When Busch and Mark Martin were both making late summer pushes to qualify for the chase in 2009, they drove side by side for most of the last 25 or so laps of the Bristol night race. Busch won. Every time Martin would get a run on him, he would give Martin the inside lane, drive side by side from the outside lane, and eventually stay in front when Martin would slip up and get out of the gas. Martin was faster but couldn’t get by.

Post-race, Martin was asked why he didn’t do a bump and run to get by Busch and run away from him. Martin answered that he didn’t think Busch would do it to him and that Busch gave him room every time he got a run.

Fan perception of Kyle Busch has absolutely never matched competitors’ perceptions. Fans that don’t like him happily ignore the way people like Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon talk about him. He has always raced people fairly. He has had his problems where he doesn’t feel he’s being treated fairly (vs Harvick, vs Keselowski, the KBM constantly being wrecked by KHI/RCR, vs Logano, etc) but he doesn’t generally start things with people. Even the Hornaday wreck was a massive overreaction to KHI/RCR wrecking KBM trucks like 6 times that year. It was wrong, but it wasn’t Kyle trying to fight someone.