For the second straight week, Kyle Busch came agonizingly close to securing a season-saving race win in the NASCAR Cup Series. Rowdy finished runner-up at Daytona International Speedway and Darlington Raceway in the last two regular season races, narrowly missing out on a playoff spot for the first time in 11 years. Even though plenty of positives can be taken from those results, the 39-year-old matched Kevin Harvick’s unflattering record of coming so close to entering Victory Lane, only to fall short at the end.

With Harvick still engaged in part-time racing and Busch unlikely to hang up his helmet anytime soon, both drivers could go on to match the legendary Dale Earnhardt’s record, even though they would not want to.

So close, yet so far..

It’s hard not to feel sorry for Kyle Busch. The Richard Childress Racing driver has endured what has arguably been the worst season of his career so far. He has struggled with pace, strategy calls, reliability issues, and plain old bad luck all season, culminating in 46 races without a single victory, the longest winless streak of Rowdy’s career. It’s not that he hasn’t come close to entering Victory Lane either, as Busch finished seven one-thousandths of a second behind eventual winner Daniel Suarez at Atlanta Motor Speedway earlier this season and 0.047 seconds behind Harrison Burton at the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

Despite recent results being Busch’s best finishes in his season so far, racing journalist Peter Stratta revealed an unflattering statistic that indicates just how many times Rowdy has come close to securing race wins. In a post on X by Stratta, he wrote, “By finishing 2nd for a second-straight week, @KyleBusch is now tied with @KevinHarvick for 63 Cup Series runner-up results. Busch coincidentally also has 63 wins at the time of this writing. This tie is 6th-most in Cup history, just shy of Dale Earnhardt.”

If recent results are anything to go by, Busch has momentum on his side going into the final 10 races of the season. While he doesn’t have the championship to fight for after failing to qualify for the playoffs, the 39-year-old could still break his winless streak and increase his tally of 63 race wins in the Cup Series. However, the Richard Childress Racing driver could also finish runner-up in the upcoming races and potentially match Dale Earnhardt’s record of 70 second-place finishes at NASCAR’s highest level. Wouldn’t that be the worst luck for any driver to go through?

Yet, stranger things have happened in stock car racing and Murphy’s Law working overtime for Kyle Busch isn’t beyond the realm of possibility. However, it feels like Richard Childress Racing has finally turned a corner in the Cup Series. After a series of uninspiring performances in the middle of the 2024 season, the team has finally made some good strategy calls, and their Chevy’s have shown a significant improvement in performances to challenge for race wins.

Austin Dillon entered Victory Lane at Richmond Raceway, even though it was under controversial circumstances, while Busch has shown incredible consistency over the past few weeks. There are plenty of positives that Rowdy can take from recent results, and one can’t help but feel that it’s only a matter of time before he secures a much-needed race win.

Kyle Busch hails Richard Childress Racing’s resurgence

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The season hasn’t been an easy one for two-time Cup Series winner Kyle Busch. The season began slowly for the No. 8 Chevy driver, with just three top-ten results in the opening 10 races. To make matters worse, he was forced to retire early on five separate occasions in a space of seven races, which severely affected his playoff hopes. However, the Nevada native’s recent form indicates that Richard Childress Racing has finally gotten its act together, even if it was too late to salvage either Rowdy or Austin Dillon’s postseason hopes.

Speaking after the Cook Out Southern 500, Busch praised his team for salvaging what would otherwise have been a terrible season. He said, “We missed a lot in the early part of the year, and the middle part of the year to put ourselves in this spot, on the outside looking in. To come in here for a last-ditch effort and have a shot… early in the race I wouldn’t have thought that we had a shot. I felt like we really overachieved towards the end and got a really good finish for what we had.”

With little to race for but pride in the remaining races of the 2024 season, Busch will hope that his winless streak, which dates back to June 2023 at the World Wide Technology Raceway, finally comes to an end. By doing so, he would have at least secured one win in 20 consecutive seasons of his career. Rowdy might be past his prime, but he wouldn’t be giving up on the possibility of achieving some silverware before he finally hangs up his helmet and calls it a day. What are your thoughts about Kyle Busch’s season so far? Let us know in the comments!