“It could've gotten ugly”: When Kurt Busch revealed how Denny Hamlin narrowly escaped his ‘bad guy’ list

Kurt Busch once revealed how Denny Hamlin was about to enter his payback book but missed it narrowly. The 2004 NASCAR Cup Series champion talked with Jeff Gluck about having a mental list of drivers he wished to return an on-track favor someday when he touched on the incident that could've gotten "ugly."

NASCAR is a fierce motorsport, with wrecks being one of the most inevitable and eye-catching aspects. While the sight is adrenaline-filled for the audience in the grandstands, it's not one bit cheerful for the drivers engulfed. Sometimes, the conflicting parties hold grudges that roll over to the next race.

A noteworthy example is Matt Kenseth's deliberate wrecking of Joey Logano in 2015 at Martinsville Speedway, for they crashed two races prior at the Kansas Speedway.

Kurt Busch talked about having his list of 'bad guys' and underlined his recent incident with Denny Hamlin. The duo tangled at the latter's home track - Richmond Raceway. Busch led the 2012 Virginia 529 College Savings 250 race while Hamlin focused on recovering track positions after getting mired by a missed pitstop. However, the battle came down to the final lap, where both made contact but finished cleanly.

But nearly a month later, Busch outlined things could've gotten ugly and big.

"There's a (payback) list like that – and then there's a list of good deeds that have been done. And you pay them back as well. Even a guy like Denny Hamlin, when we raced at Richmond in Nationwide, he raced me clean for the win. It could've gotten ugly and it could have gotten big. But you remember that the next time you see him out on the track. That might happen three times in a row, where I'll be generous to him. So you have your "good guy" and your "bad guy" list," Busch said via SB Nation.

It's worth mentioning that Kurt Busch's win was the only Nationwide Series triumph clinched by his brother's team, Kyle Busch Motorsports.

"Just came out of nowhere": Kurt Busch opened up on his disbelief of finding Denny Hamlin next to him

The Xfinity race was studded with Cup Series drivers namely polesitter Kevin Harvick, P2 starter Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski, Kasey Kahne, and more. However, unlike Hamlin's #18 Toyota's second-place beginning, Kurt Busch piloted his #54 KBM Toyota from 10th place.

But things flipped after the Joe Gibbs Racing driver missed a pitstop due to faulty radio-led partial communication. Eight laps were left until the checkered flag dropped, and Busch was leading the field. But Hamlin began closing in from nearly four car lengths away.

By the time Kyle Busch's brother took the white flag as the leader, the JGR rival was at the former's rear bumper and lunged for a door-to-door battle. Despite multiple narrow misses from a big catastrophe, Busch didn't forfeit his domination and held off Hamlin for the win.

Shortly after the triumph, Kurt Busch expressed disbelief about seeing Hamlin running for the win beside him. He said, via Autoweek:

“This is unbelievable,” Kurt Busch said. Hamlin “just came out of nowhere at the end,” Busch said, “but we held off Denny.” Busch qualified the Monster Energy Toyota in 10th and seemed to gain speed as the race progressed.

When the penultimate green-flag pitstop was done, Logano and Harvick took charge, however, they couldn't hold for long against the race winner.