Dale Earnhardt Jr. Shares Surprising Final Conversation With Kyle Busch

In NASCAR, there are some rivalries that mean more to the fans than the drivers. Among those was the Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. rivalry. While it was very much real at one point, and the two drivers were heated adversaries, in recent years the two had reconciled and started to become friends.

On his podcast following Coca-Cola 600 weekend, Dale Jr. recalled the last text conversation he had with Kyle Busch. For many fans, it will shock them. It is also another tragic reminder of what fans and the racing community could have seen if Busch was still alive.

Get this, Rowdy in the No. 8 Late Model Stock Car for Dale Jr. in the CARS Tour. Of course, the classic DEI font that Dale Jr. recently took ownership over.

"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," Earnhardt shared on his podcast. "We had agreed he was going to race our car in the CARS Tour, he was going to race my Late Model in the CARS Tour.

"He's texting me, and he's like, 'What scheme are we going to run?' and I was like, 'You can run any scheme you want.' I was like, 'What number you want to run?' You know, we can run 51, whatever you want to run. He goes, 'I want to run,' and he said it, literally, '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.' Then he gave me a head explosion emoji, and he said, 'Race fans.'"

Kyle Busch racing in a Dale Jr. stylized No. 8 car for JR Motorsports in the CARS Tour. It would have been a truly special moment, and fans would have ate up the merchandise from that start.

There have been so many great stories and memories shared throughout the NASCAR world in response to Busch's death. Dale Earnhardt Jr. got to learn who Kyle Busch was off the track in the last 10 years. Listening to him talk about Busch on his podcast, you can hear the emotion in his voice, and how raw a lot of this still is. It hasn't even been a full week, and it feels like it's been a month.

This weekend at Nashville Superspeedway, Austin Hill will once again race the No. 33 Chevy, which is the renumbered No. 8 car for Richard Childress Racing in the Cup Series.

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This story was originally published May 27, 2026 at 10:13 AM.