It’s been a tough couple years for Kyle Busch. His last win in the NASCAR Cup Series came all the way back on June 4, 2023 at Illinois.
And that didn’t change on Saturday at Richmond, when Busch was caught up in a wreck that collected 12 drivers and took many out of contention for the night. It was a thoroughly forgettable affair for Busch, who had mistake after mistake compound on the night.
“Kyle Busch, we talked about it’s a great night for RCR, Kyle Busch had like, I don’t know what was going on,” said The Athletic’s NASCAR insider Jeff Gluck on The Teardown podcast. “He started off the race and he was immediately like, ‘You guys got this thing wrong and it feels broken and it wants to spin out.’
“And then he was like a wrecking ball. I mean he was hitting people left and right. He took out both Chases, because he took out (Chase) Briscoe, and then in the same wreck he took out Chase Elliott.”
That wasn’t the only problem for Kyle Busch on the evening, either. He had a fairly rudimentary mistake that cost him track position early.
“He had the moment there where he sped on pit road from sections 1 through 10,” Gluck said. “Like every section or whatever.”
While Busch has had a couple top-five finishes this year and a smattering of top-10s (seven), there has been virtually no consistency. And he hasn’t felt particularly close to winning.
“Can we just really quick?” asked Gluck’s co-host on the podcast, Jordan Bianchi. “How about the fact that Austin Dillon has two wins over the last basically two seasons and Kyle Busch has zero?”
Saturday was just more of the same for the driver of the No. 8 car, unfortunately. No answers.
“It was just like, dude,” Gluck said. “Then his teammate wins, but I still feel like he’ll have a chance next week. Wouldn’t it be something if RCR got both cars into the playoffs after the year they’ve had? RCR gets both cars in, eliminating a Hendrick car or a 23XI car or all of RFK.”
A whole lot of work to be done for that to occur, though Kyle Busch is certainly capable of making it happen. On a forgettable night at Richmond, Busch finished P16 and that was actually better than the previous three weeks.
With everything on the line, can he get it going at Daytona? We’ll see.
