Dale Earnhardt-Kurt Busch Rivalry (Dale Earnhardt Survives)

The Dale Earnhardt-Kurt Busch rivalry is considered the definitive rivalry of Dale Earnhardt's late career. Spanning the last 5 seasons of Earnhardt's career, the young Kurt Busch wanted to show that he wasn't gonna take any of Earnhardt's attitude. 
Kyle Busch, Kurt's younger brother, also had a couple of run-in's with the "man in black" during 2005, his rookie season and Earnhardt's retirement season, which will be covered in a different article.
=== 2001 ===
The Dale Earnhardt-Kurt Busch rivalry started 2001 at Daytona, when on lap 87, Dale Earnhardt and rookie Kurt Busch made door-to-door contact coming out of turn 4 while battling for fifth place. Earnhardt promptly flipped Busch the bird at 185 mph or, as described by lap-by-lap commentator Mike Joy, he simply was saying "Kurt, you're number 1." This was the start of a 5 season rivalry between the newcomer and the Intimidator. 
At the next race at Rockingham, the 2001 Dura Lube 400, during the Monday section of the event, on lap 102, Dale was running 13th when Kurt Busch made an incredible run from 15th diving into turn 3. Kurt easily muscled past Mark Martin and rocketed towards Earnhardt coming out of turn 4. What happened next was a defining moment in the escalation of the rivalry between these two men. Kurt Busch went low of Earnhardt out of the turn, but Earnhardt didn't leave Kurt enough room. Kurt refused to lift and caught Earnhardt in the left rear, shooting him up the track sideways and into the wall at the "u" bend of the front stretch. Earnhardt, understandably furious, drove the mangled car to pit road where his crew got the car going again 54 laps later and as soon as Kurt Busch, then running 3rd, came by a 54 lap down Earnhardt, Earnhardt "accidently" got loose and into the left side of Busch's car. Busch then spun around on the entrance to turn 1 and hit the wall in the middle of turn 2. Dale would then DNF due to the damage his car sustained in the second incident.
A post-race altercation was televised live as Kurt Busch and Earnhardt met midway down pitroad between their pitboxes and immediately Kurt Busch punched Earnhardt, who, to everyone's amazement, didn't so much as move an inch when Kurt's fist hit him square in the face. Earnhardt then clocked Kurt Busch along the side of the head, knocking out Kurt Busch live on TV. The event garnered more views for this race then the previous Daytona 500 had. Nascar docked both teams 30 points and handed both Earnhardt and Busch a 25k dollar fine for "actions detrimental to stock car racing."
The rivalry was more-or-less settled for the rest of 2001, with some beating and banging at almost every race, whenever the two got close but nothing on the scale of the first two races.
=== 2002 ===
In addition to Earnhardt, Kurt also made enemies with Jimmy Spencer in 2002. This was a bad combination of enemies for the young Busch, as both men were known for being hotheaded on the track. Earnhardt and Spencer also discussed giving Kurt a much needed ego check at Indianapolis where things would again come to a head. After an unsuccessful attempt to move Earnhardt out of the way, a lap later a crash with Jimmy Spencer occured in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where postrace Busch called Spencer "a decrepit old has-been, or maybe I should say a never-was."
There was also another door-to-door contact incident with Earnhardt at Talladega at the 2002 EA Sports 500, where Kurt and Earnhardt traded door panel blows for 3 laps, between laps 179-182, with Earnhardt consistently sticking to the outside of Kurt through the use of incredible side drafting, and after the 3 laps of trading paint Earnhardt managed to get the drag on Kurt's spoiler just right and got a huge run, pulling ahead of Kurt Busch coming off turn 4, pulling in line in front of Kurt in 6th position.
Busch would go on to finish 4th, and Dale Sr. would finish second pushing his son, Dale Jr. to the win. Kurt Busch in a postrace interview said that Earnhardt was "the most stubborn old man I've ever dealt with, and that includes Spencer".
The 2002 UAW-GM Quality 500 saw Earnhardt win his 100th race, but it wasn't without controversy. With 9 to go Kurt was running 13th when Earnhardt caught up to him. Busch threw the block on Earnhardt into turn 3, but got slightly loose off 4, giving Earnhardt a small opening. As the two driver started down the frontstretch, Kurt tried to run Earnhardt down the track but Earnhardt didn't give an inch, and touched the left rear of Kurt's car sending him spinning up the track and backwards into the wall. Kurt in a postrace interview called Earnhardt the "overly aggressive geriatric of Nascar." Earnhardt fired back by calling Kurt the "biggest punk driver in Nascar history."
=== 2003 ===
The Busch-Earnhardt/Spencer feud continued, and Spencer punched Busch in the face after a race at Michigan International Speedway during the GFS Marketplace 400 when Busch blatantly & deliberately wrecked Earnhardt, punting his car in the left-rear quarter panel with 2 to go well battling for 19th after Earnhardt threw the block on Kurt for the previous 2 laps. Post-race Kurt Busch would block in Spencer at his car hauler, and Spencer, after exchanging words with Busch, allegedly getting threatened by Busch, being a friend of Earnhardt, and being fed up with Busch's antics, decided physical discipline was the only way to straighten the young hotheaded driver out. Earnhardt declined an interview about the incident and never commented on Spencer's actions, but did deny any encouragement of Spencer to punch Kurt.
=== 2004 ===
Kurt Busch wrecked Kevin Harvick on the halfway lap at Daytona, completely clobbering his left-rear quarter panel and spinning him in front of the entire field. Amazingly, everyone avoided Harvick's out of control car, but Harvick's car hit the outside wall head-on hard after 3 continues spins. Dale Sr. later, after post-race celebrations with his son, went over to Kurt's camper to wait for him, and got into a fistfight with Kurt. "He wrecked my teammate in a dangerous manner, I thought after Adam, Tony, and John, he would have some sense. I guess I was wrong". Kurt had no comment. Dale was later fined $100,000 and put on probation until December 31st, 2004.
=== 2005 ===
The last race of the year at Homestead, which was also the last race of Earnhardt's fulltime career, had him leading for 30 laps, but finished 29th, five laps down, after a wreck with 15 laps to go. Prior to the wreck Dale came into turn 1 a little high and Kurt Busch managed to bump Dale, get him loose up the track and race inside of him. Down the backstretch Dale was seen flipping Kurt the bird once again, Reminiscent of the 2001 Daytona 500 moment that made Kurt famous. Dale was racing for 5th place. All was fine until they went into turn 3, when Kurt Busch moved high and bumped into Dale's right rear corner, and sent him spinning.
=== Post Earnhardt's Retirement ===
The two drivers would have a rocky relationship but would eventually find common ground and forgive each other in the early 2010's, nowadays Dale Sr. and Kurt Busch are on pretty good terms, even hanging out in the Bahamas on occasion.
Category:Dale Earnhardt Survives