Kyle Busch Walks Back Comments About Dale Earnhardt Jr’s Crew Chief Debut: “He Was Obviously Way More Involved”

The rivalry continues.

If you call yourself a NASCAR fan, you know that it’s no secret that Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch were big time rivals back in the day. Since Dale Jr. has retired, the animosity between the two has seemed to settle into mutual respect, but that doesn’t mean that the rivalry can’t rear its ugly head every once in a while.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. made his crew chief debut last weekend for Jr. Motorsports driver Connor Zilisch during the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Pocono Raceway. There was a lot of buzz about Jr. stepping into the role, but when Kyle Busch was asked about it ahead of the race, he wasn’t all that impressed:

“It’s all publicity, but spin it how you want it. He’s just gonna be a warm body sitting on top of the box, you know, they’ve got enough stuff from the shop. And enough technology these days of being able to have the crew still involved.

So you know, I could say I could do the same thing you know with one of my truck teams, but the guys at the shop would be the ones handling it. But still, great. You know cool, eyeballs, and you know, putting some attention on their team and stuff like that.”

@alectheflexerofficial “It’s all publicity. He’s just going to be a warm body sitting on top of the box.” Kyle Busch shares his thoughts on Dale Jr taking on the role of crew chief #nascar #kylebusch #dalejr ♬ original sound – Alectheflexer

Dang… tell us how you really feel Kyle Busch.

After his comments started circulating on social media, the driver of the No. 8 car took to X to try and clarify what he meant by Dale Jr. being a “warm body.” That obviously doesn’t sound very flattering, but Busch insisted that it was more about the role of the crew chief in modern day racing than anything else:

“This has nothing to do with any animosity towards Dale Jr. I’m referencing how silly the suspensions for crew chiefs are these days with all the technology they have to stay in contact with their teams. I’d say the same thing if JG went on a HMS box as a crew chief.”

Funny enough, Dale Jr’s debut as crew chief also coincided with his first ever win as crew chief.

Earnhardt Jr. helped the young JR Motorsports driver Connor Zilisch to his first ever oval win of his NASCAR career. And Dale Jr. was heavily involved as the crew chief, even climbing down from the pit box and helping out with pit stops.

Earnhardt was ecstatic talking about the win afterwards:

“Just a great job putting us in position to succeed, we had a lot of things go our way, a lot of good luck, good race strategy, had a little help from (former NASCAR Cup Series crew chief Steve) Letarte. Hats off to everybody on this team. It’s been amazing all weekend long. Great race car driver. Connor Zilisch is going to be a big deal in this sport for a long time. A lot of fun for me today.”

So… what did Kyle Busch think about all of that?

A reporter tracked down Busch and asked for his thoughts on Dale Jr’s first ever time acting as a crew chief also being his first win as such. Kyle Busch once again walked back his previous comments, and ultimately said that he was happy to see Dale Jr. and Connor Zilisch have success:

“Well I meant that as if I were doing it, if I were going to go do that – say KBM was in an existence and one of our crew chiefs got suspended, I’d raise my hand and say, ‘Yeah, I’ll go do it.’ But I know darn well those guys are going to be in my ear telling me everything that we need to do, you know?

He was obviously way more involved than I thought or expected that he would be. I’m happy for him. Look, that’s cool. That’s an accolade. That’s an asterisk on his resume. He doesn’t need any more of those, but it was fun to see his excitement and the things that he was involved with the team.”

Kyle Busch eating some crow, eh? That’s something that certain racing fans don’t mind to see…The post Kyle Busch Walks Back Comments About Dale Earnhardt Jr’s Crew Chief Debut: “He Was Obviously Way More Involved” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.