Kyle Busch, out of all the drivers in the Cup Series garage, isn’t competing in the playoffs for only the fourth time in his Cup Series career and the first time since 2012. Given the state of his on-track performances, it doesn’t come as a surprise that Rowdy wouldn’t compete for the championship this year, despite a hard-fought effort at Daytona, Atlanta, and Darlington. Of course, there’s the feeling of dejection and disappointment in the RCR camp. However, missing the knockout stages has also led to some serious repercussions for the 2-time champ.

Imagine not being able to script an epic comeback staring at two back-to-back runner-up finishes. Although this feels like a kick in the guts of the star driver, losing out on the prize money is another big blow that he’s had to deal with this year. And it’s not just a small amount. Let’s take Daytona 500 as an example where Busch finished twelfth. Out of the Daytona 500 purse of $28,035,991 that includes all payouts to teams for competing, finishing position, duels, etc, the payout for the race winner is considerably less, yes. However, even though NASCAR stopped disclosing the winner’s prize after 2015, the last time they did was when Joey Logano walked away with $1.58 million!

Considering how the Daytona 500 purse has blown up by more than $10 million since 2015 (when it was only $18 million), the winner (in this case, William Byron) took somewhere between $1.5-$2 million this year. Even in the penultimate regular season race (Coke Zero Sugar 400) at Daytona, when Busch finished P2, winner took 10 percent of the purse amount of $9,193,568, a check that rounds up to $700,000–900,000.

“I’ve lost a substantial amount of money, let’s say, in the last few weeks (because) of not making the playoffs, not getting wins, and things like that. That’s a big hit. But again, it is what it is,” Busch was quoted saying this to Racer.com after a consecutive P2 finish at the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway (regular season finale), which was his third straight race where he finished inside the top-5 positions. NASCAR insider Bob Pockrass had revealed before the race that the Cup purses for Darlington weekend, including all payouts for all positions, contingency awards, charter payouts, year-end points fund contribution, historical performance etc. would amount to Cup: $8,644,143. Now, for Busch, that’s another lost opportunity!

He continued, “We just move on. We go through and try to play spoiler now, and try to go out and be a guy that’s on the outside looking in and take victories from these guys who want them to be able to move to the next round.

Rowdy’s not riding this boar alone; big names like Ross Chastain and Chris Buescher have also failed to cut the final 16. Chastain had to remind himself of his failure as he witnessed his planned schedule being taken down. “I get notifications whenever stuff gets added or taken off. It was motivation, as I just had to watch them ding and pop up, ‘Deleted. Deleted. Deleted.’ So, it was tough. It doesn’t feel good, for sure.”

Remember when Xfinity driver Sheldon Creed shared his side of “money” problems in NASCAR?

Sheldon Creed’s been here for 6 years and has competed in 93 NASCAR Xfinity Series races, securing 22 top-5 finishes and 44 top-10s. Notably, he’s finished 2nd eleven times. However, at the Diamond Hill Plywood 200, Creed surged to the lead, overtaking Christopher Bell. But a late caution sent the race into overtime, and Creed’s new team and teammate from Joe Gibbs Racing hadn’t been kind to him yet. In his first full-time season with the team, Creed made a bold financial gamble on himself, and evidently, there are some financial twists.

He said, “I took a chance on myself and brought all the money I could. I’m literally not even making a dollar this year. It just hurts when they get away like that.” 

Money has been a hot topic this silly season, with drivers facing penalties and winless streaks, while team owners grapple with financial challenges. NASCAR’s new charter deal, finalized after over two years of negotiations, brought increased revenue for teams, though the specifics are still vague. Despite this, drivers like Kyle Busch, Sheldon Creed, and Ross Chastain are still struggling.

But the show must go on. Kyle Busch, with some unfinished business, aims to turn his fortunes around and add extra excitement to the already thrilling playoff races.

Rowdy is looking to spoil the party for a few drivers

“I really do feel like he could make some noise.” This was Kevin Harvick expressing his disappointment after Busch didn’t qualify for the playoffs. He even predicted that the likes of Harrison Burton or Chase Briscoe might not have any great impact in comparison to Rowdy.

It turns out his prediction held firm as the two drivers couldn’t make any gains at the first round-of-16 Quaker State 400 race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Busch was the only one non-playoff contender who made it to the top-10 in that race. P7, to be exact. As for Harvick’s comparison, Burton finished at a lowly P31, and Briscoe, who was placed one position lower and 38 points behind the two-time champion, was picked up in a wreck and finished last.

While the RCR star isn’t competing for the championship, he can still collect victories. Thus playing a major spoiler for those who got better off him in the regular season. “We go through and try to play spoiler now, and try to go out and be a guy that’s on the outside looking in and take victories from these guys who want them to be able to move to the next round,” Busch added.

Do not forget, Kyle Busch is still chasing that 20th-year win streak. So count on him to turn up the heat in the upcoming races and pull off some big upsets in the playoffs.