"There was death threats to the house": When Kyle Busch revealed the shocking aftermath of his 2008 on-track feud with Dale Earnhardt Jr.

In one of NASCAR's most explosive rivalries, Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. lit up both the track and the grandstands in the early 2000s. But after the 2008 Cup race at Richmond, Kyle revealed that the feud brought deadly real-world consequences.

In May 2008, Richmond Raceway saw one of the most dramatic NASCAR races in the modern era. Running second in the race, Kyle bumped Dale Jr. out of the lead with two laps to go in the Dan Lowry 400, exiting Turn 4.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. (88) spins after colliding with Kyle Busch (18 ) during the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Richmond International Raceway. Source: Getty

Busch, who finished second in that race, later revealed just how intense things got a bit scary. In an episode of the Dale Jr. Download podcast in 2018, Busch joined Earnhardt Jr. to discuss their shared history (via USA Today).

"For the rest of the year, there was crazy death threats and stuff like that. There was death threats to the house... There was a guy that called - I don't remember if he called NASCAR or the race track, but it was Kentucky Speedway. I was at Kentucky for the XFINITY Series race," Busch recalled.

Kyle Busch, who had flown in for the standalone Xfinity race, had just won when authorities swept him out in an unmarked police car to avoid a potential attack.

"I won that night, and as soon as I did the Victory Lane stuff, they corralled me and got me and took me into a cop car and took me out of the race track in a cop car. I'm like 'What are we doing, boys? What's going on?' They were like, 'We've had a tip-off that there's a shooter on the loose. Like, a guy's coming to the race track with a shotgun," he added.

It wasn't a one-time occurrence either, as the Busch team hired an FBI agent who tailed him for most of 2008.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. (88) and Kyle Busch (18) wrecked during the 2017 Daytona 500. Source: Imagn

The feud began just months after Dale Earnhardt Jr. made his much-hyped move to Busch's former team, Hendrick Motorsports. While both drivers maintain the contact wasn't deliberate, fans weren't easily convinced. Clint Bowyer took the win that night as Earnhardt finished 15th, and though he never publicly stirred the pot, the reaction from Junior Nation turned Busch into a weekend villain almost everywhere NASCAR went.

Busch's 2008 campaign would remain one of his best seasons with eight wins. But Richmond set the tone for a year shadowed by animosity.

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Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s response to Kyle Busch in the fall of 2008 at Richmond

Kyle Busch (L) and Dale Earnhardt Jr., during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coke Zero 400. Source: Getty

If the spring race at Richmond was the spark, the fall showdown was the response. Back at the Virginia short track on September 7, 2008, Dale Earnhardt Jr. returned the favor to Kyle Busch, going into Turn 3 with a bump and run. Kyle's No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing car got loose and spun, as fans cheered.

But while the rivalry had been front and center all season, the tension off-track began to cool over time. Sixteen years later, the two drivers, once at the heart of one of NASCAR's biggest fan schisms, appeared together on the Youth Inc. podcast with Greg Olsen's The Undeniable Show in early 2024.

"Our fan bases are not well aligned. Me and Kyle have had a bit of a history on the racetrack, but have since become pretty good buds. But our fan bases still are having a hard time understanding," Dale Jr. said. (0:09 onwards)

The former Hendrick Motorsports star added, as Kyle laughed and agreed:

"I had just moved to a team that he had just left. There was a kind of a weird awkwardness amongst all that. I wrecked him at Kansas... I wasn't handling it good, he wasn't handling it great, and we went back and forth in the media bunch," Dale Jr. added (0:50 onwards)

Despite the friction, both drivers made the 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup. Kyle Busch finished 10th in points, and Earnhardt Jr. 12th.

By the end of that season, the feud had settled, but the legacy of those two Richmond races lives on as a reminder of how quickly NASCAR storylines can escalate from racing contact to cultural flashpoint.