An olive branch, but it make it bags of M&Ms… I like his strategy. Last weekend, Kyle Busch’s family was at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Coca-Cola 600, which was their first public appearance since the NASCAR legend suddenly passed away last Thursday at the age of 41 from complications from sepsis. He was a legendary driver, one of the best to ever do it, and it’s still hard to believe it’s real. Kyle’s wife, Samantha, and his children put on a very brave face at the 600, along with the rest of Kyle’s family, and I truly cannot imagine what they’re going through. It’s simply devastating. While tons of stories have been pouring in from friends and fellow drivers, and of course, one of his longtime rivals, who eventually became his friend, is Dale Earnhardt Jr. NASCAR fans know that Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. were rivals back in the day when they were both still full-time Cup Series drivers, and their animosity really stemmed from the infamous 2008 race at Richmond. They were battling for the lead during the last laps, and Busch spun Dale Jr. out during his first year at Hendrick Motorsports. He was literally on track to end a two-year winless streak, so obviously, he was really upset about it, and later that year during the fall race at Richmond, Jr. returned the favor and spun Busch out. Busch has made comments about him over the years, and in terms of fan perception back then, they definitely contrasted each other and remained rivals for many years. Eventually, after Jr. retired, they seemed to reconcile and even become friendly, and Jr. had Busch on his podcast a while back and they hashed it out. Jr. shared a beautiful tribute to Kyle the day he passed, and this week on Dale’s Bless Your ‘Hardt podcast with his wife Amy, they recalled a great story abut Kyle that Dale says was the “very beginning” of them “starting to be friendly.” Amy says it was during Daytona 500 week (though she couldn’t remember exactly what year, but it was when Kyle was running the M&Ms car), and Dale was NOT in a good mood. They didn’t expect many visitors because of that, but when they heard a knock on their bus door, they certainly weren’t expecting Kyle Busch. Amy could see it was him from the window, and given his history with her husband, she told Dale he needed to answer it. To their surprise, he came bearing gifts, bags and bags of M&Ms, and he was there to wish them a “Happy Valentine’s Day,” which Amy says she heard him say very loudly to Dale when he opened the door: “It was Daytona 500 week, and I don’t know what year this was. He was running the M&Ms car. We’re in the bus, and so we don’t have a lot of knocks on the door… he’s in a s***** a** mood. We get a knock on the door, and there’s a little window above the door, and so he’s sitting on the couch and I’m messing around, and so I look out. I’m like, it’s Kyle Busch, uh oh. And so I’m like, ‘Dale it’s Kyle Busch.’ And he goes, ‘No s***?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, it’s Kyle. I’m not answering it. You better get over here.’ He comes up off the couch and peaks out the door, and he just kind of props it open a little bit, and is like, ‘Hey man, what’s up?’ And I could hear him audibly say very loudly, ‘Happy Valentine’s Day!’ And he’s got bags of the M&Ms to share. And both of us were kind of like, really? You brought candy? There’s pink, there’s red, there’s all kinds of flavors here. He gave him like four or five bags of candy. He was smiling, he was happy. It was like a version of Kyle I had never seen before, either.” Dale joked that he asked Kyle if they were “safe to eat” given their checkered past (pun very much intended) up to that point: “I joked with him when he handed them to me, I said, ‘Are these safe to eat?'” Amy says it was “really nice” to see Kyle that way, as opposed to her husband’s fierce rival on the track, and she says from that point on, they both looked at him very differently: “It was really nice to see Kyle in that moment. And then from then on, I feel like both of us kind of looked at him in a different way.” Dale acknowledged: “It was the very beginning of us sort of starting to be friendly.” And like many of us, Amy says she will always think of him when she sees a bag of M&Ms: “I feel like I’ll always think of him too now when I see a bag of M&Ms.” For many years, Kyle and M&Ms were synonymous, and I always thought he had one of the best sponsors of anyone in NASCAR. Like Jr. said in his aforementioned tribute post, it was Kyle who first reached out to mend the fences with him, so to speak, and while he was very happy to do so, he gave credit to Kyle to being the first one to reach out, and it sounds like it all started with some M&Ms, which is a great way to do it in my humble opinion. It’s a great story that gives a peak into a side of Kyle I think many fans never got to see, at least not on the track: View this post on Instagram The full podcast is available below. The post “A Version Of Kyle I Had Never Seen Before” — Amy Earnhardt Recalls Kyle Busch Showing Up To Dale Jr.’s Bus With Bags Of M&Ms For Valentine’s Day first appeared on Whiskey Riff.