Tony Stewart is most certainly upset with the entire NASCAR community. Motorsports is all about the passion and adrenaline. When that passion shows up on track as aggression, it is easy to forget the reality of those drivers behind the masks that they put on while racing. And thus, Stewart feels like NASCAR did the same with one of his greatest rivals and friends.

While speaking to reporter Noah about the tributes that have been dedicated to Kyle Busch over the past few weeks, Stewart sounded rather agitated. Busch tragically passed away at the age of 41 from hemorrhagic shock and disseminated intravascular coagulation, caused by complications from severe bacterial pneumonia that progressed into sepsis. He was unable to wrap his head around the idea that people did not try to understand him sooner for who he was off-track.

“Well, they should’ve given him a chance to learn before they judged him forcefully. So right now, I don’t care about educating everybody about how Kyle Busch was. I know how Kyle Busch was,” he mentions angrily.

“So the fact that they all want to learn—they are the a– who haven’t taken the time to learn him and accept him for who he was back then. You want to wait till the guy dies, and then all of a sudden you care about him for who he was as a person. That’s the pat that pisses me off at everybody.”

There are many stories that have come up after Kyle Busch’s demise that touch on various aspects of his life as the real man behind Rowdy. But as Stewart mentions, why didn’t they come out sooner?

It is rather tragic that Busch’s death was all it took for people to suddenly change their outlook towards him. This was somewhat a similar precedence to when Kobe Bryant died from a helicopter crash in Los Angeles in 2020. Right before his tragic demise, they were busy criticizing and pestering him over his recent slump in the Cup Series. So it was quite obvious that when people really had the time to celebrate his achievements and make him feel like a winless streak doesn’t define him as a winner, they were busy framing him as a villain of the grid who had lost his edge on track.

Whether it be a recent move he pulled off against John Hunter Nemechek or his aggressive beatdown of drivers on the radio. At that time, people conveniently forgot that it was the same Busch who had provided multiple drivers with a set path to the NASCAR Cup Series via Kyle Busch Motorsports’ Truck series program. Yet, as soon as they lost him, the community couldn’t help but dote on his personality, connecting his aggressiveness to his eagerness to compete.

While it can be framed as respect for the departed, in Tony Stewart’s eyes it is nothing more than a cheap double standard prevalent in the community. In fact, Stewart was barely able to keep his composure during the interview.

“You can’t see it well because of the lighting, but the longer Tony answered, the wider his eyes got, and the more intense he became. It was visible how much it bothered him. As soon as he finished answering, he made sure to point out he wasn’t referring to me,” the reporter further posted on their social media.

It speaks volumes about the bond they shared; after all, Stewart and Busch were more similar to each other than anyone could imagine.

A bond built on hot-headed aggression on track while racing

When Tony Stewart was returning to the racetrack this year for the Truck Series race at Daytona, others were busy congratulating or anticipating something big from him. But Kyle Busch? He just wanted to take a sarcastic jab at Stewart.

“I hope he doesn’t plan on finishing,” Busch said about him. Now anyone would wonder why Busch was so sour towards him. After all, Stewart had been racing 12000 HP monsters before stepping foot in NASCAR again. Surely, he would know a thing or two about driving a truck.

But that’s how Kyle Busch always saw Stewart: as a fierce competitor and a talented driver who he hated racing against. In fact, Busch reportedly admitted that he would rather have Tony Stewart as a teammate than face him on track as his competitor.

Between the two of them, they hold five 1-2 finishes during their time racing together in the Cup Series. But it was the attitude that truly connected them. Like two peas in a pod, they were raw, unapologetic, ready to bash headfirst into the situation without a worry to act politically correct, and most of all, entertaining to the fans and audience whenever they felt like it.