Kyle Busch is nicknamed “Rowdy” for a reason. Well, it might have started when Billy Ballew called him that while he was running the Truck Series for his team, Billy Ballew Motorsports. However, over time, as Busch progressed in NASCAR, the name stuck for his racing antics and aggression on track.
And you don’t have to go too far back to find an instance of that. Just this year in the Atlanta race, when Carson Hocevar raced him hard, Busch on his radio had said, “Go tell that 77 he’s done that same [expletive] move ten times. I don’t care if I wreck the whole [expletive] field, I’m over him. He’s a [expletive] douchebag, I’m going to wreck his a**.”
Lucky for Hocevar, Busch calmed down and let him go. However, this is how Busch has always been. And this one time, his rowdiness almost had him get beaten up.
Kyle Busch’s Age Rescued Him From a Brawl
This was back when Busch was just 15 years old and was running Midgets, Late Models, and some Dwarf cars races. But Busch probably did not have the patience to grow up and try his hand at the big-boy stuff. Thanks to this, he got himself into the IMCA Modifieds division.
That year, he was running 5 races, and everything was smooth for the first four. But in the 5th race, Busch shoved a guy as they were fighting for a position. And naturally, things escalated as the guy was furious. But, thanks to Rowdy being young, he wasn’t thrashed.
The Las Vegas native was recently on the “Door Bumper Clear” podcast, where he shared this story.
He said, “I was battling with a guy for third, and I was only 15 at the time, and you are supposed to be 16. And allegedly, I forged my birth certificate…I dumped a guy for third place cause he was blocking me, and after the race, he wanted to fight in the pits, and I couldn’t get out of my car, so I was stuck in my car. But when he came over to yell at me, he was like ‘oh my god, he’s just a kid.'”
But still, Busch wasn’t saved just yet. The guy who was wrecked by him wanted to make sure if Busch really was just a kid or not. “So he called the local sports reporter at the news station to pull up public records to see how old I was to know if he could kick my a** or not,” Busch added.
Are you old enough for me to kick your 🫏?? 😂@KyleBusch | @FreddieKraft | @TBR7NY | @KarsynElledge3 pic.twitter.com/1VgzakcD7w
— Dirty Mo Media (@DirtyMoMedia) May 4, 2025
Well, that was all the Richard Childress Racing driver revealed. Probably the driver couldn’t get Rowdy’s real age and let him off the hook.