Rowdy was the original villain of NASCAR before Denny Hamlin took over this role in recent history. There are many savage interview moments where Busch owned up to his tag, but there were times when he tried his best not to reveal his true character. The 2019 Las Vegas fall race is a perfect example, where he kept a poker face as long as possible before revealing his true self.

This post-race interview quickly became the talk of the town and not Martin Truex Jr.’s win. As one can predict, fans had a fallout with the JGR driver and called out his behavior. But surprisingly, Dale Jr., who was calling the race from the booth, sided with Rowdy and shared his take on why he didn’t feel offended by his antics on and off the racetrack.

Kyle Busch isn’t the one who lacks personality

Former JGR star Kyle Busch is probably his generation’s most unhinged race car driver. Across the Cup Series garage, most drivers tread very carefully on what they say to the media. But it was the exact opposite with Busch, as his unfiltered and unapologetic take often ruffled some feathers. His digs weren’t just limited to his on-track rivals, as he often had a fallout with the race fans with his opinions and takes.

2019 in particular had been a good one for the No. 18 team. With five wins early in the season, they were in contention for another championship win. But Busch wasn’t able to kick-start his title run on a good note at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He had everything go against him, from a flat tire to bad traffic; the JGR driver was up against the odds.

For the general fans, this was one of Rowdy’s usual antics to throw tantrums after a race, but Dale Jr. had a different view of the whole situation. “We don’t have a lot of personality in this sport. Well, that’s the wrong thing to say; there’s some great personalities in the sport. There’s a lot of guys that don’t quite get to show their personality, and there’s not a lot of guys willing to… He’s like, You know what? I’m just gonna be honest, and I’m gonna say what I feel. We need so much more of that, whether you like Kyle, whether you don’t. We gotta get that honest opinion.” Dale Jr. said this while speaking on his podcast show DJD back in 2019.

After a 19th-place finish, he was fuming, and his frustration stemmed from a run-in he had with lapped drivers Joey Gase and Garrett Smithley, who raced him hard and foiled Rowdy’s plans for a top 10 finish. Multiple reporters and cameras crowding him after the race made matters worse as he was bombarded with questions like, “What happened there with the 53 and 52? How’d that impact your car? What happened at the end of the race?

Well, Kyle Busch didn’t want to land himself in trouble and kept a lid on his answers, stating, “I’m just here so I don’t get fined.” However, he couldn’t take the questions anymore and broke his character. He turned around in a fit of anger and said to one of his team members, “I’m answering the dumbest f—-g questions over and over again.”

The NASCAR community certainly misses that version of Rowdy Busch. With the new team, RCR, he’s somewhat toned down his antics, and perhaps that could be because of the lack of race wins and opportunities to contend for the title. The 2024 NASCAR season was perhaps the lowest of the lows for Kyle Busch and the #8 Chevy team.

Rowdy’s 2024 Season Review

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For the first time in 20 years, Kyle Busch didn’t have a single race win in the NASCAR Cup Series. This stat alone describes how torrid the 2024 season was for Rowdy and the #8 team. This performance by the 2-time champ was somewhat similar to his rookie season run from 2005, where he had an average finish of 21.0. The only difference here was that he had a big W to his name and was able to enjoy the feeling of being victorious.

It’s not that Busch was never in contention for a race win, but for some reason or the other, he just couldn’t cross the final hurdle. The fall Daytona race and the Southern 500 serve as the perfect examples of Busch coming oh so close to winning this year. Surprisingly, apart from his confrontation with Christopher Bell at COTA, the RCR driver handled himself really well against the adversities.

Reflecting back on the missed opportunities where he could’ve overturned his misfortunes, Busch while speaking to NASCAR, stated, “We probably had a handful of opportunities that slipped out from under us. So can’t say that we shouldn’t have won this year or never had an opportunity to, but obviously didn’t get it done.” At 39, Rowdy still has a few good years of racing left in him, and if RCR sorts out its racing program, we might have a big comeback story in 2025.