KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Kyle Busch and Riley Herbst go back a ways, both as Las Vegas natives with family relationships and business partnerships between them. That history explains why each driver was surprised to find themselves as on-track adversaries last weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway.
There was plenty to unpack from last weekend’s Bristol race for Busch, little of it particularly pleasant. An intrasquad squabble over the team radio, a trade-off of bumps with Herbst and a frustrating 25th-place finish at one of his favorite haunts all factored in. Appearing Saturday for this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series round at Kansas Speedway, Busch did his best to parse it out — his hubbub with Herbst coming into mostly clearer focus.
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“Yeah, it’s really weird with Riley, because they have a nice family business out there in Nevada, and I’m a part of that family business being an investor in a couple of the stores,” Busch said before Cup Series practice, “and so it’s real awkward when you can’t get along with the kid who is probably one day going to take over that. And so it’s just, you know, bonehead moves. You just keep getting run over, and certainly, I’m not going to take it. So that’s just part of it, I guess.”
Busch heads into Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 (2 p.m. ET, FOX, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Kansas still mired in the worst start of his Cup Series career. His Bristol finish was the fourth in a row outside of the top 20 for the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, and it was marked by subplots and drama.
Some of last Sunday’s adventure involved Herbst, whose No. 35 Toyota made contact with Busch on the 313th of 505 laps, sending the No. 8 Chevy spinning. Busch managed to avoid contact in that instance, but he returned the favor to 23XI Racing’s second-year Cup driver with just two laps to go in regulation, driving through Herbst’s left-rear fender as the two exited Turn 4.
Herbst said the veteran’s reaction also caught him off guard, considering their shared background. The 27-year-old made six NASCAR Craftsman Truck starts for Kyle Busch Motorsports as he climbed the NASCAR ladder, and their families are close.
“Yeah, it was confusing,” Herbst told NASCAR.com. “Obviously, I’ve known Kyle for a long time. Being from Las Vegas, I’ve driven for him, I’ve been teammates with him, my dad and him are good friends, and so I’ve known Kyle for quite some time. The first one, it was an honest mistake. It was literally just Bristol, and I’m glad he didn’t get damage. He just kind of self-spun it after I made contact with him, and I was just rolling the center a little bit faster, had more speed, and I just meant to move him up a little bit. I didn’t mean to do what I meant to do. Then, yeah, I thought we were good, because we kind of had to race around each other for a little bit of the remainder of the race. What was it, two or three (laps) to go? Yeah, that took me by surprise, and the area where he retaliated on the straightaway, I thought, was surprising to me. But yeah, it’s Bristol.”
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Herbst said the two hadn’t communicated in the days since Sunday’s Food City 500, saying that he felt the matter was settled.
“I have no reason to talk to him,” Herbst said. “I mean, if he wants to talk to me, he’s got my phone number. He knows where I am. He’s got my family’s phone number; he can reach out. But yeah, I mean, in my point of view, everything’s kosher. It’s NASCAR Cup Series racing at Bristol, and we’re in Kansas.”
Some of the topsy-turvy nature of Busch’s Sunday came from within. Busch started 29th at Bristol and struggled in his search for rear grip throughout the race’s first half. Crew chief Jim Pohlman, in his first year with the No. 8 team, grew frustrated in his radio communications with Busch and spotter Derek Kneeland as the handling feedback and his adjustments were at loggerheads.
Kneeland radioed back that the raised-voice criticism was not constructive, and Pohlman acknowledged it, noting that the struggles were “just same [expletive] every week.”
“I mean, he’s frustrated,” Busch said of Pohlman. “You know, he’s probably not been in this boat very often of not having changes be able to affect the race car and things like that. I’ve been here for four or five years and have figured out that not a lot of things will really take you from a 30th-place car to a winning car, so it’s just different. So him having the frustrations of that is fine. I get it, and we just continue to try to figure out what helps me and makes me comfortable on Sunday.”
Busch qualified 23rd for Sunday’s 400-miler, one spot behind Herbst in the 37-car field. After Saturday’s sessions, Pohlman said his over-the-air grievances from Bristol weren’t meant to be taken personally.
“It’s just frustrating overall on my end,” Pohlman told NASCAR.com. “It certainly wasn’t aimed at anybody in particular. When you don’t perform the way you expected to perform and the season has gone the way it’s gone, it’s overall frustration.”
Pohlman’s transition to the Cup Series after a stellar run of success and a championship with Justin Allgaier in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series has been a difficult one, save for a pole-winning run in qualifying for the season-opening Daytona 500. He’s just eight races into his first full Cup campaign, but Pohlman says that righting the ship will likely start with things he can control.
“Personally, the only thing I can do is stay calm and keep my wits about me,” Pohlman said. “Certainly, that wasn’t good for the team or anybody else. Obviously, being media sweetheart is not cool, and I don’t need to do that again. For me, personally, it’s staying calm, on the path and fighting forward. Sooner or later, we’ve got to hit on some stuff. It’s been a struggle the whole time — so frustrating.”
Busch said he’s made efforts to tune out some of the social media critiques, but referenced recent analysis by Denny Hamlin on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast as particularly unsavory. “I have consumed some of it over time, and I’ve consumed that 80 percent of it, people don’t know what the hell they’re talking about,” Busch said, “and in this instance, I don’t feel like Denny Hamlin even knows what the hell he’s talking about, so he can bash me all he wants and I can certainly make his life hell.”
Busch’s average finish of 22.0 is the worst through eight races in his Cup Series career. Busch and teammate Austin Dillon are still looking for their first top-10 finish of 2026, marking the first time since 1981 that RCR has gone this far into a season without one.
Still, Busch says he’s found value in the relationships he’s continued to build since joining the Richard Childress-owned organization in 2023, trying to find bright spots where possible.
“You just keep working hard,” Busch said. “I mean, you’ve just got to keep pressing forward and keep doing the best you can, keep trying to answer the questions that are asked of you and putting in the full effort of the things that people want you to be able to do and what I’ve been accustomed of doing for my 20 years being here. … Some days it’s not. No, I would say you’re not having very much fun, but you know, the reward is going to be there at the end of the tunnel somewhere.”
Contributing: Dustin Albino
