A bet between NASCAR drivers unfolded on Twitter, and now the pot is up to $100,000
Kevin Harvick was doing what most of us do when we’ve got time to kill: sitting on the couch and scrolling through Twitter. As Harvick sat waiting for the eventual rain cancellation of Saturday’s qualifying round of the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, he came across a tweet that sparked a visceral reaction.
“I saw Kyle Larson’s comments about cherry-picking and the hair stood straight up on my arm because it kind of made me mad,” Harvick said.
Harvick was referring to Larson’s post in which the NASCAR driver re-tweeted a video of Kyle Busch winning his seventh consecutive Truck Series victory this past Friday night. Larson captioned the video with three cherry emojis, which Harvick and the Twitter community interpreted to mean Busch, a full-time Cup driver, was cherry-picking by entering winnable races in a lower series.
Harvick rushed to Busch’s defense.
“Be a good time for you to build some trucks! #notthateasy,” Harvick wrote in response to Larson’s post.
Fans weighed in on both sides.
“Kyle Busch runs lower series for wins,” tweeted one user. “Kyle Larson runs any race he can to stay fresh. He doesn’t race these to pad the trophy case. He runs them because he loves to race.”
“The guys in the lower series are gonna have to step up and beat guys like (Busch) if they ever wanna make it to cup anyway so they might as well get use to it,” tweeted another user.
The Twitter beef quickly turned into something more positive, and entertaining, when one fan shared that she started watching Truck Series races because of Busch and continues to watch regardless of whether he is racing.
Harvick jumped on the idea of seeing more Cup racers in trucks. He announced a $50,000 payout for any full-time Cup driver to beat Busch in his remaining four Truck Series races this season. Harvick also specified that competing drivers cannot intentionally crash Busch, and if Busch wins, Harvick will donate the money to Bundle of Joy Fund, an organization founded by Busch and his wife, Samantha, to help families struggling with infertility.
Marcus Lemonis, Gander RV & Outdoors CEO, then agreed to match Harvick’s $50,000 bounty, bringing the total to $100,000. Lemonis also tweeted he would increase the purse to $250,000 for the top five finishers if FOX Sports moves any of the four truck races to prime time.
“In the end, it’s really just Kyle (Busch) trying to run a business,” Harvick said. “He’s gotta have sponsors on his trucks, and it’s a business that you run for the love of racing because it’s not going to be profitable when you look at the Truck Series racing, so I figured why not make it fun?”
Reigning Cup champion Busch has won 57 Truck Series races and entered 144 since his rookie Cup season in 2005. Criticism has followed Busch for taking spots away from less-experienced drivers in the lower series, but Harvick said he understands and supports Busch from an owner’s perspective. Busch owns Kyle Busch Motorsports, which competes in developmental series such as Truck and ARCA, among others. Harvick formerly owned a team that competed in Xfinity and Truck races and, like Busch, regularly raced for his team.
“You kind of get that same type of comment,” Harvick said. “And I see Kyle Busch going through all those comments and all those things he’s going through right now and in the end, you’re just trying to run a business.”
Harvick’s argument follows that the exposure and sponsorship money gets funneled back into those teams and developing drivers. Christian Eckes, 19, and Raphael Lessard, 18, for example, raced for Kyle Busch Motorsports alongside Busch in Las Vegas on Friday.
A NASCAR rule limits experienced full-time Cup drivers to five truck races each season. Busch is set to race his remaining four at Atlanta Motor Speedway (March 14), Homestead-Miami Speedway (March 20), Texas Motor Speedway (March 27) and Kansas Speedway (May 30).
“Put money on a bounty on somebody and there’s bad things that tend to happen,” Busch said Saturday in Las Vegas. “I don’t know, make it whatever you’ll want. It don’t matter to me. I got great stuff. I’m a good driver. Bring it.”
Harvick said his schedule is set for the season and will not include trucks, but other drivers such as Busch’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin said he would challenge Busch if he gets his manufacturer on board.
“I’ll need some backing from (Toyota) ...” Hamlin tweeted. “But I’ll definitely do it. Hell, I smoked him in our last Latemodel race.”
Other drivers eyeing the $100,000 prize pool (not all of whom are eligible) include Cup driver Austin Dillon, Xfinity driver Landon Cassill and part-time Cup driver Brendan Gaughan.
Larson has not yet said if he’ll enter the competition, but Harvick named him specifically.
“It’s easy to sit on your couch and complain about things on Twitter,” Harvick said. “So let’s see if we can get everybody off their butt and have some fun with it.”
“Maybe we’ll see a Kyle-versus-Kyle show.”
This story was originally published February 26, 2020 at 6:39 PM.
