Kevin Harvick has now come out in the open to reveal what started the infamous Kyle Busch Motorsports vs Kevin Harvick Inc. rivalry. It all actually began when Harvick attempted to help Busch, only to feel completely betrayed later.

Let’s go back to the mid-2000s Truck Series era when Kevin Harvick Inc. had become one of the stronger Chevy-backed teams in the sport. At the same time, Busch was trying to build his own thing that would later be named Kyle Busch Motorsports, backed by Toyota.

Harvick revealed that it was Busch who first reached out to him because he apparently was frustrated with how everything was going and the condition of his equipment.

“Kyle was driving for Billy Ballew before he owned his own trucks,” Harvick said. “It finally got to a point where it just wasn’t at the expectations that Kyle wanted it to be week in and week out.”

He then revealed Busch directly asked him, “‘Hey, can you tell me how you run your team?’”

What happened next clearly bothers Harvick to this day. “I brought him to my shop one day,” Harvick admitted. “I’m gonna bridge the guy a gap right here. I’m gonna let him come to my race shop and I’m going to give him everything that I have.”

The former Cup champ said he “walked him through the whole shop,” went through “showing him everything,” and even “gave him all of our budgets.” And this is where it all went down.

According to Harvick, Busch immediately turned around and used those exact learnings against him.

“He went back and started KBM and then turned around and hired some of my people,” Harvick revealed. “They must have been interviewing them while he was going through the shop that day.”

That was the day when NASCAR’s fiercest manufacturer wars erupted. But after all that, what was the head-to-head record of this rivalry? Let’s find out.

KBM vs KHI: The Numbers Behind NASCAR’s Biggest Truck Series War

Kevin Harvick dominated the series in the early years, with two Truck Series championships with Ron Hornaday Jr. in 2007 and 2009, alongside 43 Truck Series wins overall before shutting down in 2011. This dominance was then challenged by KBM's launch in 2010.

They eventually became the first Truck organization to cross 100 Truck Series victories, crossing the milestone at Pocono in 2023.

Statistically, KHI ended with just a single Truck Series owner championship while KBM captured seven owner championships between 2013 and 2021.

KBM also featured stars like Erik Jones, Christopher Bell, and Chandler Smith, thereby becoming Toyota’s prime development pipeline in the league.

You can read more on the Daytona Racing Digest!

Written by

Uday Jakhar