As the NASCAR world continues to mourn the sudden passing of racing legend Kyle Busch, another legend of the sport has revealed the details of his final conversation with the late racer.
On a recent episode of his podcast, Dale Earnhardt Jr. revealed that Busch wanted to race one of JR Motorsports’ late model cars in the CARS Tour — and he wanted to do it in Earnhardt’s iconic No. 8.
“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 said.
“Because we had agreed that he was gonna race our car in the Cars Tour.”
“For longtime NASCAR fans, the story immediately carried emotional weight,” Yahoo! Sports reported. “Busch and Earnhardt spent years battling each other at the highest level of the sport before eventually developing a friendship rooted in mutual respect and a shared passion for racing beyond the Cup Series garage.”
Earnhardt, 51, then revealed the part of the conversation with Busch that stuck with him the most.
“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.’”
Earnhardt added, “He gave me a head-exploding emoji, and he said, ‘Race fans.’”
Busch and Earnhardt had since put their rivalry aside to focus on their shared appreciation for traditional forms of racing, such as short-track racing.
The desire to not only race in Earnhardt’s CARS Tour program but also to do so while showing his No. 8 shows just how much respect Busch had for his former rival.