Kyle Busch gives prickly response to NASCAR rival's 'old and scared' jab

Kyle Busch has hit back at a fellow NASCAR Cup Series driver, who had branded him 'old and scared' last week.

Rookie Shane van Gisbergen, only four years younger than Busch himself, had made the comments on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio about running in the Legends Pro division at Charlotte Motor Speedway with IndyCar driver and countryman Scott McLaughlin.

READ MORE: Kyle Busch dealt playoff blow as multiple drivers drop down the order at Dover

When asked about Kyle's son Brexton Busch competing in the Summer Shootout, the Kiwi said: “Yeah, he’s in the younger classes though. He is a little bit young and then Kyle’s a little bit old and scared. He is in the masters class. He doesn’t race with us, so that would’ve been fun.”

While Van Gisbergen was pretty clearly joking, age and pace are an active concern for future Hall of Famer Busch, whose winless streak in the Cup Series is nearly at 80 races and is the longest of his career.

Busch: Ask SVG how many times he's finished Legends Pro races

Meanwhile, Van Gisbergen has come into the Cup Series and taken three wins in his first full-time season, dominating road courses despite still being very much a work in progress on ovals.

Speaking after Saturday's rained-off qualifying session at Dover, Busch fired back: “ In Legends cars, if you’re over 40, you can run in the masters class, which I’m a professional – yes, I race on Sundays, I get it, I should be in the pro class.

"Well, the pro class you can be anywhere from 12 all the way to wherever. And there’s just a bunch of these kids that  are pros that get that designation that go out there and they love to just run into everything.

 ”And so I raced the pro class down in Florida earlier this year. I don’t think I finished one of those pro races because I got hit every single time I was on the racetrack and got taken out. So I was like, I am not gonna go run with the kids and get tore up. I’m gonna go run with the old man group and we’re gonna respect each other and take care of each other.

“Ask Shane how many races he’s actually finished in the pro class. Or how many bumpers or fenders or tow links he’s knocked off in the legends cars. You know, my car’s been clean and green and we’ve won a few times, so it’s been much more fun having my stuff come back after a race in one piece.”

Yeah, Kyle. You tell him.

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