Kyle Busch Gets Thrown Under The Bus By His Brother, Kurt Busch

Sunday’s NASCAR race at Watkins Glen saw Kyle Busch secure his second top-10 finish in the last three weeks. But that strong performance came on the heels of a little bit of controversy that got under his brother Kurt’s skin.

On Monday’s edition of the Door Bumper Clear podcast, Kurt Busch spoke about the controversy over Ryan Preece wrecking Ty Gibbs while his brother got off scott-free for wrecking John Hunter Nemechek at Texas Motor Speedway. He accused NASCAR of basing its decision on radio chatter rather than what they should have clearly seen on the track.

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“Well that’s the problem of the problem,” Kurt Busch said. “NASCAR shouldn’t go off of what someone says on the radio. They should be able to still look at the eyeball test.”

But then Kurt took it a step further by asserting that Kyle should have been penalized for what he did to Nemechek.

“What my brother did to John Hunter was the same exact thing,” Busch said. “And there could have been maybe one or two words. Now you’re in like a court room. You may have or you could have… you change one little word in a sentence. But to have Preece penalized and not my brother, I mean I have no problem saying it. They both should have been in the same doghouse, personally.”

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Staying Quiet

Kurt Busch suggested that his brother was able to avoid getting into any trouble with NASCAR by not even addressing what he did over the radio or at any point after the race. He noted that talking about wrecking other drivers is the easiest way to get punished for it and the best strategy is to simply never admit to it.

“There was an All-Star race… I needed a yellow, so I wreckedRobby Gordon late in the race,” Busch recalled. “And I didn’t say anything, but the yellow came out, we got another set of tires. And I still wasn’t quick enough to catch them. I think it was the year Jr. one. What was it, ’02?

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“Anyway, I was on a radio show Tuesday afterwards. I can’t remember what show it was, it could have been like 106.5 downtown. I was just off guard or it was early morning, I said, ‘Oh yeah, I wrecked him. I was just looking for a yellow because I needed one more shot, I wanted one more shot.’ On Wednesday, NASCAR issued me a $100,000 penalty. Docked points. Even though it was the All-Star race. And then Richard Childress wanted to fight me by Friday.”

So it looks like Kyle Busch was able to get off the hook for that little incident with Nemechek. His far bigger concern is using the second half of the NASCAR Cup Series season to get enough points to jump into the NASCAR Cup playoffs.

This story was originally published by The Spun on May 12, 2026, where it first appeared in the NASCAR section. Add The Spun as a Preferred Source by clicking here.