Just days after Kyle Busch passed away at 41 from pneumonia and sepsis, Dale Earnhardt Jr. revealed on Dirty Mo Media that a plan was already locked in. Kyle Busch was supposed to come by the JR Motorsports shop that week for a seat fitting before making a surprise start in the upcoming CARS Tour race at North Wilkesboro. The two were literally texting about it the day before Busch died.
“I was texting with him the day before he passed away about getting together this Thursday to bring his seat for his late model over to my shop,” Dale Jr. said.
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“Because we had agreed that he was gonna race our car in the Cars Tour.”
That detail is what makes your eyes well up. And honestly, the funniest part was the car number he wanted, which would’ve been a total surprise for the fans,
“And he goes, ‘I wanna run the Dale Jr. 8. And I was like, ‘You got it. That’s what’s on it right now. We’ll run the Dale Jr. 8.”
Dale Jr. is somewhat of a legend, and understandably, so is his No. 8. However, Kyle, too, has built a reputation and legacy in that number at Richard Childress Racing – despite having won more with the #18 at JGR. So the idea of Kyle Busch driving Dale Jr.’s No. 8 at North Wilkesboro? He knew people would lose their minds.
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“He gave me a head-exploding emoji and he said, ‘Race fans.’”
Well, there was a time when these two couldn’t even mention each other without drama following close behind, and that is what would have made the collaboration even more fun.
Their relationship really went sideways in 2007 when Busch lost his Hendrick Motorsports ride, and Dale Jr. arrived to take over the seat. Then came Richmond in 2008, when Busch wrecked Dale Jr. late while battling for the win. Junior Nation absolutely turned on him after that. Kyle became NASCAR’s villain almost overnight. But years later, once both guys became team owners and fathers, things changed.
Dale Jr. has said Busch was actually the one who initiated the peace talks. The conversations changed from old wrecks and started being about race shops, sponsorship pressure, employees, and trying to keep teams alive financially. By the time Busch came to the Dale Jr. Download in 2018, they were sitting together laughing through the Richmond feud frame by frame.
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Dale Jr. helped buy the CARS Tour to keep grassroots asphalt racing alive. Busch loved that side of racing anyway. Long before the Cup championships, he was already a killer in Late Models. He won 10 races in a season at Las Vegas as a teenager, then later picked off crown-jewel events like the Snowball Derby, Oxford 250, Winchester 400, and Slinger Nationals.
Even after becoming one of NASCAR’s best, Kyle Busch never really lost that short-track mentality. He still went there and raced because he genuinely loved racing those cars. But by 2026, Late Models had become less about Kyle himself and more about his son, Brexton.
Kyle Busch Was Building His Entire Future Around Brexton
That’s the other part of this story. For Busch, Late Models weren’t merely nostalgia. He saw them as the foundation for Brexton Busch’s future.
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At just 10 years old, Brexton had already moved from karts and micros into full-size stock cars with Wilson Motorsports at Madera Speedway in California. The family committed to an eight-race Junior Late Model schedule because Busch believed heavier stock cars teach racecraft differently. Tire wear matters more. Throttle control matters more. Drivers actually have to manage the car instead of just attacking every lap.
The cars themselves were very adapted for younger drivers. Brexton’s No. 18B used a restricted GM 602 crate engine, plus custom seat inserts, pedal extensions, and steering changes because he was still barely tall enough to fit properly inside the cockpit.
And Busch had mapped out the entire plan already. He openly talked about moving away from full-time Cup racing once Brexton turned 15. The goal was to race beside him briefly, coach him directly, then eventually share a Truck Series ride before fully handing things over.
Right before his passing, Busch had even started reaching out to dirt Late Model veterans like Jonathan Davenport and Dale McDowell about building a Crate Late Model program for Brexton, too. That’s why the North Wilkesboro story is bigger than one missed race.
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Busch wasn’t circling back to Late Models because he was bored. He was reconnecting with the part of racing he cared about most by the end: short tracks, development, mentoring, and eventually racing alongside his son.
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