This past Sunday's Clash at the Coliseum was a pretty solid outing for Richard Childress Racing, as RCR drivers Austin Dillon and Kyle Busch finished second and third, respectively, while Busch's former teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing, Martin Truex Jr., ended up snagging the gold medal. Despite his respectable finish at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Busch had a bone to pick with someone who is sure to be a heated rival throughout the season: defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano.
In the post-race interview, Busch was quick to call out Logano after the Team Penske driver spun Busch out on lap 86 of the exhibition race, bringing out a caution.
"Logano didn't get hit by nobody, he just flat-out drove through me," Busch said. "So, he's got another one coming. I owe him a few."
Busch also went on to rail against the complete chaos of this year's Clash compared to the event in 2022, which marked the first time that NASCAR held the preseason race at the LA Memorial Coliseum. For context, last year's main event was offset by just five cautions, while there were a total of 16 caution periods this year, with many of them being brought out as a result of major wrecks.
"Last year's show I felt like was relatively clean and good racing. Some bumping, some banging, but we could run long stretches of green-flag action, whereas today [Sunday], I would call it a disaster with the disrespect from everybody of just driving through each other and not just letting everything kind of work its way out," Busch said.
"But, I mean, it's a quarter-mile. It's tight quarters racing. Actually this is probably how it should've gone last year, so we got spoiled with a good show the first year. So, maybe this one's just normal."
While he had some major issues with this year's running of the Clash, Busch's main problem was, of course, with Logano. During an interview later on Sunday night on SiriusXM Satellite Radio, Busch continued to lambast Logano's actions.
"It's really unfortunate to get raced by guys that are so two-faced," Busch said. "We were in the TV booth earlier in the night together and when we were all done with that he was like, 'Hey man, good luck tonight' and I said, 'Great, thanks, yeah. Whatever.' And then low and behold, there you go, he wrecks me.
"Don't even talk to me if you're going to be that kind of a [driver] on the racetrack."
Well, that just about settles it then. Things are definitely not okay between Kyle and Joey, and if this is any indication of how the rest of the Cup Series season will go, buckle up, kids. We're still about two weeks away from the Daytona 500, and we've already got the first feud of the year.