Kyle Busch and his elder brother Kurt Busch have carved out extraordinary careers in NASCAR. Kurt won a Cup championship in 2004, while Kyle has secured two championships in 2015 and 2019. Despite a seven-year age difference, their similar features and names often lead to confusion, to the point where Kyle humorously revealed that even their parents have occasionally mixed them up.
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In a 2015 interview with Jeff Gluck during the season he was in the process of winning his first championship, Kyle discussed the frequent mix-ups. He remarked, “I get mistaken for my brother (Kurt) all the time. For some reason, it’s easy for fans to do. I don’t understand it.”
When pressed on whether the confusion stemmed from their names or looks, Kyle explained, “Sometimes they really think I’m him, and I have to convince them that no, I’m not. Then they’re like, ‘OK, whatever.’ But other times people just want to spit out ‘Kurt’ when they mean ‘Kyle.’ My parents are plenty guilty of that, too.”
Apart from sharing a surname and bearing a resemblance, the brothers have other similarities as well. Both have achieved over 30 Cup Series victories, making them the duo with the most combined wins in NASCAR history among siblings. Besides that, in 2023, they were both honored as part of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers list, cementing their legacies in the sport.
The feud between the Busch brothers
The rivalry between Kyle and Kurt Busch has spanned the breadth of typical sibling dynamics, shifting from friction to friendship over the years. Despite their current close relationship, with Kurt frequently attending dirt races to cheer on his younger brother, their history includes some big conflicts, including a clash that occurred during the 2007 All-Star race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Competitive spirits led to a costly collision at the time. Kyle was behind the wheel of the #5 HMS Chevrolet at the time, and Kurt was piloting the #2 Penske car. The tension peaked when Kyle dove to the inside of his brother’s car, going three-wide, vying for a second-place finish which resulted in both brothers wrecking their cars and forfeiting the chance at a one-million-dollar prize.
The racing incident strained their relationship to the point where they ceased communication for over a year, and it took them more than a decade to fully mend fences. Reflecting on those turbulent times, Kyle shared:
“He blamed me for the wreck for about 10 years and then finally he came around and admitted that he crashed me in that wreck, that it was his fault… I hated him. We finally came to somewhat of an agreement to disagree.” Their longstanding feud was ultimately quelled by their grandmother, whose intervention helped bridge the gap between the two.
