While he lacked speed last year with inconsistency gripping his #8 Chevy and rattling the RCR team to the core, this season though, it’s the incompetency of the crew that has the team worried. Out of the past three races, Kyle Busch has secured a brilliant top 5 finish just once while the other two times it was the #8’s sloppy pit work that got the driver in the rut in the first place. The crew even sent out the driver with a loose front wheel after the #8 pitted for a tire change at Daytona. Following this incident, Richard Childress swapped the jackman, hoping to get the “Rowdy” back on the game. However, last week at Atlanta things were back to square one.

Amidst all this, during a pre-race conference, Busch pointed fingers and took a sarcastic dig at Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin.

Kyle Busch exposes 23XI Racing’s pit-road tricks as he uncovers things with a sarcastic jab

Shortly after the Penzzoil 400 at his hometown, Busch admitted that the crew was not doing their best. The team’s weakness was pretty apparent at the mile-and-a-half track even after the crew swap, shaving off valuable time and getting him further down the line.

Busch, despite all this, tried his level best to save the sinking ship but what was done was done and the “Rowdy” finished the race 26th. Now, rolling into Phoenix, the team has further changes, with new individuals coming in, trying to get the team back on track and help Busch snag his first win of the season. The front changer and jackman are all new for the #8 pit crew. Shiloh Windsor is in as front-changer in place of Michael Russell and Doug Warrick will replace Garrett Crall as the jackman as the #8 Chevy gets to Phoenix.

Now coming to Busch’s pre-race presser, the driver took a sly jab at Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick’s teams in 23XI Racing, mentioning how slow the #23 and #45 cars are on the pit road. He said, “Danny loves statistics, ask him who number one on pit roads has been, you know, so I take pride in that each and every year. I mean, it doesn’t really do you a whole lot, but you know, some teams give bonuses for that. I don’t get bonuses for it, but some teams give that. I think 23XI actually does. So I don’t think any of those guys are getting any.” 

Busch details what led to the speeding penalties in the pit lane

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The team’s pit woes are a major concern and it has mounted more pressure on the team to make up for the lost points. Busch, twice in three races, got decked by pit-road speeding penalties as the driver tried to make up the lost ground. Despite being the fastest driver to roll on and off the pit lane, the RCR team’s apparent weakness has taken a toll on the driver’s performance.

“We just need a consistent crew that is not going to be making mistakes,” Andy Petree, executive vice president at RCR, told NBC. “One of the problems with these young guys and development guys is you put them on Kyle’s car and he’s running second, they’re trying to win. I’m not sure they’re mentally ready for it.” 

“We’re trying to find a mixture of guys that can handle some pressure and deliver a solid performance, not stellar. We’re not even looking for stellar right now,” he added. Busch then said the obvious, saying that the pit road issues are the main culprit for the fall in performance. He said, “The easiest place to pass somebody else is when they’re sitting still, on pit road. So we have to be better on pit road.” 

“When I feel like I’m in a downward position when I’m behind, I’m going to try to get extra, I’m going to try to get more,” Busch said. “That’s led to my speeding penalties. That’s led to me sliding through the box because I know I have to make up time on pit road myself to kind of compensate for what we’re losing when we’re stopped in the box.”