“A Bit of My Demise”: Kyle Busch Points to Biggest Factor That Has Hurt His NASCAR Dominance

After his dismal season at JGR in 2022, not many predicted the start and success Kyle Busch experienced in the first few months of his RCR tenure in 2023. However, the last of the three wins Busch scored with his new team came in June. Since then, Busch has only had four finishes inside the Top 5.

And even though he is in the playoffs, still very much competing for his third Cup title, the #8 team hasn’t looked like its best for a long time. This is something that isn’t lost on Busch either, as his recent comments clearly suggest.

Kyle Busch remembers the golden days that are long gone now

Ahead of the race at Talladega, Busch was asked whether he thinks other teams have caught up to their pace or if it’s something else, anything that could help them get back to winning ways. Busch’s response was of a very self-aware competitor.

“Trust me, I see it too. I think when we’ve had really good cars, I’ve just over-tried. In 2017, 2018, whatever when we were super-fast all the time – I always think back to the golden days.. you could drive from the back of the field to the front of the field,” Busch described.

With that said, the 2x Cup champion claimed that he is still capable of that, of driving from the back of the field to the front. But in reality, factors other than his own capability come into account, and Busch knows.

“With this car, equipment, talent and everything being so equal.. SMT data, everybody seeing it and being so equal – it’s tougher than ever to pass the guy in front of you,” he explained.

“I guess that’s kind of been a bit of my demise, which is I don’t feel like I can do as much as I want to be able to do. Me overtrying has sort of hurt my race craft, if you will.. where I haven’t been finishing, frankly.”

Busch still has “some work to do” with the Next Gen car

Busch then explained his run of bad luck with the Next Gen car, pointing to the number of times he has spun out and crashed. For the RCR driver, it’s simply “stupid” compared to how things were before.

But that doesn’t mean Kyle Busch is throwing in the white flag. “I still have some work to do on figuring that out. But also I’m a very non-patient person and you have to show some patience in these races,” he said.

Having said that, Busch added that he doesn’t know exactly where he or his team is lacking, but they’ve “got to fix it.” Or at least he has to.