Kyle Busch Fires Back After Shane van Gisbergen Calls Him ‘Old and Scared’ originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
Shane van Gisbergen has been the talk of NASCAR over the last month and deservedly so, after winning three of the last five Cup Series races at Mexico City, Chicago and Sonoma. Earlier in the week the Trackhouse Racing driver appeared for an interview on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio and talked about his recent successes.
Toward the end of the conversation, the Kiwi discussed his racing exploits outside of NASCAR and running in the Legends Pro division at Charlotte Motor Speedway, where he’s competing against Bubba Wallace and IndyCar driver Scott McLaughlin. When Danielle Trotta asked him about Brexton Busch competing in the Summer Shootout, the 36-year-old driver took the opportunity to call out the younger Busch’s father.
“Yeah, he’s in the younger classes though,” SVG said of Brexton. “He is a little bit young and then Kyle’s a little bit old and scared. He is in the masters class. He doesn’t race with us, so that would’ve been fun.”
On Saturday during the rained-out practice and qualifying session at Dover Motor Speedway, Trotta, who is working as a pit reporter for TNT, asked the two-time Cup Series champion why he wasn’t racing against SVG and the other professionals.
“ In Legends cars, if you’re over 40, you can run in the masters class, which I’m a professional — yes, I race on Sundays, I get it, I should be in the pro class,” Busch said. “Well, the pro class you can be anywhere from 12 all the way to wherever. And there’s just a bunch of these kids that are pros that get that designation that go out there and they love to just run into everything.
”And so I raced the pro class down in Florida earlier this year. I don’t think I finished one of those pro races because I got hit every single time I was on the racetrack and got taken out. So I was like, I am not gonna go run with the kids and get tore up. I’m gonna go run with the old man group and we’re gonna respect each other and take care of each other.
“Ask Shane how many races he’s actually finished in the pro class. Or how many bumpers or fenders or tow links he’s knocked off in the legends cars. You know, my car’s been clean and green and we’ve won a few times, so it’s been much more fun having my stuff come back after a race in one piece.”
Busch and van Gisbergen get their next chance to compete against each other on Sunday at Dover. Race coverage begins at 2 p.m. ET on TNT.
Related: Kyle Busch Clears the Air After Dale Jr. ‘Shade’ Sparks Fan Backlash
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 20, 2025, where it first appeared.
