Editor’s note: This is the 10th in a series in which we review the top 30 drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series in reverse order of the 2025 final standings.
Driver: Kyle Busch, No. 8 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing
Crew chiefs: Randall Burnett (31 races) and Andy Street (five races)
Final 2025 Ranking:17th
Key Stats: 0 wins, 3 top-fives, 10 top 10s, 88 laps led
How 2025 ended: The two-time NASCAR Cup Series champ closed out the season at Phoenix with a fifth-place finish, matching his best result of 2025. After missing the playoffs for the second consecutive year — and only second time of his career — Busch rallied to close out the season with three top 10s in the final 10-race stretch; notably doing so with two different crew chiefs. Randall Burnett, who guided Busch for most of his three-season tenure at Richard Childress Racing, announced he would move to a new team in 2026, and Andy Street was moved atop Busch‘s pit box to close out the year.
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Best race: For a driver who has been dominant on ovals for much of his celebrated career, Busch actually turned in his top single-day showing at the Circuit of The Americas road course in Austin, Texas. Busch started eighth and led six times for a season-best 42 laps out front before losing the lead to Christopher Bell and finishing fifth.
MORE: 2026 Cup Series schedule | Kyle Busch driver page
Other season highlights: Busch, who owns 34 Busch Light Pole Awards in his career, earned a pair of front row starts on the year, starting second at Talladega Superspeedway in the spring and then again at Michigan International Speedway five weeks later. Two of his best finishes happened on road courses — fifth at COTA and fifth again in the Chicago Street Race. While the two-time champion continues to regain form at RCR, he did put together a season-best three-race string of top 10 efforts in the early-going at the 1.5-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway (seventh), the Austin road course (fifth), and the one-mile Phoenix oval (eighth).
Stat to know: Busch‘s low tally of two DNFs on the season was bettered by only one other full-time driver, Tyler Reddick, who had one. And while Busch‘s average finish of 17.9 is not what is expected of the former champion, it did improve upon last year‘s mark of 18.3.
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RELATED: Final 2025 standings | Busch through the years
Quotable: “There‘s still a building process that‘s got to take place to get us to that avenue. Being most consistent each and every week and finishing consistently in the top five is the easiest way to prove that you‘re capable of your next win. So we‘ve got to get to that point first.” — Busch said of returning to winning form and doing so with a new crew, Jim Pohlman, in 2026.
Looking ahead: Certainly, Busch was frustrated with the 2025 season outcome, but he is a champion, and there‘s a reason he is the winningest national series driver in NASCAR history. The 40-year-old has said nothing about retirement and is clearly keen to turn the page and start fresh with a new crew chief (Pohlman), who expects to return the No. 8 team to playoff form. Pohlman led fellow Chevrolet driver Justin Allgaier to the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship and previously worked at RCR, spearheading the organization‘s Next Gen car development. There is a lot of high hope for the team‘s reorganized technical assets next season, which will include RCR‘s former technical director. Mike Dillon, who will be taking a more active role. All of the restructuring looks to be promising for Busch, who started his now three-year tenure at the team with a three-trophy season in 2023. His last win was on June 4, 2023, at Gateway, where he started from pole and led a dominating 121 of the 243 laps.
