Kyle Busch is in the midst of perhaps the worst stretch of misery of his nearly 20-year career in the NASCAR Cup Series. Busch won three of his first 15 races last season but is currently on a career-long 40-race losing streak. He’s in serious danger of going winless in the regular season for the first time since 2004 and, perhaps more importantly, is 104 points behind Alex Bowman, who occupies the final 16 spots in the playoffs.
Corey LaJoie has a theory as to why Busch and the No. 8 team can’t get it done this year, and it has to do with the simulator.
Corey LaJoie unveils theory for Kyle Busch’s struggles
“There’s been a lot of talk about the eight guys not running the way we expect two-time champion Kyle Busch to run,” LaJoie said this week on the “Stacking Pennies” podcast. “It’s almost like, ‘Yo, screw you.’ This car has a lot more character than the last car. And I think it’s trust. It’s trust in the employees and it’s trust in the car.” It’s about confidence, and knowing when the dive starts. And the No. 8 car is currently in the midst of a confidence landslide. “But I have a theory. This is my theory, and I don’t talk much about my theory, but we all know how important the simulator is. We talk about it every week. 95% of the testing is done with taking the geometry to the track.
And the front springs that we take to the track are what we need to race. All of this is done in simulation and driver-in-the-loop simulation. Kyle Busch [won three races] in his first season with RCR and was a consistent contender in the race every week. They used Tyler Reddick’s historical notes from the previous year, as well as tires they’d built in a GM simulator.
“So when Kyle Busch got there and started making his own version of what they thought was a tire, they moved further and further away from what they’d established before. … I don’t think it’s a coincidence that RCR went down the path of developing a sim tire based on one person’s opinion. Once you start relying on that, you lose your reference point, so to speak. You think the balance of the car should be like this, and it starts to increase. You go to the racetrack and you have no idea where you are. … My theory is they are following a tire model based on Kyle Busch’s input in the simulator.”
Kyle Busch suffers another setback at Nashville
Whatever the case, 2024 has been a year to forget for Busch. That continued during this past Sunday’s race at Nashville when he was running P4 late before being in the wrong place at the wrong time. On the third overtime restart, Kyle Larson, running P2, ran out of fuel. Busch had nowhere to go behind him, crashing and finishing 27th.
“Just the feel is not there for me,” Busch said before the race at Nashville. “The more comfortable you are, the more positions you can put yourself in and take chances. I feel like I’m having a hard enough time making laps on my own to ever think about trying to make a pass on someone.”
