NASCAR: Kyle Busch said ‘it’s not gonna happen’, then it happened

Kyle Busch stated that “it’s not gonna happen” in regard to a full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver challenging him in the Truck Series. Enter Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson.

After Kyle Busch dominated the NASCAR Truck Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway two Friday nights ago to secure his career-high seventh consecutive victory at NASCAR’s third highest level dating back to July of 2018, fellow full-time Cup Series driver Kevin Harvick had an idea.

Harvick placed a $50,000 bounty on Busch for any full-time Cup Series driver who could beat him in any of his four remaining Truck Series races this season. Marcus Lemonis, the CEO of Truck Series title sponsor Gander RV & Outdoors, added $50,000 to that bounty for a grand total of $100,000.

Those four races are scheduled to take place on Saturday, March 14, Friday, March 20, Friday, March 27 and Friday, May 30 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Homestead-Miami Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway, respectively.

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The race at Atlanta Motor Speedway is the next race on the schedule, as the series is currently in the midst of a three-week hiatus.

Several days had passed with no news about any of those four races.

However, a few days ago on the Rubbin’ is Racing NASCAR Podcast presented by Barstool Sports, Busch was asked by founder Dave Portnoy, whose recent expanded involvement and interest in NASCAR has helped bring in countless new fans to the sport, about this bounty.

“Do we think any of these Cup drivers are actually going to take this up?” Portnoy asked.

“No. It’s not gonna happen. It’s not gonna happen,” Busch responded.

A few hours later, it happened, and for the sake of the sport, all of us, including Busch, are looking forward to what that could mean.

“Bring it on,” he later stated.

Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott and Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyle Larson both confirmed deals with GMS Racing to go after this $100,000 bounty on Busch.

Elliott is set to compete in two of these four races while Larson is set to compete in one. Both are set to drive the #24 Chevrolet, with Elliott doing so at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway and Larson doing so at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Will either driver stop Busch? Both have two previous Truck Series starts for GMS Racing, and both have one win in those two starts as well as a separate victory in the series. Elliott has 12 Truck Series starts to his name while Larson has 13.

Harvick did clarify that to win the money, beating Busch is all that counts; winning the race doesn’t matter. With that being said, Busch’s only two non-wins in his last 10 Truck Series starts are second place finishes, so suffice it to say that there is a high chance of a victory lane trip being required to collect the cash.

Will Kyle Busch keep up his NASCAR Truck Series onslaught, or will one of his fellow full-time Cup Series competitors keep him from finding victory lane at some point before the 2020 season ends? Will anybody else from the Cup Series join Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson in trying to win this $100,000?

We have already seen Halmar International introduce a similar $50,000 bounty on Busch for full-time Truck Series drivers.

It is worth noting that if no Cup Series driver can beat Busch, this $100,000 from Kevin Harvick and Marcus Lemonis will go to the Bundle of Joy Fund, which is an organization that was founded by Kyle and his wife Samantha to help couples who require fertility treatments to conceive.