Kyle Busch was happy with his third win of the 2023 season at World Wide Technology Raceway and hoped to finish the season strong and return to a championship-contending team.
But now he is winless and with 36 races remaining, he is just a few slots away from the playoff points benchmark.
So what exactly went wrong for Kyle Busch and the No. 8 RCR team? The transition to the next-generation car hasn’t been smooth for Rowdy, but at the same time, his team couldn’t keep up with the competition.
His frustration reached a peak when he intentionally knocked out Ricky Stenhouse Jr. during the All-Star event and then got into a brawl. But ahead of this weekend’s event, the former JGR star was able to calmly analyze the difficulties of this season in an interview with FOX reporter Bob Pockrass.
Busch compares his last year’s run to his 2024 run so far.
His only consistent performances in the first 14 races of the year were at Dover and Kansas. It was the first time he had held the top spot twice in a row. A fourth place at Dover and an eighth at Kansas followed.
So optimism was building heading into the next race at Darlington, where he was treated well last year. But inconsistency crept in within the team, and they fell far behind in the fight to compete and win. Rowdy finished 27th in the race. No, you can’t do that. It’s really crazy.
I got third at Darlington last year, and then I took a different route this year and ran well at Dover and Kansas.” So we thought, “Okay, let’s take it to Darlington,” but it totally screwed up.
Would it have been better if we’d just driven what we drove last year? Who knows? “
Kyle Busch acknowledged that trends change every six months and it’s hard to know what other teams are doing these days.
What changes and modifications are they making to their cars to compete for wins? This means that only if you work in the technology industry do you have a chance to get under the skin of the guy.
When the tires are off the car, that’s when you can barely see anything. So if you have limited time on pit road, you don’t have much of a chance to see someone under your nose.” At this point in the season, it may seem like making the playoffs is more important to the driver.
But his main focus is maintaining his winning streak in the Cup Series every year, which will ultimately ensure a place in the finals.
Kyle Busch has sorted out a plan to secure his playoff spot
There are two ways to advance to the Final 16 in the NASCAR Cup Series. The most efficient is to win one of the 26 regular-season races, which more or less guarantees a driver a spot in the playoffs.
The second way is the harder way, which is to collect enough points. Bubba Wallace knows a thing or two about how tough the latter process can be. But a playoff berth isn’t the only thing Busch is concerned about.
Rather, he wants to extend his 19-year winning streak since his first full-time season in 2005. “I wouldn’t be as worried about the playoffs as I am about a 20-year winning streak. That’s the bigger goal. If we win races, we’ll make the playoffs. That’s the bigger goal,” Busch told Bob Pockrass in a one-on-one interview.
It makes sense that a guy like Kyle Busch would step up and try to win.
It seems like a tough idea to sell at this point, but one good result could be enough to turn around a team’s bad luck.
We saw Chase Elliott put an end to his winning streak this season, and we’re hoping for the same from the two-time Cup Series champion.
