When the freshly signed Richard Childress Racing driver Kyle Busch got his first win at Fontana early this year, a sense of newness hit him. The victory lane filled itself with cheers and applause instead of the boos that usually greeted him. The treatment continued throughout the year and as it appeared, his transfer from Joe Gibbs Racing had brought him some good fortunes along with a new car. For years ‘Rowdy’ Kyle had served as a hated driver of the racing community. But now, the mantle is being passed on. Sporting the hate crown now is his former teammate Denny Hamlin.

Answering a question from sportscasting.com’s Kyle Dalton, RCR’s No. 8 driver expressed some thoughts for the new villain of NASCAR.

Despite being comfortable where he is, ‘Rowdy’ claims he could easily get back the crown from Denny Hamlin

For many years since his full-time debut in 2005, Kyle has been considered the antagonist of NASCAR. During his time, it was also his brother Kurt Busch who faced the villain tag. Looking back on it, Kyle said, “I don’t know that I’ve ever been in this spot (With fans on his side) because when I first came into this sport, my brother had made a lot of enemies, both on and off the race track, and so I was kind of thrown into that right off the bat.”

Times changing, Kurt has retired from behind the wheel now and Kyle has changed banners to RCR. The move has turned out to be favorable for the 2-time Cup Series champion in more than one way. Having always expressed his comfort being in the No. 8 paddock he took the media’s question as a chance to do so once again. He said, “It’s been good to just kind of get a different light, be in a different light. And it’s been fun over at RCR. A lot of people have just kind of told me how much excitement there is around that, and me being a part of the No. 8 car, with RCR and everybody over there.”

Though he made statements along the lines of putting his rowdiness and villainy behind him, he did have a jovial threat to the ruling face of evil, Denny Hamlin. Saying that it would only take something spectacular to put himself back into that category easily, he imparted some words of anti-hero wisdom for this fellow racer.

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Kyle Busch serves a crucial piece of anti-hero wisdom to his former teammate

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Apart from Kyle’s transfer to a new team, it was also Denny Hamlin’s own antics that changed the colors of NASCAR in a dramatic way. The latter’s words on his podcast and his on-track incidents with many drivers including Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson ended up not being very favorable for fans. And, the RCR driver acknowledged this with only pleasure. Explaining how there are unwinnable battles that come with being a villain, he expressed that Denny was doing things perfectly, given the situation he was in.

He said, “When you’re in that spot like I was, and I guess Denny (Hamlin) is, you have to do what Denny is doing. It’s perfect… you have to play with it, go with it, roll with it and egg them on. I mean I did it – there were so many quotes in the years past when I was talking about Jr. Nation and other stuff. Trust me, you’re never going to win those battles…”

Admitting that hitting back at people who show hate makes one feel like the “big guy”, he said that it also feels better inside and is fun to watch. Though Kyle threatens to take Denny Hamlin’s newly acquired throne away, as it appears, he likes the fresh treatment that he is getting. But how far can this tide of favoritism take him? Currently facing the first race of the Round of 12 in Texas, he has all the chance and support to do something special in the Wild West. Will he and his supporters get the better of the intimidating Denny Hamlin? We will know in just a few hours!

Read More: Issues With Richard Childress Reach a Tipping Point as Kyle Busch Openly Slams the Team