NEED TO KNOW
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. is sharing his last communication with Kyle Busch
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The third-generation driver said that he and the two-time Cup Series champ were planning on working together
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The two had a famous rivalry nearly 20 years ago
Years after their famous rivalry, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch were making plans to gear up together on the race track.
On the latest edition of his Dirty Mo Media podcast on Tuesday, May 26, Earnhardt shared details of their final texts with one another, hours before Busch died on Thursday at the age of 41.
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“I was texting with him the day before he passed away about getting together this Thursday to bring his seat for his late model over to my shop,” Earnhardt, 51, said.
He continued, “Because we had agreed that he was gonna race our car in the Cars Tour.
Kyle Busch was honored before the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday, May 24.
Credit: Jonathan Bachman/Getty
Earnhardt revealed that Busch had big plans for their collaboration — and an idea that would have blown fans’ minds.
“And he goes, ‘I wanna run the Dale Jr. 8’ and I was like, ‘You got it. That’s what’s on it right now. We’ll run the Dale Jr. 8.’ ”
Earnhardt added, “He gave me a head-exploding emoji and he said, ‘Race fans.’ ”
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Last week, the third-generation driver shared a heartfelt tribute to Busch, who died from severe pneumonia that progressed into sepsis, and expanded on his relationship with the NASCAR star.
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“Kyle and I had a really challenging existence for many years,” Earnhardt wrote in a post on X on Thursday, May 21. “But we luckily took the time to figure out our differences and that was something he instigated with a conversation in his bus around how we each managed our racing teams. I was super eager for us to get on better terms. But it was he who made the effort for that to be possible.
Earnhardt added, “We did some media together also to laugh through some of the things we put each other through many years ago.”
The drivers’ animosity towards one another — dating back to nearly 20 years ago when Busch left Hendrick Motorsports and Earnhardt drove his car — once took center stage in the sport.
On Sunday, May 24, Kyle’s wife, Samantha Busch, and their children, Brexton, 11, and Lennix, 4, made an emotional appearance at the Coca-Cola 600 race alongside his parents, Tom and Gaye Busch, and brother, Kurt Busch.
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“This was Kyle Busch’s home. Every racetrack was Kyle Busch’s home,” NASCAR president Steve O’Donnell said in a tribute to the two-time Cup Series champion. “He competed like he had something to prove every single race, when in reality he had already proven everything.”
Read the original article on People
