Dale Earnhardt Jr. knows what it is to lose a father to the sport his family loved most.
Dale Earnhardt Sr. died in a mid-race crash in 2001 at 49, and now his son has spoken up for an 11-year-old who just honored his own racing father.
On the Ask Jr. segment of his podcast, Earnhardt, 51, talked about Brexton Busch. More than 10,000 fans gathered at Charlotte Motor Speedway on October 9 for a Celebration of Life for Kyle Busch, the two-time Cup Series champion who died on May 21, 2026, at 41, from pneumonia that progressed into sepsis.
At the celebration, Brexton fired up his dad’s No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet and drove out to the frontstretch for a massive burnout. Then he climbed onto the roof, took a checkered flag from his 4-year-old sister, Lennix, and did Kyle’s legendary bow.
“It was awesome, man. That kid… Brexton’s done an amazing job just handling the challenges of what he’s going through, and he must have a very incredible support system around him,” Earnhardt said.
“But I think it’s really cool that he’s out and wants to be involved in these deals, and it helps everyone else who is dealing with this loss to see Brexton thriving and doing so well,” he added.
The thriving part is on the record. Brexton is a third-generation driver who started racing in 2020, at 5, in the Beginner Box Stock division at Millbridge Speedway, according to his own website. He won 48 races in 2024, and in 2025 he won the Tulsa Shootout Jr. Sprint Championship to earn his first Golden Driller.
Earnhardt has spoken plainly about his own loss. “I didn’t know when I was gonna lose my dad, but I knew it was gonna happen,” he once told Barstool. The world keeps going, he said, and eventually you have to get back in the groove and make something happen.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Credits Kyle Busch With the Effort That Turned Their Rivalry Into a Friendship
For years, the two were rivals. It started at Richmond in 2008, when Kyle spun Jr. out, and Jr. returned the favor at the fall race there. After Jr. retired, they reconciled, starting with a conversation in Kyle’s motorhome, and Jr. later had him on his podcast.
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After Kyle died, Earnhardt wrote on social media that he had been super eager for the two of them to get on better terms, and he gave the credit away.
“But it was he who made the effort for that to be possible,” he wrote.
He also narrated a nearly four-minute tribute video for Amazon Prime, 11Alive reported, and one line in it reads differently after Charlotte.
“As he evolved, the boos gave way to cheers and rivalries turned into friendships,” he said in the video.
The friends had plans, too. According to WBTV, they had recently talked about Kyle driving one of Jr.’s late models at North Wilkesboro, and Kyle was supposed to meet him the following week to get his seat ready. Earnhardt wrote that Kyle laughed at the idea of his fans and JR Motorsports fans having to cheer in unison during that race.
Kyle Busch never got to sit in that seat. His son climbed onto the roof of the No. 8 instead, with a flag from his little sister in his hand, and Dale Earnhardt Jr., who lost his own father to racing 25 years ago, called it awesome.
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