Remember when Kyle Busch was greeted with jeers and boos from the grandstand early on in his NASCAR career? Before Denny Hamlin took the crown as NASCAR’s villain, it was ‘Rowdy’ who held the title until he moved to Richard Childress Racing. But it looks like the good days are over, and fans have had enough of his dismal run with the #8 RCR car, and all they could do was boo him after a wreck during the race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, reminding him of a past he thought he’d left behind.

After trying to recover from being put a lap down by his rivals, Kyle Busch found himself tangled in a wreck late in Stage 2 of the race. Coming off Turn 1, Busch couldn’t get his car to turn and slid into the middle lane, where he bumped into the #10 SHR Ford. Both cars went spinning across the racetrack into the safer barriers. Noah Gragson managed to get his car back in line after taking a beating. Meanwhile, Busch had to head down the pit road. The #8 suffered huge damage to the rear bumper, thus adding to the team’s misery.

Frustrated with the situation and the state of his race car, Kyle Busch, via his team radio, said, “Wheel’s straight, but it’s f***ed.” Just when everyone thought ‘Rowdy’s day couldn’t get worse, another catastrophe hit the #8 RCR team. When NASCAR decided to complete the race with 80 odd trips around NHMS left while running the caution laps with wet weather tires, ‘Rowdy’ ended up slamming his car into the wall.

Kyle Busch, as a result, parked his car on the track, which was later towed away. “Just took off. Just went straight,” the driver was heard saying on the radio. And this event seems to have brought out the old bitter sentiment fans shared for the driver. Despite the rain canceling Saturday’s qualifying and the starting lineup set by the rulebook, Kyle Busch found himself in a challenging position. Starting from the back, he nearly lost his spot battling with rookie Zane Smith, who currently sits last in Cup Series points among full-time drivers.

The two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion finished 35th in New Hampshire on Sunday—his 3rd finish of 30th or worse in the last 4 races. After an extremely rough 4-week stretch, he now sits 18th in the playoffs standings, 31 points adrift of the cutoff, with 8 races remaining in the regular season.

At a time of the season when finding consistent performance is imperative for Busch, it’s not the crashes that should bother the #8 team but rather the complete lack of speed under the hood. The race at NHMS was just another example of the #8 looking all over the place. Taking to social media platforms, fans came down heavily on the RCR star, even predicting more misery for him this season.

Kyle Busch’s New Hampshire Motor Speedway outing “sums up the season for him”

A move to RCR was seen as the point where Busch’s relationship with NASCAR fans turned a corner for good. But with repeated subpar performances, they seem more inclined to resort to their old feelings about the driver. This was evident from the scenes after he spun across the race track. “Love how the crowd goes wild over the Kyle Busch spin.”

This was Rowdy’s third DNF in his last four Cup starts. And at the current pace, the road to the playoffs is looking like a stretch. While the driver had some unique choice of words to describe his banged-up car, a fan believed that his condition this season is very much the same, “Is Busch talking about himself here?”

Even the most hardcore Kyle Busch supporters are now losing faith in his chances to make the knockout stages, thus leaving him with no option but to rely on the high-octane last race of the regular season at the Daytona International Speedway: “It’s so over unless he wins Daytona.”

It’s no secret that the #8 Chevy is not on level terms with the other teams in the Cup garage. There have been times when RCR has rolled up with the same set-up for the races without tweaking or adapting to recent trends. While Randell Brunette and his crew have tried to help Busch overcome his troubles with the Next-Gen car, that hasn’t paid off in terms of results. Highlighting the driver’s recent streak of dismal runs, a user sarcastically trolled him. “Was before, too, so nothing changed except cosmetic damage.”

It is hard to believe that the Next Gen era has been a fall from grace for ‘Rowdy’ Busch. But this season, in particular, has just been nothing less than a nightmare run, so much so that people aren’t even surprised to see him crash out or finish in the mid-pack position every weekend. “Pretty much sums up the season for him.”

Well, it is fair to say that tension and nervousness are palpable in the RCR camp. With only 8 races left for Busch to make the postseason, it’s time for the #8 team to turn up the wick or risk missing the playoffs altogether. If Kyle Busch doesn’t pull off a win or two, it is only a matter of time before he completely loses his cool and makes a crucial decision regarding his future with the team.