Dale Earnhardt Jr. Defends Kyle Busch: NASCAR’s ‘Gotta Have A Joker’

Whether NASCAR fans want to admit or not, Kyle Busch is the villain the sport needs.

“Rowdy” was back in headlines this week, thanks to his lengthy, bizarre Twitter feud with NASCAR fans after Sunday’s Auto Club 400. And although Busch’s antics understandably get on peoples’ nerves, that type of polarizing, villainous figure is exactly what the personality-starved sport needs, according to Dale Earnhardt Jr.

The broadcast booth-bound Earnhardt came to Busch’s defense Sunday night, saying Busch “makes my new job easier.” And during this week’s episode of his “Dale Jr. Download” podcast, the recently retired driver further defended NASCAR’s resident bad boy.

“The one thing that I’ve learned over the last several years — even before I quit driving — was the sport needs people like Kyle,” Earnhardt said. “Even if you don’t like the guy, the sport needs all kinds of personalities, and we can’t have 40 heroes out there racing.

“We can’t have 40 Captain Americas out there competing against each other. You gotta have a Batman, you gotta have a Robin, you gotta have a Superman, you gotta have a Joker. You gotta have all of that to create storylines and create rivalries.”

With all due respect to Earnhardt, we have to disagree with the Captain America comment. Like, has he seen the latest trailer for “Avengers: Infinity War?”

Never can have too much Cap.

As for the “Joker” comment, Earnhardt is absolutely right. NASCAR needs someone to shake things up — introduce some chaos, if you will. And as Busch has shown plenty of times before, he’s more than up for the challenge.