By: Toby Christie, Editor – Follow on Twitter @Toby_Christie

During his availability at Charlotte Media Tour on Tuesday, Kyle Busch let his disdain for NASCAR promoting the younger drivers like Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott and Bubba Wallace in the sport over veteran drivers like himself be known.

Busch was quoted saying, “We’ve paid our dues, and our sponsors have and everything else, and all you’re doing is advertising all these younger guys for fans to figure out and pick up on and choose as their favorite driver. I think it’s stupid,” Busch said with frustration. “But I don’t know, I’m not the marketing genius that’s behind this deal. You know, I just do what I can do, and my part of it is what my part is.”

Wednesday, Blaney – who does a popular podcast for NASCAR — was questioned about Busch’s thoughts on the subject. He conceded that NASCAR indeed has given him a ton of opportunity to get his name and brand out to the masses.


“I have been really fortunate to get a lot of great chances from NASCAR to go do things outside of motorsports. NBC and NASCAR were a bit part of doing the Taken thing and the Cars voice and Logan Lucky. That was all really from NASCAR,” Blaney admitted.
According to Blaney, NASCAR goes to him more and more with these types of opportunities because he is usually very open-minded to every idea they bring to him.

“I have always been very open to do a lot of things that they want and it is not always stuff like that,” Blaney explained. “You go do some markets where maybe you don’t think it will be a good market but you do it anyway because it helps the sport and helps yourself. It is a win-win for everybody. I feel like if some drivers were more willing to do these things they would get asked more to do it. The reason I get asked to do it a lot is because I say yes a lot because I think it is good for the sport and myself. “

Blaney did not stop there, he then gave a first hand account of why Busch doesn’t receive the same promotion from the sanctioning body as the younger drivers working their way through the sport today.

“I can tell you personally that he [Busch} doesn’t like doing a lot of stuff so that is why they don’t ask him to do a lot of stuff,” Blaney stated emphatically. “That kind of made me upset how he bashed that part of it. To each his own. If he doesn’t want to do anything, so be it.”

Basically Busch’s gripe on Tuesday should have been with himself, not NASCAR or the younger drivers, according to Blaney. Get your popcorn ready, this war of words may kick off a fun new rivalry to watch this season.

Photo: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images