I’ll never forget the words Kurt Busch said to me back in 2002: “If you think I’m good, wait ‘til you see my little brother.”
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Some might have taken Kurt’s words about younger sibling Kyle as just good-natured touting or hype from a caring big brother.
But Kurt’s words proved quite prophetic, as Kyle would become the most talked-about driver in NASCAR since Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon.
When Kyle Busch started racing in NASCAR in 2003, first in Trucks and Xfinity, and then full-time in Cup in 2005, he became the most dominant overall driver NASCAR has ever seen.
He would EASILY surpass Richard Petty’s overall wins mark of 200. As of this past weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, Kyle has a combined total of 232 career wins: 63 in Cup, 102 in Xfinity, and 67 in Trucks.
He also owns two Cup championships (2015, 2019) and one Xfinity crown (2009).
And had NASCAR not implemented the unofficial ‘Kyle Busch Rule’ several years ago to limit the number of Xfinity and Trucks races a full-time Cup driver could take part in (primarily because of Kyle’s domination of those series), likely, the younger Busch brother would be much closer to 300 combined wins and maybe have nearly a half-dozen combined championships.
So, how do you explain what has happened to Busch lately?
How is it that the winningest driver in NASCAR history hasn’t driven into a Cup victory lane in nearly two years (last win was June 4, 2023, at WorldWide Technology Raceway near St. Louis)?
That’s a 66-race winless streak, the longest of his prodigious Cup career. Sure, he won two Trucks races last year and one already this year, but Busch still looked like a shell of his once-outstanding self.
When Joe Gibbs Racing decided not to renew Busch’s contract after the 2022 season, choosing instead to go with his grandson Ty in Busch’s place, Kyle moved to what many considered one of the most uncharacteristic choices of all: Richard Childress Racing.
Who can forget all the times Richard Childress criticized Busch in the early days, even punching him at Kansas Speedway after a race?
What Has Gone Wrong For Busch at RCR?
During his time both at JGR and before that at Hendrick Motorsports (he lost his ride there after 2007 to make room for Dale Earnhardt Jr.), Busch was looked upon by many as cocky, arrogant and a bully on the racetrack.
Forget Hendrick and Gibbs. Let’s look at RCR: he goes there as a much more mature and less audacious driver in 2023 and wins three races (which are also his last three Cup wins to date), had 10 top-five and 17 top-10 finishes.
Surprisingly, while he easily made the 10-race playoffs that year, Busch was eliminated from championship contention after just the first round.
And it’s only gotten worse from there.
In his second season with RCR last year, Busch’s production dropped to an abysmal level – the worst of his 22-year Cup career – with zero wins, only five top-5 and 10 top-10 finishes.
Even worse, for only the second time in his career (the first was his rookie Cup campaign in 2005), Busch failed to make the NASCAR Cup playoffs and ultimately ended a humiliating 20th in the final season standings. Even guys like Ty Gibbs, Bubba Wallace, and Harrison Burton finished higher than Kyle.
Let’s fast forward to this season: In the first nine races of 2025, Busch remains winless, has just one top-5 finish (fifth at the Circuit of the Americas), three other top-10 showings, and five other finishes from 14th to 34th.
Oh yes, he’s buried in the Cup standings, currently sitting an embarrassing 15th. I mean, come on, this is Kyle Busch we’re talking about!
Questions: We’ve Got Lots Of Them
Which leads to several questions that no one can seem to answer, most notably Kyle himself:
- Has Busch forgotten how to drive, let alone win?
- Is he too old? (He turns 40 on May 2)
- Has he lost his killer instinct, the motivation and inspiration that he was so famous for earlier in his career?
- Will his three-year contract with RCR be renewed this year, or will he be sent packing (particularly if he misses the playoffs again)? And if RCR doesn’t renew Busch’s contract, where does he go from there?
- Did all those wins in NASCAR’s two junior leagues – Xfinity and Trucks – ultimately lead to Busch burning himself out? If he had it to do all over again, would he cut back on those easy wins if it meant he could have won another 10 or 20 more Cup races – and potentially another Cup championship or more?
Busch’s fall from grace is not unique in NASCAR. Seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson had a similar rapid decline in his career.
After winning his seventh Cup crown in 2016, tying him for the NASCAR record for most championships by a driver with Richard Petty and the late Dale Earnhardt, Johnson was never a contender again.
After the three wins he earned in 2017, the last being on June 4 at Dover, Johnson would never win another Cup race in his career.
What’s worse, as much as Johnson fans hoped and prayed throughout the closing seasons of his career, he would suffer through the worst winless streak on his resume, failing to win even once in his last 143 Cup starts.
Even ‘The King’ of NASCAR, Richard Petty, went winless in the last 241 starts (1,184 total) in his Cup career.
And let’s not forget three-time champ Darrell Waltrip, who went winless in the last 251 starts of his Cup career (out of 809 career starts).
The one thing that seems to tie Johnson, Petty, and Waltrip together is that they likely stuck around too long and should have retired earlier.
Could that be the case with Kyle Busch? If things don’t improve for him, should he contemplate retirement sooner rather than later?
Sure, there are still 27 races left in the Cup schedule (but only 17 in the playoff-qualifying regular season). Maybe Busch can find some of that old magic again. But if not and he continues to remain winless or, God forbid, misses the playoffs for the second straight year, maybe Busch should join his older brother in retirement.
The last thing Kyle should want to do is keep hanging on for several more years like Johnson, Petty, and Wallace – and ultimately detract from what has otherwise been one of the greatest careers in NASCAR history.
