Kyle Busch and Joey Logano traded punches in 2017 after a race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway — but why?
The obvious answer is they were upset about something that happened during the race, especially Busch, who instigated the fight. However, Busch recently offered a more detailed explanation during a conversation with The Athletic’s Jeff Gluck.
Watch the video below to jog your memory:
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From Gluck’s latest “12 Questions” podcast:
Well, there’s always been a rivalry of sorts between Team Penske and Joe Gibbs Racing, and much of that has stemmed from Brad (Keselowski) and myself never liking each other or getting along. Joey and I have always had a pretty decent relationship, and I was one of his biggest supporters at JGR. I was one of the guys talking to Joe (Gibbs) and saying, ‘Man, I don’t think he needs to be let go. I think we should keep him. I think we need to keep him a little longer.’ We were always cordial. I wouldn’t call us friends, but I was better teammates with Joey than I probably was with Denny at that time.
But then he goes over to Penske and gets Brad in his head and starts to become this cocky Brad No. 2. I’m like, ‘Man, I can’t tolerate that.’ For one, you can’t be this happy-go-lucky, laugh-all-the-time, ha-ha whatever to everyone’s face and then on the racetrack put this different act on. Like who you are is who you are; you can’t be two-faced. I hate two-faced.
So he started doing a little bit of that and it started bugging me and driving me the wrong way. There were some other instances where he and I were kind of rough on the track. We weren’t really disrespectful, but it was starting to get to that point where it was like, ‘All right man, that probably went a little too far.’
(At Las Vegas), it was four to go or three to go and Brad, lo and behold, was losing a motor or dropped a cylinder or something in the last few laps. Joey and I were going to be racing for third, essentially.
There was a moment down the backstretch where Joey and I were side-by-side and we were catching Brad. I was just a little bit enough ahead of Joey where I turned down so I didn’t get stuck behind Brad to where Joey would use Brad as a pick to keep the position on me. I was better than Joey; I had caught him from a straightaway back.
So I turned down on him a little bit and just barely touched him to make a hole, got the hole and turned into (Turn) 3, and then he just flat-out drives off in there. And I knew he wrecked me. Like I knew — I knew — he drove into me and flat-out wiped me out. On purpose.
So all of that (past) stuff and then that right there? It was like, ‘OK, you’re done. That’s it.’
I’ve been in trouble enough times over the years (because) after the race is over, you go and beat each other’s car up and all that stuff. I was like, ‘Well, I’m not going to do that. Fine, I’ll do something else this time. Watch this.’ So I just marched my happy ass down there and whacked him across the head.
Make of that what you will.
Busch was his typically feisty self following Tuesday nights NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series race, essentially blaming a runner-up finish on his crew. At this much point, much of Busch’s drama can best be described as “Rowdy being Rowdy.”
