You’ve got to feel for Kyle Busch and how badly the mighty has fallen! When he burst onto the scene as an 18-year-old, he really made an impression. His first full-time season saw the then-Hendrick Motorsports driver win a race at the Auto Club Speedway. Ever since, he regularly chipped in with at least one win, every season.

Even when he moved to Joe Gibbs Racing in 2008, he still kept up his winning ways. During that 2008 season, Kyle Busch was well and truly unleashed! He picked up eight wins that year and finished 10th in the championship. From that point onwards, he never failed to finish in the Playoffs. His efforts finally bore fruit in 2015 with his maiden Cup Series championship, despite an injury setback. Busch snatched a second Cup title in 2019, for Joe Gibbs Racing, and established himself as a superstar.

Unfortunately, his win counter has slowly begun to dry up over the years. Since 2020, he has barely managed to squeak beyond two wins in a season. Things only got worse after he parted ways with Joe Gibbs Racing and linked up with Richard Childress Racing. Sure, the first year of the partnership seemed fine, and he won another race, extending his streak to 20 straight years. What happened wasn’t picture-perfect though. And Kevin Harvick had things to say about his recent stint.

Where has it all gone wrong for Kyle Busch?

Sadly, it looks like the good time is over, as Busch is really suffering in 2024. He started his campaign relatively decently, even picking up third place in that fantastic 3-wide Atlanta finish. Post that, his results have oscillated between ups and downs. Last weekend at the Nashville Superspeedway, he was close to redeeming himself, but rotten luck saw him get caught in a late wreck. Veteran Kevin Harvick recently commented on his luck and how it cost him in the last race.

Harvick, on his podcast, Happy Hour, mentioned, “The first part of the race, they ran 30th, 31st. Running in the back, terrible! All the mistakes! Finally, they get it all turned around and they get the track position. They get up front and then you get spit out of the line. He’s the guy that gets sent out of line and into the fence. I don’t even know how you’d fix it at this point. They didn’t do anything wrong, he didn’t do anything wrong. He is 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. He is plagued with bad luck.“

That weekend, Busch had already qualified poorly, which was not a great start to the race. From there, he mostly hung around the rear of the field for much of the race. It was only towards the closing moments of Stage 3 that he finally began to make some headway to the front.

Unfortunately, everything was ruined when he got involved in a wreck, a few laps before he barely escaped one. Up until that point, he was running in the Top 4 and could have scored his first win of the season. Not only did it squander his attempt to continue his at least 1 win per year streak for the 21st straight year, but, he also missed out on a playoffs berth.

Could there be any light at the end of the tunnel?

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This weekend, Richard Childress Racing and Kyle Busch will be hoping for a change of fortune. Maybe Chicago could be the place where the redemption arc begins. To that end, the team is already beginning a massive internal revamp of their own organization. The first major casualty was Andy Petree, being let go as RCR competition director.

As per Kevin Harvick’s observation, it was clear that Busch’s lack of results is down to an RCR performance deficit. With the exit of Petree, it appears that Richard Childress Racing needs to start focusing on making the cars faster and more competitive. For now, the organization will need an interim competition director to replace Petree, until a more permanent solution arrives.

What probably doesn’t help Busch’s case is that his teammate, Austin Dillon, has outshone him on a few occasions. Harvick observed that the #3 of Dillon has been quicker than Kyle Busch, but the good news is that the team is hunting for a fix. Petree was probably the first step towards the organization either turning over a new leaf or taking a few steps backwards.