“Have to Stop the Bleeding”: Kyle Busch Confesses Feeling the Playoff Chase Pressure After ‘Getting Run Into Every Week’

“It’s a disastrous mess”—said Kevin Harvick, highlighting the situation Kyle Busch is currently in this season, and rightly so! Busch, this season, is in deep water, and if he doesn’t manage to turn things around soon, then things could go seriously wrong for him. 

Right now, the two-time world champion, who has a record of scoring at least one win every season for the last nineteen years, has no wins! He has not yet made it to the playoffs and is 45 points away from the cutoff line. And his performances don’t seem to improve, only degrade. But as Winston Churchill famously said, “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” For Rowdy, that determination is more critical than ever going forward, because the playoffs are knocking on the door! But by Busch’s conversations recently, it looks like only a twinkle of hope remains for him. 

Kyle Busch highlights his rocky road this season 

The Kyle Busch of today in RCR and the Kyle Busch of JGR are very different. The one now, who has speed issues and problems taking control of the car, is the opposite of the guy who swept the weekend with his stellar performances. In fact, Christopher Bell, who recently swept the weekend in New Hampshire, expressed how exceptional it is to experience this, as he always saw Kyle Busch do it as he was growing up.

But right now, Busch is struggling and his main issue is speed. His car doesn’t seem to have enough of it, but he pushes it to the max because that’s what the winner does, right? But then the inevitable happens: he crashes, has multiple DNFs, and more. His luck so far has been abysmal. He seems broken down to a point, tired of the pushing hard and also being pushed and run over by others.

In fact, after finishing 27th place qualifying at Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway, he talked about his issues to the media. He said, “We were running better than we probably should have been at Gateway-we got crashed. We were running better than we should have been at Iowa and we had a part failure. We were not running good at all last week at Loudon and then we go out in the wet and I’m trying to catch back up to the tail of the field and we’re crashed. I’ve been getting run into every week as well, so that’s probably most of it.” 

The two-time cup champion didn’t even manage to score a top-10 finish in the last six races. Hence, being disappointed is a given. Highlighting the desperation inside him, he said, “We just have to stop the bleeding,” emphasizing the urgency and pressure to turn things around before it’s too late. And seems the change has already started with change first at the top level!

Change at the top level of RCR sparks hope for Kyle Busch 

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Given the lack of performance by the team, a change seemed inevitable. And this time it’s Andy Petree, the competition director who is bowing down, who announced his sudden retirement only recently. He joined RCR in 1993 as a crew chief for the ever-so-famous NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt. As such, he has been with the team a long time, but Busch feels sometimes change is good. He mentioned that he was hopeful that with this change in the top level, maybe a new door to something would open up.

Busch said, “I mean change sometimes lends itself to an open opportunity, hopefully for the better. So, you know, I respect to hell out of Andy and what he’s done and what he’s done in the sport and the legacy that he holds. And so, we had a lot of fun together and some good laughs and some good relationships and, you know, hopefully, that we can better our program without him there and carry on in the future.”

But is a change of management the actual issue? The fact of the matter is that Busch lacks one thing—speed! Everyone from fans to analysts, even veterans like Harvick, has presented the concern that Busch’s car has no speed. Harvick said, “The problem with Kyle Busch’s situation right now is that they just don’t have any speed in their car for the most part.” And he isn’t wrong; this season Busch has just two top 5’s and three top-10’s. Lack of speed means he cannot chase and move up the ranks, making him stuck in limbo. 

Do you think things will change for the better moving forward? Let us know in the comments.