Richard Childress Racing driver Kyle Busch is in the middle of one of his worst seasons in the NASCAR Cup Series. He hasn’t won a single race in 2024 and is on the verge of not making it into the playoffs with only seven more races remaining in the regular season. However, not all hope is lost for the two-time champion. His crew chief Randall Burnett explains why they’ve still got reason to dream.
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Speaking on SiriusXM recently, the chief broke down the races that are lined up next on the schedule. The calendar reflects plenty of opportunities for Busch to secure a victory and make up for the bad outing that he has had thus far. Prime amongst those opportunities at tracks where the #8 team has been fairly strong. This includes Pocono, Indianapolis, Chicago, and Michigan among others.
Burnett’s mindset is fixed on executing better on the track than they have been thus far and giving Busch a win. He said, “We have got a lot of races to look forward to coming up. Michigan, Daytona, Darlington… I think there’s plenty of opportunities for this #8 Zone Chevy to get into the playoffs we just gotta execute and make sure we don’t have any mistakes.”
.@RCRracing Crew Chief Randall Burnett is approaching the final 7 races of the regular season with one mindset:
Win.
“We’ve got some good tracks coming up.”
More → https://t.co/MKhd9eLXG8 pic.twitter.com/6jZPsOuL8c
— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) July 4, 2024
Busch is currently 104 points below the playoff elimination line with multiple drivers standing between him and the safe zone. And his recent momentum isn’t showcasing a lot of promise. He has four DNFs in the last five races. This undeniably puts him in a win-or-bust corner. If he is unable to secure a win this season, a lot of questions will arise not only about him but also about Richard Childress Racing’s Cup Series operation.
In which upcoming regular season track does Busch have the best chance of success?
The upcoming Cup Series race is at the Chicago Street Course, where Busch finished in fifth place last year. The race this time will be a lot different from last year. It is expected to be run under dry conditions entirely and this makes it hard to guess how the #8 team will perform. But Busch holds a good advantage in some of the other upcoming tracks.
He is a four-time winner at the Pocono Raceway and a six-time winner at Richmond. He has also found success in Darlington, Michigan, and Indianapolis (2). Should he be able to pull some of his past experiences at these venues forward and get the help of crew in execution, he just might scrape through to the 2024 Cup Series playoffs.
