“I was mad”- Kurt Busch remembers when Matt Kenseth refused to help his playoff cause in 2005

Kurt Busch and Matt Kenseth were once teammates at Roush Fenway Racing, now known as RFK Racing or Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing. Despite being teammates, Kenseth never gave Busch any help when it came to gaining spots during a race.

In a recent interview with RFK Racing, Busch recalled the time when the duo were fighting for the 2005 Nextel Cup Series championship.

Kurt Busch was tailing Kenseth, and he knew that his #97 machine car was not as fast as his teammate's #17. But Busch was in dire need of points so he radioed his teammate, asking him to give him some space so that he could lead a few laps and gather some much-needed points. Surprisingly, Kenseth did not comply.

Needless to say, Kurt Busch got "mad." He even expressed his resentment towards Kenseth during a post-race team meeting.

"I was on the radio, 'Hey, I'm not that good today. I'm running second to you.' I radioed, 'He, can you just slide over...give me 5 points?' for leading a lap. And then, there was like, no, this isn't happening," Busch said. "I'm like, wait, we've all worked together here to get to the playoffs, let's keep working through this."

"They were like, no. I was mad. I end up having to pit because I had a right front issue and finished 25th. I was mad in a team meeting, and he's like...you know that Midwestern sense of humor... he's just like, you couldn't catch me, I'm not gonna let you go," Busch added, laughing.

Kurt Busch left Roush Fenway Racing midway through 2005 and joined Penske Racing South, replacing Rusty Wallace behind the wheel of the number 2 Miller-Lite Dodge. Interestingly, that was also the first year Kurt Busch and Matt Kenseth faced off against each other as drivers of two rival teams.

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Kurt Busch went anti-Mark Martin style on Matt Kenseth at Bristol Motor Speedway

Kurt Busch bumped his former teammate during the 2005 Food City 500 en route to his fifth win at Bristol Motor Speedway and also his first in a Dodge. Matt Kenseth, however, expected Busch to drive fair, just like Mark Martin, who drove the number 6 Ford Thunderbird for Roush Racing in his prime.

When asked if he thought Busch's move was fair, Matt Kenseth said (via ESPN):

"I always try to think, 'Would Mark Martin have done that? If Mark Martin would have done that, then that was probably a fair move. If Mark Martin wouldn't have done that, then it probably wasn't a fair move."

Busch, however, had a different take on his late-race antics. He said he might have let Kenseth have his way only if the latter were his teammate, like before.

"If I was still a teammate with him, maybe I would have let him lift," Busch said. "But I was hungry to drive the Miller Lite Dodge into Victory Lane," the American said.

Both Kenseth and Busch are retired now. While Matt Kenseth is the competition advisor for Legacy Motor Club, a team co-owned by seven-time Cup Series champion, Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch is a consultant with 23XI Racing and a brand ambassador for Monster Energy, a longtime partner of the Toyota team.