Kyle Busch has a long history of tangling with Team Penske drivers, turning races into personal battles that fans love to hate. It all started heating up in the 2010s with Brad Keselowski, who was running for Penske in the Nationwide/Xfinity Series. At Bristol in August 2010, Busch wrecked Keselowski on the way to the win, sparking a feud that had the crowd chanting “Kyle Busch is an ass” during driver intros. Keselowski fired back, calling Busch out publicly, and their clashes kept coming on track with hard racing and off track with pointed words.

Even after Keselowski went full-time to Cup with Penske, the tension simmered through the early 2010s with near-fights and barbs that made every race a must-watch. Busch didn’t stop there.

In March 2017 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, he and Joey Logano, a Penske star, went toe-to-toe on the final lap. Logano’s contact spun Busch out of a top-five spot, and Busch wasn’t having it. He stormed down pit road, punched Logano, and kicked off a massive crew brawl that had NASCAR fans talking for weeks. Busch walked away bloodied, but the incident cemented his reputation for not backing down against Penske’s heavy hitters. Now, at the 2025 Southern 500 playoff opener at Darlington, Busch is at it again, putting Roger Penske’s playoff driver Ryan Blaney in hot water.

On Lap 209, Kyle Busch’s car went sideways in front of him, forcing Blaney to slam on the brakes. Austin Dillon’s No. 3 slid in behind, trapping Blaney and sparking a wild spin into the wall.

Darlington’s Turn 4 is notorious for these chain reactions, where the narrow groove turns a small bobble into a multi-car mess. It was classic Darlington mayhem, where a split-second decision in that unforgiving corner can flip a race on its head.

Blaney walked away okay, but the damage left his team scrambling in a high-stakes playoff moment. This kind of pile-up is Darlington’s calling card, especially in the playoffs. The track’s abrasive layout and tight racing line make every move a gamble.

Blaney’s incident echoes past wrecks where drivers like Denny Hamlin or Bubba Wallace got caught in someone else’s error in that same corner, proving how thin the margin is at the “Lady in Black.” Busch’s sideways moment wasn’t intentional, but it put Penske’s star in jeopardy and highlighted the unforgiving nature of the sport.

Steve Letarte doubts Blaney’s playoff run

Steve Letarte isn’t sold on Ryan Blaney’s championship odds, despite two regular-season wins, including the Daytona finale. “Seven DNFs this year. Seven! We’ve only run 26 races!” Letarte said on NASCAR Inside The Race. “Man, they’ve had some stuff happen to them.”

Blaney still finished second in points before the reset and enters fourth, but Letarte’s worried about the short sample size in each round. With just three races per round, one bad day like the Darlington spin can sink you. Blaney starts 20 points above the cut line, but Letarte warns that a DNF at Darlington could drop him below heading into Gateway and Bristol.

“When the sample size is 26 weeks, he ended up second. Scored second most points of anybody. But in a sample size of three, it’s hard to recover from a DNF, whether it’s your doing or somebody else’s. This format rewards winning and excellence.” Blaney’s reliability issues make him vulnerable, but his wins give him a shot if he can avoid more trouble.