“400 miles on the concrete. Going to be hot and slick working through the field. Let’s have some fun,” were the promising words that Kyle Busch had tweeted before getting on the Nashville Superspeedway. In reality, though, it was anything but fun for the two-time Cup Series champion. The Ally 400 race saw the racer blow his top like a pressure cooker. As Busch struggled to make headway in his No. 8 Chevy, his frustration seeped into the team radio, taking an aim at Richard Childress Racing.  

Rowdy, once again, after multiple desperate efforts throughout the season, found himself in a position every driver hates—running 30th and far away from the rest of the competition. Starting the race at P27, there was no way Busch could afford to slip up. However, as fate would have it, the RCR driver overshot his pit box, failing to gain traction on the field later on.

With little to no improvement from his torrid outing at Loudon last weekend (where he concluded the race with a DNF), in a moment of raw emotion, the 2-time Cup Series champion complained, “This is complete garbage,” referring to his No.8 RCR Chevy. This was a clear sign of Busch’s growing intolerance with his car’s performance, a far cry from his usual winning ways.

So, doing his part in the best way possible, Rowdy turned around his torrid run from Stage 1 and was in contention for the win late in the race. Trading blows with Denny Hamlin, Busch’s resurgence seemed capable of salvaging his dismal season. But the hopes of a much-needed victory were derailed by the actions of other drivers on the field, thus adding more misery to an already tortuous season for Busch and RCR.

As a driver who’s racked up wins in all three NASCAR divisions, 2024 has been heartbreaking for Kyle Busch for a lot of reasons. From pit crew issues to Next Gen struggles, this is not Busch’s first downfall. Apart from that one P3 photo-finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway in February, Busch has clinched just one Top-5s and three Top-10s till now. But just a Top-5 finish is not what the driver’s aiming for, with him even taking a sarcastic jibe at his team at the end of his P4 finish at Dover. “Yeah, good day for the 8 car get all the points. That’s a normal day, I’d love to have a lot more normal days. We just can’t seem to get any,” he had said. However, that’s not the only thing!

What’s more at stake, you ask? Since 2004, the driver has won at least one Cup Series race every season. But by the way 2o24 has shaped up so far, that reality might not be too far. And Nashville was another painful reminder of what’s to come.

Rowdy was unable to dodge the bullet a second time in a chaotic Nashville race

Austin Cindric’s untimely spin in the final few laps took the race into overtime. And, as it turns out, Busch tried to capitalize on the opportunity. He made his way up to the front, aiming for a win, starting in the second row on the restart. Yet, it was Kyle Larson’s overzealous attempt that played spoilsport.

Larson, who was lined up behind Hamlin, was too eager to make the pass and missed his mark on Turn 1. As a result, he rammed into Chastain’s No. 1, also pulling Rowdy into the chaos. The RCR driver was quick on the brakes and avoided hitting Ross Chastain’s Chevy, but in doing so, he lost all his track position. Fortunately, this wasn’t the end, as multiple restarts in the double-overtime finish opened up more opportunities for him to grab a solid result. But guess who was back again to foil his plans? Kyle Larson.

At this point, the race was under a triple overtime run as multiple leading cars just dropped out like flies. The main culprits here weren’t the tired and frustrated race car drivers, but the fuel. On yet another restart, the No. 5 car just stalled out dead on the track, causing a huge pile-up, and Busch’s No. 8 Chevy was among the ones that ended up taking a beating and heavy damage. This was it. Rowdy had run his race, resulting in yet another DNF finish.

The crowd was cheering him on for putting on a heroic display, but a promising run soon turned tragic for the driver in a split second. And who knows how big of an impact this could have on his playoff hopes? Today’s result was his fourth DNF finish for this season; furthermore, Joey Logano winning the race certainly doesn’t help his case. Though, surprisingly, in a post-race conference, Busch’s demeanor couldn’t farther away from his team radio persona earlier.

“I’m proud of everyone on the zone team and at RCR for their effort today. We struggled early but our guys kept making changes to our zone Camaro throughout the race. Randall Burnett made great calls to put us in position to score a top-five finish. Those cautions at the end of the race and into overtime really worked against us because we were close on fuel. On that last restart, we were fourth when the No. 5 (Kyle Larson) ran out of fuel just ahead of me and I had nowhere to go. It’s frustrating for sure but we’ll bounce back next week in Chicago,” he said. Now that’s what we call renewed vigor! Last year, the driver had finished P5 at the Chicago Street Race. Will he be able to outperform himself this year?

One thing’s for sure though: His fans are on the edge of their seats, waiting for a weekend when Lady Luck would smile at his pure efforts.