While Kyle Busch’s loyal fan base continues to hold out hope for his comeback drive, the driver himself appears to be running low on confidence. For someone who has always been bullish in his abilities irrespective of the machine under him, Busch does cut a sorry figure on most weekends, struggling to crack the top 5 at even his strongest tracks.
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After racing alongside his son Brexton on a dirt track recently, he hinted that his career might be winding down. That said, it’s not as though Busch has entirely lost his edge — he’s still shown flashes of speed. More often than not, misfortune has thrown a wrench in the works, as seen at COTA earlier this season.
However, Kyle Petty didn’t mince words while offering a sobering assessment of both Busch and the Richard Childress Racing team during a conversation on Go PRN Live.
Addressing Busch’s current form and the state of the #8 camp, Petty bluntly stated, “No! His days are gone, done! I just don’t think they can. I think we saw at COTA that he still has the talent and can carry a car.”
“The problem is they’re asking him to carry it from 12th to the win. If you ask him to carry it from third or fourth to the win, I think he can, but he can’t carry it to a third of the field.”
However, Petty clarified that his remarks were not a jab at Busch’s driving skills or talent. Instead, he pointed the finger at Richard Childress Racing’s current performance gap. In his point of view, the team’s equipment simply isn’t up to par with the likes of Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, or Team Penske, which are in their winning era right now.
He equated RCR’s competitive level more closely to that of the Trackhouse Racing team and Ross Chastain, suggesting “they’re good… and they’re capable of running up front, I just don’t think they’re capable of winning right now.”
Currently, Busch sits 15th in the driver standings with 200 points. In the first 9 races, he has logged 3 top-10 finishes and one top-5, a big drop from his numbers at this stage in 2023. With an average finish of 16.5, Busch will need to tighten the bolts and capitalize on opportunities.
The race at COTA was a case in point — after leading the most laps among all contenders, 42 in total, he let a potential victory slip through his fingers.
Next up, Busch will roll into Talladega, a track where his average finish stands at 20.2 over the course of 39 starts. Despite the mixed results, he has managed to find wins twice at the superspeedway, with his most recent one coming in April 2023 behind the wheel of the very same #8 RCR machine.
