“Purely My Fault”: Kyle Busch Takes Responsibility for Wreck That Ended His Mexico Race

Jerry Bonkowski | 16/06/2025
NASCAR Cup Series driver Kyle Busch (8) during qualifying for the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Kyle Busch’s season of discontent continued on Sunday in the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race in Mexico City. This time, he only had himself to blame.

With a light rain and wet pavement in the Viva Mexico 250 on the 2.42-mile Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez road course, Busch began to slide on the entrance into Turn 1 of Lap 7, triggering a multi-car wreck, collecting the No. 7 of Justin Haley, the No. 5 of Kyle Larson, the No. 16 of AJ Allmendinger, the No. 19 of Chase Briscoe and the No. 38 of Zane Smith.

“I went to the brakes and just ice,” Busch lamented. “Maybe it was a little bit too heavy of a brake spike. Just turned around backwards and spun out backwards. Hate it for all the guys that got involved. That was obviously purely my fault.”

To his credit, Busch did attempt to limit the damage caused to the other drivers. “I don’t know what to have done differently… I was in trouble for a good second or two and then I was like, ‘I’m going to nail some people, so I better turn around backwards and at least try to soften the blow,’” he added.

When all the contact and spinning came to an end, Busch’s day was done. He finished last in the 37-car field. He ultimately dropped three spots in the standings — from 15th to 18th — and is now below the 16 driver cutline for this year’s playoffs with 10 regular season races now remaining.

Admittedly, Busch is only seven points out of 16th place, which is currently occupied by Michael McDowell. But the bad luck for the driver of the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet just keeps continuing regardless.

Busch has zero wins this season. In fact, he hasn’t won since 2023 — a 73-race winless streak and the longest of his Cup career. He has just one top-five and five top-10 finishes.

Unless ‘Rowdy’ can finish the 26-race regular season in the top 16, this could be the second straight season that the two-time Cup champion misses the playoffs.

Post Edited By: Abhishek Ramesh
Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez Kyle Busch Richard Childress Racing Viva Mexico 250

About the author

Jerry Bonkowski

Jerry Bonkowski

Jerry Bonkowski is a veteran sportswriter who has worked full-time for many of the top media outlets in the world, including USA Today (15 years), ESPN.com (4+ years), Yahoo Sports (4 1/2 years), NBCSports.com (8 years) and others. He has covered virtually every major professional and collegiate sport there is, including the Chicago Bulls' six NBA championships (including heavy focus on Michael Jordan), the Chicago Bears Super Bowl XX-winning season, the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs World Series championships, two of the Chicago Blackhawks' NHL titles, Tiger Woods' PGA Tour debut, as well as many years of beat coverage of the NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA for USA Today. But Jerry's most notable achievement has been covering motorsports, most notably NASCAR, IndyCar, NHRA drag racing and Formula One. He has had a passion for racing since he started going to watch drag races at the old U.S. 30 Dragstrip (otherwise known as "Where the Great Ones Run!") in Hobart, Indiana. Jerry has covered countless NASCAR, IndyCar and NHRA races and championship battles over the years. He's also the author of a book, "Trading Paint: 101 Great NASCAR Debates", published in 2010 (and he's hoping to soon get started on another book). Away from sports, Jerry was a fully sworn part-time police officer for 20 years, enjoys reading and music (especially "hair bands" from the 1980s and 1990s), as well as playing music on his electric keyboard, driving (fast, of course!), spending time with Cyndee his wife of nearly 40 years, the couple's three adult children and three grandchildren (with more to come!), and his three dogs -- including two German Shepherds and an Olde English Bulldog who thinks he's a German Shepherd.. Jerry still gets the same excitement of seeing his byline today as he did when he started in journalism as a 15-year-old high school student. He is looking forward to writing hundreds, if not thousands, of stories in the future for TheSportsRush.com, as well as interacting with readers.

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