Kyle Busch’s Deteriorating Mental Health Could Prove Detrimental as He Stares Down the Barrel of Unwanted History

You have to feel bad for Kyle Busch. He went from being the driver who owns the most all-time NASCAR National Series wins with 231 to having the worst season of his career. The consistency is simply lacking. Not to forget, most of his success came with Joe Gibbs Racing in 15 years between 2008 and 2022. And now, with the current situation, the emotional toll of these ongoing issues is taking over.

“It’s been so dismal and so heartbreaking that I have a hard time dealing with enough stuff in my life that every Sunday to keep adding to it is getting harder and harder to deal with,” Rowdy voiced his views after the Sonoma race as he compared his team’s performance to peers, especially Hendrick Motorsports—which also operates Chevrolet cars.

But the No. 8 has to put what has happened so far in the season behind him and is focused on the upcoming four races: Richmond, Michigan, Daytona, and Darlington. What are the champ’s chances here? NASCAR insider Eric Estepp talked about Kyle Busch’s ongoing trip in Italy on YouTube and discussed his injury that Samantha accidentally revealed in one of her stories.

Adding to his concerns, Estepp further said, “I’m less worried about Kyle Busch physically; I’m more worried about Kyle Busch mentally.” He then went on to analyze the best chances for Kyle Busch.

1. The first one is Richmond. Busch got a P3 there last year and can look to repeat his performance, even though he struggled in other short tracks in 2023. Regardless, he’s the driver with the most wins at Richmond. Surely RCR must have high hopes there.
2. According to Estepp, maybe Rowdy has a chance at Michigan, as it is like Indianapolis in some ways, where he almost got in the top five. Last year at the FireKeepers Casino 400, Busch’s No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet bumped alongside Blaney’s No. 12 Team Penske Ford, causing Busch to lose control through Turns 1 and 2. As a result, he was credited with a last-place finish for the second time in the last four weeks, marking his fifth DNF of the 2023 season.
3. Next, his best chance could also be at Daytona. This year at the Daytona 500, he finished 12th, which was one of his best finishes. He could look to improve his performance. His past performance on Super Speedways has been good and the last one he won was at Talladega in the 2023 season, although some may argue his Talladega run of 2024 wasn’t as pleasing.
4. As for Darlington, Kyle Busch has won there only once. That too with JGR in 2008.

Realistically speaking, Kyle Busch has a shot at the first three races. A win would most likely get him into the playoffs, and his record of always playing one will continue to thrive. While Busch is going through a slump, RCR is still hopeful. Why wouldn’t they be? Because if the NASCAR world has learned anything over the years, it’s this: Betting against Kyle Busch is usually a very bad idea, whether he’s mired in a slump or not.

RCR is still hopeful of a Kyle Busch win…

Rowdy’s playoff chances hang in the balance, and he is in a desperate fight for survival. Sitting at 18th in NASCAR standings, the Richard Childress Racing driver must win one of the final four races to stay in contention. To make that happen, some things are brewing inside the RCR camp.

As even Kyle Busch had hinted towards it, when he said, “I’ve certainly heard of some names and some rumblings… I don’t know if any signatures have been put on paper or whatnot to get some of those people in. I know we lost one, meaning we did not get him.”

By him, Rowdy could have meant crew chief Rodney Childers, whom RCR wanted in their corner. Childers, however, recently went to Spire Motorsports. Even Richard Childress had spoken about changes coming in as he tried to be optimistic about their chances.

In a previous interview; he said, “You can’t fix it in the middle of the year… A lot of it is engineering. I feel that we’re strong in a lot of areas and weak in some of the others. I want to beef up our engineering. We’ve got a lot of stuff that we’re working on and hopefully we can get both of them running better.”

Kyle Busch needs all the help and luck that he can get. Currently, he’s on a family vacation in Italy. When he comes back, there are plans to be made and executed, as it’s a ‘Now or Never’ situation for him. But let us not forget how it is Busch we are talking about.

In 2005, Kyle Busch made a mark with a second-place finish in Las Vegas and earned the Cup Series Rookie of the Year title, boasting the third-best Pts+ index (133) for drivers aged 20 or younger.

In 2014, he opened the playoffs with five straight top-10 finishes but was set back by Austin Dillon’s rear-end collision at Talladega. Busch ended his Gibbs tenure in 2022 with four top-10 finishes in his last five races. However, in mid-2022, he faced one of his worst six-race slumps, which led to an even tougher stretch, a rare occurrence in his career. But overall, Busch tended to improve his Pts+ by a remarkable 245% in the six races that followed the rough patches.

So we know Busch has broken out of slumps before. Can he do it once again?