Dale Earnhardt Jr Sends a “Nice” Reaction as Chase Elliott & Denny Hamlin Join “Elite Company” But Kyle Busch Cannot Make the Cut

After another blinder of a season of NASCAR, drivers head into the off-season to relax and reset. They will be preparing to come back refreshed and make another attempt at winning. Meanwhile, Dale Earnhardt Jr chose to dedicate his time to take a look at some interesting statistics about himself and Kyle Busch.

For Kyle Busch, the 2022 season must have been very emotionally and mentally draining. It started with the unceremonious announcement of a departure from his 15-year-long association with Joe Gibbs Racing. He will be joining Richard Childress Racing at the start of next season.

It was tragically followed by the recent passing of Coy Gibbs, the owner of JGR and son of Joe Gibbs. Busch was visibly distressed hearing the news, as it was broken on the eve of the Championship 4 race in Phoenix.

In terms of results, Busch finished 13th – a continuation of the trend seen in the last 2 years where he finished 8th (2020) and 9th (2021). His performances of recent have been a far cry from his purple patch between 2015 and 2019 when he won 2 Cup Series either side of his finished 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place finishes. His downturn in form shows in the statistics.

A graph of career average finishes in the history of NASCAR puts Kyle Busch in 11th place with an average finishing position of 13.8. While the names he is behind are no joke – the likes of Dale Earnhardt, Richard Petty, Jimmie Johnson, and Jeff Gordon are some of the greatest personalities in the sport. There are some that don’t quite fit the bill for fans.

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Busch is a certain modern great of NASCAR. His 2019 season was a season of pure brilliance and excellence. Hopefully, time at RCR will prove his naysayers wrong.

Fans take a dig at those in front of Kyle Busch

Some of those on top of that list were quite obvious entries – how would 7-time champions not be on it? On the other hand, Dale Jr seemed to enjoy being in the 24th position.

But for some fans, it was a moment of redemption as Chase Elliott (2020 Cup Series) and Denny Hamlin (no Cup Series) were placed above Kyle Busch (2015 and 2019 Cup Series) on the list.

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There aren’t too many people who would question Hamlin’s caliber but if there were doubts about Elliott, they might consider changing their minds.