Kyle Busch hasn’t exactly had his best week… or should I say best season! The once great driver has yet to make the playoffs. He sits 17th in the NASCAR Cup Series standings, 186 points behind the leader. His best results were a third at Atlanta and a fourth at Dover. At Gateway, he had a good chance to succeed but was on the fence.
And now he has an accident during a tire test – do we smell a crash? Plus, fans are outraged and scratching their heads over just one question: What about Kyle Busch? How did the championship winner get to a point where he hasn’t won a single time this season and is crashing on a tire test?
What is going on with Kyle Busch?
Kyle Busch was scheduled to take part in a tire test at Indy today with Denny Hamlin and Todd Gillian. But things took a turn for the worse as he also had an accident here.
Toby Christie reposted an image from a Twitter user named Rexton Kemp that showed Busch’s No. 8 car being towed off the track after a Goodyear tire test. In the photo, Busch appears to have hit a wall. It’s almost deja vu as this is the second time he’s had an accident in the past week.
At Gateway, Busch was battling with Larson for seventh place but they made contact on the final lap of the second stage. Larson spun and crashed his car into the wall. Larson didn’t have to quit, but Busch certainly did.
And in the latest update, a spokesman confirmed that the #8 driver, who was scheduled to take part in another tire test on Wednesday, won’t return.
But his recent failures cast a dark light on his form. The two-time Cup champion is winless in his last 36 races, and after finishing outside the top 25 in three of his last six races, playoff contention looks tough for him.
Once a force to be reckoned with, Busch now finds himself under pressure and scrutiny from fans. Can the Richard Childress Racing driver reclaim his crown as the pinnacle of racing fame or will he forever be labeled as “once great”?
Fans scratching their heads over Kyle Busch’s lackluster performances
Kyle Busch has been in the sport for many years, winning multiple championships and accumulating over 63 Cup victories. He sits ninth on the all-time wins list with 231 wins across all three NASCAR national series. So, his recent form has obviously worried the NASCAR community.
One fan tagged him on Twitter, commenting, “I love you @KyleBusch but what’s going on?” while another pointed out that Kyle Busch may be staying put for too long. They wrote, “It’s sad to see once-great athletes stick around for so long…” which probably means it’s time for Busch to consider retirement before his legacy is tarnished even further.
Everyone knows by now about the incident where Larson was given waivers for missing the Charlotte points race. In light of this situation, one fan jokingly asked, “Does he (Busch) need an exemption?”, referring to Kyle Busch’s recent struggles and the fact that he may need relief to advance to the round of 16. One community member emphasized, “The accident during testing at Indianapolis was more unexpected for Kyle Busch than anything else.
And perhaps this sentiment is understandable.” Busch is the all-time win record holder in both the NASCAR Xfinity Series (102 wins) and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (66 wins). In addition, he is the 2009 Xfinity Series champion. So his accident during the tire test was something no one could have predicted.
Another X user also attacked him, pointing out that it was probably not the fault of the Next Gen car. “It’s getting harder to watch this. I know he’s trying to blame the car, but there must be something wrong with him,” the tweet said.
Notably, Bush has been an outspoken critic of Next Gen cars, directing his displeasure at them whenever he gets the chance. “I feel like I need to work on my balance issues more. And when you add the balance issues that I have, plus the aerodynamic flaws in traffic, it just confuses me. You expect one thing and you do something else and you lose a tenth of a second to get a feel for what it’s like,” the driver said at Darlington Raceway this year.
We don’t know what’s wrong with him, but he still has time to rehab. Do you think he’ll be successful?
