Kyle Busch Insider Shares a Remedy to End NASCAR’s Parity Racing Trend With a 4-Word Solution

Gone are the good old days when NASCAR drivers truly controlled their own race cars. Not only did they compete with their unique performing equipment, but they also had a trick or two up their sleeves that helped them gain an edge over the competition. However, the modern era of NASCAR racing is just the opposite, the onus is now on parity racing that is fueled by the Next Gen race car and SMT data.

The SMT data is a real-time data feed that shows the driver’s brake patterns and throttle time in a particular zone on the race track. Pair this with the Next Gen car, there is hardly any wiggle room for drivers to stand out from the competition. Moreover, with all the teams having access to the data of their rival teams, it ties the hands of crew chiefs and engineers to make their race cars stand out on the track.

While there have been mixed reactions to the live sharing of SMT data, Kyle Busch in particular condoned its use back in 2018. Since then, he has jumped ships from JGR to RCR, and his new crew chief, Randall Burnett, has a rather similar take on the use of SMT data. So much so that he even tabled a solution that could partially puncture the idea of parity racing.

Major flaws with NASCAR’s parity racing trend and a potential solution

The Next-Gen car’s sole purpose was to create a level playing field for rookie drivers and new teams to compete against the top dogs. To take this idea of parity racing further, NASCAR also enabled live sharing of the SMT data. As a result, there’s hardly any passing during the races, as all the cars are running with the same equipment.

Even if the teams are off their markers, they can always look at what the better-running teams are doing right with the use of SMT data. Thus, managing to get back on level terms with the rest of the competition. Heck, there were races this season where drivers were virtually running equal lap times. What’s the solution, you ask? Well, Kyle Busch’s crew chief has an easy solution to this problem.

“Anytime there’s a car on track, you’re getting that data no matter what, through qualifying, through practice, the whole deal. So yeah, it’s kind of a hard thing to put back in the box, right? Unless you just pull the plug and end it, don’t give it to anybody and end the feed, right? So that’s the only way to put it back in the bottle, as you’d say,” Randall Burnett said on Dale Jr Reloaded.

There are no signs as of now that NASCAR will do away with live SMT data, but if they did, it could lead to new opportunities. Perhaps, a separation between race cars at the racetrack has long been missing from recent events.

Even though Kyle Busch and the #8 RCR team have had access to all the SMT data, they haven’t been able to crack the winning code. While the winning formula is out in the open, it still takes the driver to bring all the pieces of a puzzle together and get the desired results. Busch’s own season performance has not been up to par.

Kyle Busch’s 2024 season has been underwhelming, to say the least

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After a decent showing in his first season with RCR, 2024 was supposed to be the year when Rowdy would finally be able to trade blows with the top competing drivers. But, that hasn’t been the case; rather, he’s been on the receiving end of crashes and even punches. It’s just been a recurring theme that his No. 8 Chevy has not been able to register good, consistent runs.

What’s more worrying is the fact that his team seems to be short on ideas as they rolled out the exact racing package for 2023 at last weekend’s Gateway race. With how quickly the trends of NASCAR racing are changing, it wasn’t a wise call to run a similar race car and expect extraordinary results. Moreover, it has been more than 36 races since he has been in victory lane. So there’s a lot of pressure inside the #8 RCR camp to deliver that one big result.

The road course race at Sonoma Raceway has been a good place for Busch. With two top-5 results in the last three starts at the race track, including the runner-up finish last season, Busch has a good shot of getting breakthrough results this weekend.