Joey Logano and Kyle Busch had a well-documented rivalry over the course of the past two decades.<\/p>\n
Even as their relationship started to thaw, and enjoy a casual respect in recent years, \u2018Rowdy\u2019 never missed a chance to take public pot shots at his fellow Cup Series champion. As recently as a month ago, Busch went on \u2018Hang Out with Sean Hannity\u2019 and revealed that Logano, Brad Keselowski and Carson Hocevar were peers he couldn\u2019t stand.<\/p>\n
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Busch was characteristically playing it up for the camera a little bit but it\u2019s also true that he and Logano were far from friendly at the time of his passing.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though we had this little rivalry, if you will, on the racetrack and we didn\u2019t see eye-to-eye on a lot of things from that perspective, we were able to put that stuff away and joke around and have a little piece of what that is and who know what would have been once we were done racing,\u201d Logano said during a press conference on Saturday before the Coca-Cola 600. \u201cYou see everybody changes. When you\u2019re done racing you bury the hatchet, if you will.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier in the day, Michael McDowell revealed that the two rivals ended up playing basketball with each other and their respective kids last month at Talladega and Busch couldn\u2019t help himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the memories that I have in my head lasting memories I feel like it’s been playing on my mind the last few days with Talladega just a few weeks ago,\u201d McDowell shared. \u201cKyle, Brexton and the kids were all playing basketball, and my son was playing too and I just have that memory of him playing basketball with them but also (Kyle) talking trash to Joey, which was a lot of fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause they sort of had their rivalry, right? But when you’re in the driver owner lot and the kids are playing, it’s a different environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Logano says he only ended up playing that pick up game because he wanted to playfully confront Busch about the comments to Hannity.<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably one of the last times I talked to Kyle was at the playground at Talladega,\u201d Logano said. \u201cI remember seeing him and the first thing I walked up to him because it was right after he did a podcast saying how he didn\u2019t like me, and, of course, because I just hit things head-on I walked up to him and said, \u2018What the heck, I thought we were friends?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThen we had a good laugh about it and joked about it. Brexton and Hudson, they play together all the time. He\u2019s a great kid and so they\u2019re shooting hoops and, to be honest with you, neither one of us knew how to play basketball worth a crap, so I\u2019m glad no cameras saw it because it would have been a little embarrassing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt hurt my argument of being an athlete, so I\u2019m glad nobody saw it.\u201d<\/p>\n
This was a common refrain on Saturday but Logano said that Busch would put up his persona at the race track, but peel it off when clocked out.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a side of Kyle where you can get him away from the racetrack and away from the competitive environment,\u201d Logano said. \u201cI got to spend a lot of time with him flying to the west coast and playing cards and stuff like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chase Briscoe echoed a similar experience, for example.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were two totally different sides of Kyle,\u201d Briscoe said. \u201cThere was the competition side and the Kyle away from the track that would give you a hard time, bust your balls, and would be a lot of fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s funny. There was a time where we did like this media thing together. We were talking backstage and he was just Kyle. We got on the stage and he was talking crap and stuff, and we walked off the stage, and told him it was crazy he could switch it on and off.\u201d<\/p>\n
What did Busch say?<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, that was Rowdy. That was my Rowdy face.\u201d<\/p>\n
Briscoe said Busch was so good at seamless playing both roles when a circumstance called for it.<\/p>\n
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