To say Richard Childress Racing has had a bad year would be an understatement. Recent stats prove that it might be one of the worst years in the team’s illustrious history. In the last three races, they have finished a race only once with one car. That means that they have been unsuccessful in finishing a race five times with two drivers. It’s the first time something like that has happened to the legendary championship-winning team.
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Kyle Busch is having one of the worst seasons of his career so far and he has not been able to finish any of the last three races. At Nashville, Rowdy was stuck behind Kyle Larson in overtime and was spun around into the wall as a result.
At New Hampshire, the two-time Cup Series champion suffered three crashes, the final one under caution. At Iowa, a mechanical failure saw him exit the race track before the event’s conclusion.
Richard Childress Racing has seen just 1 car finish in the last 3 races combined (Austin Dillon – Iowa)
Meaning they’ve combined to have 5 total DNFs in the last 3 races.
This is the first time in the HISTORY of Richard Childress Racing they’ve had 5 combined DNFs over 3 races. pic.twitter.com/Trwc2n2ZYe
— Trey Ryan (@TreyRyan99) July 3, 2024
Things have not been any better for Austin Dillon. The driver of the legendary #3 car finished P18 in Iowa but it has been a horror show since then. At the Nashville Superspeedway, Dillon was involved in a big crash off turn 1. His car was too damaged to continue. In New Hampshire, the #3 driver was involved in another big wreck with other drivers.
His crew could not fix the car within the DVP time and that was the end of his race. Neither driver would look at the previous month with a lot of fondness. There still is a lot of work left to be done for the team to be competitive at any point this season.
Kyle Busch’s run of bad luck stuns Kevin Harvick
For Busch, all of these results simply do not indicate that he has won the Cup Series twice. According to his former rival Kevin Harvick, Rowdy is on a run of bad luck worse than anyone in the sport at the moment. Looking at last weekend’s race, Busch did not do anything wrong. He was at the front and had Larson not stalled, might have even had a chance to challenge for the win.
“He’s on the worst bad luck cycle of anyone on the circuit right now. It is bad. Don’t go around Kyle Busch right now because if you want bad luck…don’t get around that guy because he is plagued with bad luck,” Harvick said on his podcast.
The next Cup Series race is perhaps the most challenging of them all, the Chicago Street race. Rowdy is not known for his road course abilities. However, the two-time champion will be hoping against hope that he can pull a rabbit out of the hat on Sunday.
