- Kyle Busch showed top-tier speed under new crew chief Andy Street.
- Top-10 run evaporated after a heated on-track clash and apparent retaliation.
- Busch used SMT data to defend his driving, while Nemechek blasted the veteran.
Kyle Busch came into Texas Motor Speedway with high hopes and the backing of a reinvigorated team, with new crew chief Andy Street atop the No. 8 pit box. Ipso facto, the changes clearly reflected on the Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.
For maybe the first time this season, the No. 8 car looked genuinely competitive, even rolling off with a P6 qualifying effort at over 190.61 mph. And once the race went green, Busch wasn’t just hanging on; he was running comfortably inside the top 10, well within the reach of a top-five finish, or add to his top-10 run at Talladega, perhaps even a breakthrough win.
But as the laps wound down and the track tightened up, that promise went up in flames. What had been shaping into one of Busch’s cleanest runs of the year ended instead in a late-race flashpoint with John Hunter Nemechek.
NASCAR Texas fallout: Kyle Busch responds to Nemechek clash
While Chase Elliot grabbed the headlines with a stellar run at Texas to notch his second win of the season, two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Busch did the same, though, through unhinged hooliganism violence.
The trouble began after a late caution reset the field, forcing both drivers into a scramble. Busch, who had been running ninth, and Nemechek, hovering just outside the top 10, lost track position after pit stops and were left fighting mid-pack on the final restart.
With just over a lap to go, the two found themselves side-by-side on the backstretch, battling for position rather than a headline finish, but neither was backing up, not even an inch.
And as the pack sped through the quad-oval, the “Rowdy” got an edge and drifted up the track off Turn 2, believing he had cleared the No. 42. But he hadn’t.
Contact off the No. 42 Toyota’s nose sent the “Rowdy” and his No. 8 car hard into the outside wall, damaging the car and killing his momentum. Moments later, as Nemechek drew alongside again into Turn 3, Busch turned right, sending Nemechek into the wall as well, in what appeared to be an act of retaliation.
Nemechek didn’t hold back, his frustration evident on the team radio. Following Sunday’s Texas ringer, the 28-year-old took to social media – “Not freaking clear. Great day going, and just got wrecked. What an a**.”
Meanwhile, Busch declined to speak trackside and instead responded online, offering a firm defense of his actions and backing it up with SMT data.
“I did not start this,” Busch who turned 41 a day ago wrote. “The 42 apparently doesn’t know where the right side of his car is and where he is in relation to the outside wall. There was two feet outside him, and I was judging my left side tires to the hash marks. Always know who you’re racing beside.”
He even doubled down in a follow-up response to fans, questioning how a driver is expected to track someone in a blind spot and insisting responsibility doesn’t fall on just one side in those moments.
In the end, both drivers paid the price. Busch limped home 20th as the last car on the lead lap, while Nemechek came across the finish line behind the No. 8.
‘I’ve got to go back and look’: Andy Street reacts to Busch’s late-race collapse
While emotions ran high online, Busch’s new crew chief, Andy Street, took a more measured approach when addressing the incident. From his vantage point, the No. 8 team had been building toward something meaningful before it all slipped away in the closing laps.
Reflecting on the race, he said post-race, “It was good. Really proud of all our guys. We got him a good car… And as it went, we just got a little too tight in the first two stages, so we couldn’t complete the corner like we liked to, but we got freed up towards the third stage. I thought we were good, we just lost so much track position at the point, we kind of fell back eighth, eleventh spot at that point.”
“That last restart, we started to make some moves, got around a few people,” Street added. “Kind of got hung behind the 3 for a few laps there, then went up just trying to make some spots… I’m not really sure what happened off of 2 there.”
Street acknowledged he had reviewed initial SMT data but stopped short of assigning blame, emphasizing that the team would need a deeper look before drawing conclusions – “I saw what was on SMT, but I don’t know. I’ve got to go back and look.”
That uncertainty mirrors the broader picture, leaving Texas. What should have been a momentum-building day for Busch and the No. 8 team instead ended under a cloud, another “what could have been” in a season that’s struggled to find rhythm.
And with both sides firmly standing their ground, the incident may not be over just yet. Furthermore, NASCAR’s response, if any, will likely come later this week, but the tension from Texas has already done its job, adding another edge to an already unpredictable 2026 season.
