The season’s second race is done and dusted, but rivalries are growing more intense. The NASCAR Cup Series visited EchoPark Speedway last weekend, and the superspeedway event produced many spectacles. Most of them were sparks-flying, wall-rumbling crashes that collected prominent drivers like Kyle Busch. The two-time Cup Series champion veteran did not mince his words about his rival. However, Kevin Harvick thinks Busch made it chaotic for himself.

“I wouldn’t cast any of the blame on Noah personally,” Kevin Harvick said on his podcast. “If you’re in Noah’s shoes, I mean, if you lift and get tagged from behind and get spun out, you have to protect yourself a little bit, too. I mean, you’re the guy that slid up in front of him. If you dump the throttle and spin out or get hit from behind, that’s the risk that you take in these cars. So, you’ve got to protect yourself.”

Kyle Busch, currently facing a 92-race winless streak, started 14th in the Atlanta race. Around lap 125 of the 260-lap race, the Richard Childress Racing driver was running 13th. His No. 8 Chevy got loose out of Turn 2 when he slid up to the top of the track in front of Gragson. Busch tried to get his car straightened out, but apparently, Gragson gave him a hard push before his car was set straight.

After the crash, Busch made it clear he felt Gragson never gave him the chance to recover. Speaking to FOX Sports, Busch said Gragson “never checked up” and instead drove straight through him while he was still trying to gather control of the car. He added that when a driver is out of shape, you have to give them a moment to collect it, before finishing the thought with a frustrated, “That’s kids these days.”

The 40-year-old veteran was left with a P34 finish and a DNF, a rough end to what had started as a promising weekend. Just a day earlier, Busch had captured yet another NASCAR Truck Series victory at the same track, the 68th of his career, making Sunday’s early exit sting even more. Over the radio after the wreck, Busch summed it up bluntly, calling the incident a “single-car wreck” that effectively ended his day.

Meanwhile, Gragson kept going after the lap 125 run-in and crossed the line P14, logging his second straight top 15 finish. While Busch blamed Gragson for his own fate, Kevin Harvick shut down Busch’s complaints.

The 2014 Cup Series champion evaluated the situation: “They weren’t lined up. I mean, you just jammed up into the outside lane and had a few inches in front of the bumper of the four. I don’t know how you place any, you know, all the blame on Noah right there. Obviously, the eight car spun off the front bumper of the four, but the eight car also wound up in the lane that the four was coming at in full speed off the throttle. So, you know, I think Kyle was just frustrated.”

And Kevin Harvick is not alone with his theory, as Kyle Busch’s former teammate agreed.

A consequence of handling this car

Kyle Busch won his last race on June 4, 2023 at World Wide Technology Raceway. Since then, it has been a very dry run for the once trendsetter of the Cup Series. Busch’s prime was under Joe Gibbs Racing, for which he fetched 56 of his 63 Cup Series trophies, alongside two championships. But that was while handling NASCAR’s previous Cup Series cars.

The Next-Gen car, introduced in 2022, is something that Busch is still struggling with. That is what JGR driver Denny Hamlin believes was the true problem in Busch’s Atlanta run-in with Noah Gragson.

“Yeah, it’s that’s tough on the Next (Gen) car. So if you’re Noah, if you do this giant lift-and-break moment to give the guy the spot, then you’re opening yourselves up for someone else doing to you what he ended up doing to Kyle.”

Denny Hamlin offered his interpretation of Kyle Busch’s post-race frustration. He said it sounded like Busch admitted he was out of shape. And also that Gragson may have tried to help but missed the mark. But Hamlin agreed with Kevin Harvick eventually, pinning the blame for the incident on Busch.

Clearly, Kyle Busch’s 2026 venture is off to a grim start. However, we have the rest of the season left to see Rowdy come back to winning form.