“He Still Hates Me” – Jeff Gordon Once Divulged on Kyle Busch After His Bitter Hendrick Motorsports Exit

Currently, Kyle Busch is a Joe Gibbs Racing star and has been driving the #18 car for a long time. However, once upon a time, he used to be a part of the Hendrick Motorsports stable. This partnership lasted from his full-time Cup debut in 2005 to 2007. During his tenure, he racked up four wins in the #5 car. After that, he moved on to JGR and has been tearing it up over there. Back in 2018, former teammate Jeff Gordon spoke about Busch to Dale Earnhardt Jr in his podcast.

He said, “He still hates me, you, Rick. A bunch of other people for some of those things. It had nothing to do with you, it had everything to do with him. At that time, he’s just not what he is today. He was a great driver, but man he just had a lot of other things that he needed to learn and mature.”

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Why did Kyle Busch leave Hendrick Motorsports?

By his own admission, it was a combination of factors that contributed to the split. First and foremost, he was not able to relate to team owner Rick Hendrick. It also didn’t help that he got involved in a few incidents at the 2007 All-Star Race. Kyle Busch also confessed that he was prone to outbursts and acting out, and that soured the relationship.

It wasn’t long before the young Kyle Busch was called in for a meeting. It was Rick Hendrick who delivered the bad news that they were not going to continue with him. However, Busch believed that their relationship could have been patched up. Following the rejection, the driver seriously thought that his budding NASCAR career was over. After being released from one of the biggest teams in the sport, one wouldn’t blame him for thinking that way. Fortunately, a certain Joe Gibbs took a gamble and roped him into his side.

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