NASCAR Champ Eats Crow After Controversial Dale Earnhardt Jr. Rant

Kyle Busch vs. Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2025 … who ya got?

Nope. Not on the track, sadly. This little tussle took place last week off the track, when Rowdy seemingly took a nasty little shot at Junior over Dale's recent … promotion … to temporary crew chief for his Xfinity driver, Connor Zilisch. 

At the time, the NASCAR world was THRILLED that Junior would step out of his owner's box and onto Zilisch's pit stall after the man who usually calls the shots, Mardy Lindley, was suspended. 

It was a cool thing that race fans could actually get behind. Don't know if you've heard, but the NASCAR world is usually pretty divided. Folks LOVE to bitch about most things, and that includes me. 

But I thought it was cool, too. An Earnhardt as a crew chief? Hell, sign me up! 

Not Rowdy, though:

Kyle Busch commits the ultimate NASCAR sin

Nobody, and I mean nobody, in the NASCAR garage loves to piss in a bowl of Cheerios more than Kyle Busch. I love that about him, by the way. He's the best. 

Oh, you little fans are excited to see Junior again? 

"It's all publicity. He's just going to be a warm body sitting on top of the box." 

Piss off! 

That little soundbite got everyone all riled up, and then, of course, Dale and Zilisch went on to win the damn race. 

Which led to a few more questions for poor Rowdy this week:

Thoughts? First impressions? 

I'm gonna side with … Kyle Busch! That's right. I don't think Kyle was really going after Dale Earnhardt Jr. initially. He's been a truck owner in this sport for a looooooooooooong time. He knows how it works. 

I believe his larger point was that substitute crew chiefs generally don't matter, because everything that needs to be communicated … can be communicated. Wink-wink. 

It doesn't matter where the boss is. He could be in the pit box, on top of the pit box, in the damn motorcoach or at his house. It ain't exactly hard to get a message from Point A to Point B on race day. Y'all heard of this thing called technology? It's NUTS. Look it up. Wild stuff. 

Now, unfortunately for Kyle, he came off as a dick who was belittling Dale Earnhardt Jr. That's a no-no in the NASCAR world. You don't talk bad about Dale Jr. You learn that at Day 1 orientation. 

Always hold up three fingers on Lap 3, boo Bubba Wallace during driver intros, and don't bad-mouth Dale Jr. You do that, and you'll do just fine in this series. 

Kyle Busch violated one of those rules, and the Junior Mafia came AFTER him on social media, which is fine for a guy like him. That stuff bounces off Kyle Busch like rubber bullets. He's been hated in this sport for decades now. He loves it. 

But then Junior won, which certainly didn't help. 

And now? He's got a little back-peddling to do. Unfortunately, he's been doing an awful lot of that on the track recently, too. 

Not a great year for Kyle Busch. Hell, not a great three years. 

Sad. 

Raise hell, Praise Dale!