Kyle Busch, aka Rowdy, was a force to be reckoned with. NASCAR fans who joined in after the Netflix series may not know this, but he was a lightning bolt on the track. He won 19 races in a row and had two championship titles.
Today’s Kyle Busch is winless, out of the playoff zone, and wrecks his car at every opportunity, a stark contrast to the Busch of Hendrick and Joe Gibbs Racing.
Watching him race was painful for fans. And the question always arises of who is to blame – is it his car or Busch himself? Lately he’s been accelerating hard and doing things he shouldn’t be doing. To make matters worse, he made comments about things that could ruin his relationship with his current team at RCR. And since he’s been with them for a season already, that seems like the wrong approach.
It’s either win or wreck for Kyle, says NASCAR insider
Kyle Busch has struggled since moving to RCR and his performance has been subpar, especially this season. The biggest problem seems to be the equipment. He can’t seem to handle the car. But they say in racing, you’ve got to take what you get, and Kyle doesn’t seem to understand that.
Wanting to be the best in the sport, he tries harder than anyone to get on the podium, but his efforts result in his cars failing. Literally, he’s in every accident. His frustration and the way he deals with it are obviously not good.
But it’s not just on the track. He also makes comments that can ruin the atmosphere within the team. In fact, when he was asked recently if he wanted to return to his former team, he answered yes without hesitation. When Kyle Busch spoke with FOX’s Bob Pockrass before the race in Iowa, he was asked about his future.
Rowdy responded: “I think anything is possible at any time. If I’m welcomed, I’ll definitely come back. “If Hendrick welcomes me back, I’ll go again. But right now I’m with the guys at RCR and I have the contract I have now. So we’re going to build this program and make RCR great again.” This comment was very offensive to most people, including spotter Freddie Kraft.
When he spoke on a podcast about whether Kyle Busch or RCR is the bigger issue, he said the two go hand in hand. Kraft said Busch doesn’t seem to be handling the situation well. Kraft commented on Kyle Busch’s comments about wanting to return to his former team. On the podcast “Door Bumper Clear,” he said: “When someone asked Kyle if he would go back to JGR or Hendrick and he said yes, it just seemed like a really weird thing for Kyle to say. Why would you say something like that when you’re signing with RCR next year? It goes against the opinion of the shop staff, too.”
According to TJ Majors, another weakness of Kyle Busch is that for him, it’s either win or lose. He said: “If Kyle has a weakness, it’s probably this. When it doesn’t go well… I don’t know if he’s trying too hard or what. It seems like he has trouble putting together the eighth, seventh run that he needs to catch up. It just seems like it’s win or lose.” And as we saw again in New Hampshire, where his performance hit a record low, that was no surprise.
Kyle Busch doesn’t seem like he can keep up anymore
For the first time, Kyle Busch was able to go all out on the weekend. In fact, it was his “thing.” He could win races at all three trucks at the same time, Xfinity and Cup. But since he joined RCR, everything has changed. And if you thought things couldn’t get any worse for him after Iowa, you’re wrong. Because all hell began for him in New Hampshire along the way.
What Busch needed more than anything for Sunday’s race was speed. But that was all he lacked. While the on-track incidents seemed to be the biggest problem, the real concern for the No. 8 team seemed to be speed.
He struggled in the first half of the race and fell two laps down. Then he pushed himself to maintain his speed, but it came at a heavy cost. He made contact with Gragson coming out of a rut in Turn 1, sending his rear bumper into the wall.
But that wasn’t all. On lap 217, he made contact with drivers coming out of turn two. And as if his day couldn’t get any worse, he spun again and hit the wall again. New Hampshire was a race he’d rather forget.
And with a slim chance of making the playoffs, things were looking pretty bleak for him. Moreover, his reactions and comments that bring down the morale of the team are also not ideal at all, especially now, when collaboration can mean the make or break of the team.
