NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr. has revealed that Kyle Busch was set to race in his Late Model car and wanted to do so with his stylized number eight.

Before his sudden death at the age of 41 last Thursday, Busch ran the number eight in the Cup Series at Richard Childress Racing since 2023, but it is a number more often associated with Earnhardt Jr.

From 1999 through 2007, Earnhardt Jr. ran the eight at Dale Earnhardt Inc. in the Cup Series, including for his first Daytona 500 win in 2004, with his stylized version of the number becoming one of the most recognizable in the sport.

When he switched to Hendrick Motorsports later in his career, Earnhardt Jr. was forced to switch to 88, but he continued to use the number eight in other series, including his CARS Late Model Stock Car Tour in 2025 and 2026.

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Kyle Busch was set to run the Dale Earnhardt Jr. eight

Following Busch's death, Earnhardt Jr. shared an emotional statement and tribute to the late two-time champion in which he revealed that Busch was set to run in his Late Model in the CARS Tour at some point this year.

Now, on his Dale Jr. Download podcast, Earnhardt Jr. explained that he was texting with Busch about it right up to the day before his passing and that Busch wanted to run the Dale Jr. eight.

“I was texting with him the day before he passed away,” Earnhardt Jr. revealed. “About getting together this Thursday to bring his seat for his Late Model over to my shop because we agreed that he was going to race our car in the Cars Tour.

“He was going to race my Late Model in the CARS Tour, and I was like, ‘Hey, man,’ you know, he’s texting me, and he’s like, ‘What scheme are we going to run?’

“I was like, ‘You can run any scheme you want.’ I was like, ‘What number do you want to run? I got 51, whatever you want to run.’

“He goes, ‘I want to run the, and he said it literally, the Dale Jr. eight. And I was like, ‘You got it, that’s what’s on it right now, we’ll run the Dale Jr. eight.'

“And he gave me a head-exploding emoji, and he said, ‘Race fans.'"

Busch's death means we will sadly never see the plan come to fruition, but what an awesome sight it would have been.

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