Throughout much of their time together on the NASCAR track, Kyle Busch and Kurt Busch have pushed themselves behind their brotherly competition. Their competitive nature has helped lift them to tremendous heights in their respective motorsports careers. However, there was an instance where the Busch brothers chose not to speak to each other for an entire year.

Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch find sustained NASCAR success

Over nearly the last two decades, Kyle Busch and Kurt Busch have been staples in the NASCAR scene.

The competition between the brothers has driven them to tremendous success on the track. Kurt has earned a Cup Series championship, 32 Cup Series wins, and five Xfinity Series victories.

Meanwhile, Kyle has surpassed his older brother behind two Cup Series championships, 57 Cup Series wins, an Xfinity Series title, and a NASCAR record 97 Xfinity Series wins. He has 59 Camp World Truck Series victories, making him the only driver to have at least 50 wins in the sports’ top three series.

Kyle also sits alongside Hall of Famer Richard Petty as the only drivers with at least 200 career wins. Beyond his success, there was a moment in his life that he chose not to speak to his brother Kurt for an entire year.

Kyle Busch didn’t speak to his brother Kurt Busch for an entire year after $1 million crash

Over the years, Kyle Busch hasn’t been one to hold back his emotions on the track toward anybody, including family.

One of those situations arose in the 2007 Nextel All-Star Challenge that had a $1 million grand prize. In the race, Kyle and his brother Kurt Busch collided, effectively knocking themselves out of the competition and, more importantly, out of the running for the money.

During a recent interview on In Depth on Graham Bensinger, Kyle voiced he didn’t speak to his brother for an entire year after the crash due to their difference of opinions.

“It was after that I was pissed, and we never talked the whole rest of the year,” Busch stated. “I didn’t care.”

Meanwhile, Kurt voiced that he didn’t want to give in as he felt it was his way of holding his ground as the older brother. He also believed that Kyle has “little brother syndrome,” which he felt entails the burning desire of besting the older sibling in any competition.

The problem remained until their grandmother became involved as she made them speak to each other. Kurt termed it as a “bury the hatchet” moment that allowed them to finally push forward.

“She said, ‘I need my boys together. I don’t need this animosity and stress level at the dinner table.'” Kurt Busch recalled. “Then it was ‘Okay, yes grandma.'”

Although the two found peace with each other, it wasn’t until years later that Kyle finally got what he wanted to hear from his older brother.

Fault in crash finally admitted

The Busch brothers have worked toward being on better terms over the years since that incident.

However, it wasn’t until two years ago at Kyle’s 200th career win party that he received what he long wanted to hear from Kurt: admittance of fault in the accident.

“He wrecked me,” Kyle Busch said. “He finally admitted it two years ago at my 200 win party. I called him out on it. I said, ‘all I wanted you to do is admit that you wrecked me.'”

It’s a situation that saw Kurt swallow his pride and admit that he was wrong in the matter. It may have taken over a decade to reach that point, but his decision to tell his brother that he clipped him in the 2007 All-Star race finally wholly amended everything with Kyle.