainly, Busch has been mindful of the things he has said even now. Nevertheless, it would be interesting to see how he would react if he ever gets in a wreck again with Keselowski, especially in the ongoing season.