Dale Earnhardt Jr. reflects on ‘spat’ with Kyle Busch, blame comments that have come full circle

Kyle Busch has been all over the headlines in the last week. It started with a feud with Denny Hamlin over podcast comments that he wasn’t really in a position to be winning regularly in NASCAR these days.

The driver of the No. 8 car bit back, essentially threatening to make Hamlin’s life on the track “hell.” That has been heavily scrutinized.

But Dale Earnhardt Jr. is empathizing with Kyle Busch a little bit. He’s been there before. And that says something, because Earnhardt and Busch haven’t always seen eye to eye.

“I’ll be honest. A long time ago, there was a bit of a spat between me and him that was kind of ongoing,” Earnhardt said on the Dale Jr. Download. “And every week in the media the media would go to him or go to me and try to get a soundbite. And I was struggling with Lance (McGrew) and we were between crew chiefs and he said to the media, he said, ‘It’s never Dale’s fault, it’s always the crew chief’s. It’s never Dale’s fault, is it?’

“I mean, that’s kind of what he’s dealing with now. It is very similar. He’s in a bad spot. He’s in a car that ain’t going. His teammate’s doing better or finishing, getting the better results.”

Earnhardt went through Kyle Busch’s struggle. It’s easy to point fingers.

The truth of the matter is probably somewhere in the middle. Busch doesn’t have great racecars to drive right now. He’s also not driving great.

The result? It’s been an ugly season that has Busch currently stuck in 27th in the points standings.

The good news for Kyle Busch is that he seems to be handling things better than many would expect. At least on the racetrack, it’s business as usual, even if business isn’t exactly booming.

“To Kyle’s credit, when I listen to the radio, from what I have heard, Kyle has remained relatively professional,” Earnhardt said. “So now there’s other things happening on Channel 2 between the spotter and the crew chief that are strange, because you would think you would get that kind of sh*t from the driver, but the driver’s actually the one that sounds the most professional out of the three, right?

“Because on Channel 2 — the crew chiefs and the spotter will go on Channel 2 and talk all kind of… there’s no filter over there. They just say whatever the hell’s on their mind, all their frustrations.”

Kyle Busch hasn’t engaged with that a whole lot. So, at the minimum, he has kept a crappy set of circumstances from spiraling completely out of control and turning into a media frenzy, too.

That’s something Earnhardt can respect. It’s not easy when you’re going through it.