Dale Earnhardt Jr. Thinks Kyle Busch Was ‘Frustrated' Being a NASCAR Villain

Kyle Buschleaned into his "Rowdy" nickname, but the late NASCAR driver wasn't a huge fan of his villain perception.

"If I could take a stab at how I think Kyle thought, and what kind of person he was, he was so frustrated that he was kind of cast [as] the villain," Dale Earnhardt Jr. speculated during the Tuesday, May 26, episode of his "Dale Jr. Download" podcast.

Earnhardt, 51, explained that there was initially "a bit of a negative tone" around Kyle's brother, Kurt Busch, because of "struggles and run-ins with different drivers" in NASCAR.

"Kyle comes in and had been cast in a negative way, I remember him saying, like, ‘That wasn't fair. … People have made this assumption about me that wasn't fair,'" Earnhardt recalled.

Earnhardt explained that he had said something to the media about Kyle being "a little reckless" during their first Daytona 500 together. This led to an interaction between the two men.

"He said something over the roof of the car, like, ‘Man, you better watch it. What you're saying in the media.' I was like, ‘What? That was weird. He's mad?' He took that really personal; that was not that big of a deal," Earnhardt recalled. "We didn't get off on the best foot."

Kyle and Earnhardt eventually ended their longtime beef on and off the racetrack.

"Kyle wanted to be liked. Kyle wanted to be a fan favorite. There's fans of his listening to this show, going, ‘He was a fan favorite. He had fans.' He didn't love being the guy that they booed," Earnhardt continued. "He didn't want that. He didn't choose [or] prefer to be polarizing. He kind of just had to embrace and lean into it at some point, so he did."

Kyle, who died at age 41 earlier this month from pneumonia that progressed into sepsis, was known for his competitive driving style, which led to the nickname Rowdy. The name is a nod to the antagonist in the 1999 movie Days of Thunder, Rowdy Burns, who was played by Michael Rooker. Kyle embraced the nickname throughout his career.

"I think deep down in there, Kyle wanted affirmation. He wanted approval. He wanted people to recognize his statistics, his greatness, his wins," Earnhardt said on Tuesday. "He kept winning. He'd win and win and win and look around and go, ‘Look at what I'm doing. Where is the acknowledgement? Look at what I've done.' He wanted that, and we all weren't as quick to give it to him."

Elsewhere in the episode, Earnhardt said he's been having "a hard time" with Kyle's death overall.

"I think that that's gonna take a while," he added. "It's one of the things you don't want to have to come to terms with in life."

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This story was originally published May 27, 2026 at 9:00 AM.