RELATED: Kahne-Busch incidents through the years
CONCORD, N.C.—It looked like Kyle Busch would drive away to a victory in Friday's NASCAR XFINITY Series Drive for the Cure 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
But after leading 102 laps, Busch lost a top-two position on Lap 147 to race winner Austin Dillon and Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Erik Jones. Busch dropped back to third and was racing JR Motorsports and fellow NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Kasey Kahne for the position.
Then on Lap 151, Busch and Kahne made contact in Turn 4 that sent "Rowdy" into the wall and brought out the third and final caution of the race. Kahne appeared to make contact with Busch's back bumper, which sent him up the track and into the wall. There had been more contact before that while the two were racing side-by-side over several laps.
The Lap 151 contact was costly for both drivers, hurting either of their chances at a win, but the damage was worse for Busch, who suffered heavy damage to the right side of his No. 54 Toyota.
That led Busch to say over the radio, "The most obvious dump I've ever seen."
Busch brought his wounded machine to the garage, where he ended the night 47 laps down and with a 31st-place finish.
Kahne, who finished 12th, was not quite sure why Busch was beating on his car before the accident, but he did offer up his perspective.
"Kyle got mad because he got into it with his teammate on Turn 2 on the start and it shuffled him back to where I was," Kahne said after the race.
"I'm racing to try and get by where he was. He's down on me in the corners and I'm against him on the straightaways just doing normal stuff and then he starts beating on me down the back and in the front.
"I overdrove Turn 3, got into him. I don't know why he started beating on me other than I think he was frustrated because his teammate kind of used him up a little bit and then got away from him in Turn 2."
With both drivers regulars in the sport's top series, does Kahne expect there to be payback Saturday night?
"I would hope not," Kahne said. "I don't know why he would want to have that battle. What, he wrecked me five times a couple years ago? Put me in a bad position for those two years when he was doing that. I don't think he wants that battle on Sundays."
And while both drivers will be back on track Saturday night in the Sprint Cup Series Bank of America 500 (7 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM), the two will likely not be on track in the XFINITY Series until next month at Phoenix International Raceway. Kahne is slated to be in the No. 88 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports that weekend, while Busch has been making regular starts in the No. 54 Toyota over the past several months.
Over the years, Kahne and Busch have been involved in several wrecks with each other, notably and most recently at Pocono in June of 2014 as well as at Darlington in May of 2013. The duo even made a bet on Super Bowl XLVIII; after Kahne's beloved Seattle Seahawks beat Busch's favorite team, the Denver Broncos, Busch had to wear Seahawks gear en route to 2014 Daytona Speedweeks.
Busch was not available for comment after the race, but his wife Samantha tweeted the following.