One of the former Cup Series champions is down to his last chance to fight to get into the playoffs. Kyle Busch, the 2015 and 2019 Cup Series champion, has not had the best season as Hendrick Motorsports struggles to figure out why their team’s cars are losing pace. But after missing out on the chance to secure a playoff spot at Daytona, next week becomes his last chance to fight for the top 16 positions.

At Daytona, Kyle Busch was extremely close to making it into the playoffs as he finished yet again in the top 5, something he achieved at Richmond too. Now, with the pressure building, Darlington becomes the place where we will know if Busch makes it in the top 16 or breaks his streak since 2006 of making it into the playoffs.

Kyle Busch’s performance so far at Darlington

Daytona was an extremely close race for Kyle Busch, as he finished second behind Harrison Burton. Busch’s No. 8 Chevrolet was leading the race around the final lap of the circuit. However, Burton swooped in with his faster Mustang and took the lead by 0.047 seconds.

Missing a chance for the playoffs by such a margin puts Rowdy in a difficult place. Compared to how the season started, Kyle Busch has been in the top 5 for 2 races in a row, and looking at how he has performed at Darlington in the past, everyone can hope for a P1 finish.

At Darlington, Busch has some impressive stats, including a race win back in 2008. He has had six top-5 finishes and fourteen top-10s, with an impressive 899-lap lead on the circuit. But when we look at his recent finishes at the Goodyear 400, he came in at P27 and had a P11 finish in the first round of last year’s playoffs.

As we head into the last race week before the playoffs kick off at Kentucky, will Kyle Busch keep up his place from the last two races and continue his streak of being a championship contender? Although Darlington did not work out in his favor, Kyle Busch walked out of the race happy. Let’s dive into what Busch had to say after coming to P2.

Busch’s take on the P2 finish in Daytona

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The Coke Zero Sugar 400 had some pretty gruesome wrecks that affected half the drivers. Corey LaJoie made contact with Noah Gragson as he spun out, affecting 17 cars on the grid. The two drivers were fighting for P15, and lucky for Kyle Busch, he was running in the front when the commotion started at the back.

This led the HMS to avoid the crash, and he reflected on it after the race was done. In the post-race interview, Busch told PRN Live, “Finished second; it’s all good. We were really, really, really lucky to miss those crashes tonight… I was hoping we could get those free No. 8 specials at @cheddarskitchen but it wasn’t meant to be. We’ll regroup and come back next week.”

Kyle Busch is on a good trajectory, but will that be enough for him to secure a win at his last shot? Share your thoughts in the comments below.