Busch boys share crash blame, but opinions differ

CONCORD, N.C. -- When Kurt Busch said that he and his younger brother, Kyle, had never in their lives wrecked each other prior to last Saturday night's Nextel Cup All-Star Challenge, he wasn't exactly telling the truth.

They had never wrecked each other on a real racetrack.

Who's to blame?

Alan Gustafson, crew chief of Kyle Busch's No. 5 Chevrolet, blamed Kurt Busch for the accident. Kurt Busch blamed Kyle, but then the big brother is always going to blame the little brother, isn't he?

• Complete story, click here
• Video highlight, click here

He had forgotten about the time they got into each other during the Castle Rock Court 500 in the cul-de-sac near the Busch family home. Kurt was about 14 years old at the time; Kyle was about 7.

"My dad had these two five-horsepower go-karts," Kurt Busch remembered Thursday at Lowe's Motor Speedway, site of the Busch brothers' bash last Saturday. "We would throw out some Coke cans, squash them and then drive around the cul-de-sac and race each other, whether it was against the stopwatch or actually in competition."

One day their father announced that they were going to run a five-lap event named after the street they grew up on -- Castle Rock Court.

Kurt said he took it easy on Kyle at first, letting him pass him and run in front. But then their father called out that it was the last lap.

"So I got back in front of Kyle going into Turn 1," Kurt said. "Down the back straightaway, I'm leading -- so I start counting my chickens. I've got this thing in the bag."

Of course, he didn't.

"Coming off Turn 4, I feel this nudge to the left rear," Kurt said. "[Kyle] climbs over my left-rear tire and knocks the carburetor off my go-kart. Now I don't have any power to get back to the start/finish line -- and he wins the race.

"It was like, in my mind, I had won the race because he had just clobbered me and wrecked me and took the power out of my car."

Kyle didn't see it that way, according to Kurt.

"You know what? I got back to the start/finish line first, so I won," he told big brother. (Continued)