Documentary 'Rowdy' Ponders Why We Hate Kyle Busch So Much

There is nothing NASCAR fans love more than to boo a villain. And which villain do they love to hate? None more than Kyle Busch, winningest driver in NASCAR history (but only if you look at wins in all classes—Cup, Truck, and Xfinity—which is a little misleading).

A new documentary looks into the hate/hate relationship we all have with the younger Busch brother, but it also shows that fans not only hated the six-years-older Busch brother Kurt, but also their father, Tom Busch when he was racing Limited Late Model Division on dirt tracks in their native Nevada.

Why do we love to hate the Busches? It’s a little complicated.

Could it be because of Kyle's success? Nah, it’s not just that, though an earlier generation of fans hated four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon just because he won so much, looked good, had a beautiful wife, and who knows why else? But they hated Kyle Busch as soon as he entered Cup full time, which was two years after he first entered a Cup race.

“Kyle Busch turns 18, finally he gets to come back to NASCAR, and he does it in such a big way,” said NASCAR on Fox pit reporter Jamie Little.

“We all knew he had the ability,” said ESPN NASCAR reporter Marty Smith. “For him to come in and make an impression at all, was a victory in and of itself. So Kurt gets to big-time NASCAR, and he’s racing like a bat outta hell with his hair on fire. He’s pissing off everybody in the garage left and right, what happens? He starts getting booed. Well then, by the time Kyle gets there it’s old hat.”