It’s no secret that the 2024 season hasn’t started with the kind of results Kyle Busch strives for. After all, no other Cup Series driver’s personality quite embodies the saying, ‘If you’re not first, you’re last’ more than Rowdy’s. So when Denny Hamlin kicked off the year by beating Busch at the Light Clash and rubbing salt on his wounds with the ‘I beat your favorite driver’ line, the rebirth of ‘Rowdy’ Busch had just begun.

With that said, the #8 Richard Childress Racing maestro is losing his cool as each race unfolds for the worst. And after his heated altercation with Christopher Bell this weekend at COTA, Kevin Harvick and his co-hosts believe the return of Busch’s rowdy era might just be upon us.

Kevin Harvick believes tensions are boiling over in the #8 RCR garage

No driver hates finishing second more than Kyle Busch, but it seems like that’s what 2024 has in store for him. From his second-place finish at the Clash to his P3 at Atlanta behind Daniel Suarez and Kyle Larson in an iconic three-way photo finish, the #8 RCR just doesn’t seem to have cracked the code to P1 yet. And these close finishes have perhaps taken its toll on the veteran.

This was pretty evident when Busch exchanged heated words with Bell after the race at COTA, prompting many to believe that the old Kyle Busch we all know and love was back for more. Only recently, Busch had also stated that drivers these days had gone soft, feeling that a lot of fights would be solved much faster in the older days. Reflecting on Busch’s growing frustrations after the Bell incident, Harvick also felt that the 2024 season was becoming the perfect catalyst for Rowdy Busch’s return.

Speaking on the Harvick’s Happy Hour Podcast, the former SHR driver shared, “I think in general, Kyle is just frustrated with the way that the start of the year has gone and I think you’re starting to see more of those situations boil over.” Taking a look at Busch’s results, it wouldn’t be surprising that the 38-year-old is feeling the pressure. With how each race keeps unfolding, Harvick felt that the #8 driver would waste no time in letting other drivers know what upsetting him would mean.

Harvick stated, “I felt like it affected the way that he drove and the decisions that he made. And sometimes a guy like Kyle, that’s why he’s gonna do that. Maybe (Busch’s) he’s like ‘Well, I need to get this situated and tell my piece or mix this up.’ While Harvick believed that Busch was well aware that drivers would leave him alone if he confronted them, his co-host, Mamba Smith, felt there was not much holding back the RCR driver from unleashing his wrath.

Mamba Smith concluded, “I think with Kyle Busch specifically, because of what you said, with their season not being super stellar, the more that it stays mid to not that great, the more that Kyle Busch is going to do this…(..)…I think more of the old Rowdy is going to kind of start showing back up with where they’re at. Because he’s frustrated.”

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Whilst the Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast fully believes Kyle Busch’s old persona could soon make a comeback with how RCR’s season is unfolding, seeing his reaction with Bell, it may as well have come back already!

Is Kyle ‘Rowdy’ Busch back in action already?

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During the 2024 EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix, Kyle Busch was running quite well and was hoping to turn around his prior misfortunes. Unfortunately, contact with Christopher Bell in turn one sent the #8 Chevy spinning into oblivion. Whilst Bell recovered to finish second, Busch only managed to finish in ninth. Their frustrations of Busch were visible in his confrontation with Bell.

Reflecting on the sparks of rowdiness that Busch exhibited, the co-hosts of Harvick’s Happy Hour discussed; “Christopher actually genuinely looked scared over there, like I thought when he came up to him, ‘Woah!'” After all, not only were the pair teammates at KBM, but Christopher Bell, in many ways, owed his rise to NASCAR partly to Busch.

Mamba Smith also shared some history between the two; “He kind of came through that Toyota – you’ve gotta go through Kyle’s program, so there’s a respect level there. Because Kyle’s made so many guys so good, and Christopher’s one of them, and Christopher’s never really gotten into it with anyone.” With no prior ‘brawling’ experience under his belt, Bell looked quite stunned at Busch’s aggression.

Smith concluded, “But his (Bell) face is like, ‘Man! Uncle Kyle is really upset with me right now.’ He didn’t know what to do! And Kyle was like, he puts his fingers up like “two” and “three” and then we don’t have the audio on that, but it feels something like, ‘you hit me once, you hit me twice,’ – somewhere else – ‘and now you wreck me’.”

Confronted by Raging Kyle Busch, Apologetic Christopher Bell Denies Foul Intentions Behind Repeated Wreckouts

At the end of the day, Christopher Bell may have saved himself from a Kyle Busch uppercut, but the next driver that tests the #8 RCR star’s patience may not be as lucky!