Kyle Busch’s Year-Long Talladega Misery Resurfaced, Leaving Rowdy Praying for the Big One

The 2025 Jack Link’s 500 was a unique race. While races at Talladega Superspeedway are known for their multi-car wrecks, the Cup Series fixture ended with a 62-lap green-flag run, the longest at a drafting track since July 2004 at Daytona. For those at the front, it was good news, as they could retain their track position in the closing stages of the race. However, the likes of Kyle Busch suffered because of the lack of late drama, forcing ‘Rowdy’ to finish 27th.

It’s almost like history repeated itself for the Nevada native, who finished just one spot higher at the Talladega spring race last year. Is Rowdy just running in circles year after year at Richard Childress Racing? It certainly seems like it.

Lady luck was not on Kyle Busch’s side

Expectations were high for Kyle Busch. After all, the 39-year-old had qualified in second place at Talladega Superspeedway, showing glimpses of the old ‘Rowdy’, with a lightning-fast lap time of 52.565. The 2025 Jack’s Link 500 couldn’t have begun on a better note for the racer either, as his No. 8 Chevy went on to take the lead by Lap 23, becoming the sixth different driver to pace the field. However, tragedy soon struck the Nevada native.

An on-track incident with Brad Keselowski proved to be a real blow, forcing Kyle Busch to hope for wrecks to gain back track positions. But why was it so tough to gain spots? Well, that’s down to the Next-Gen car. While staying in the draft works just fine, moving out of line without someone trailing you is akin to a death sentence on these tracks with these cars. The drag is just too much, and we saw this when Alex Bowman dropped from 5th to 9th on the last lap after he tried to pull out of the draft and make a move, the same move that caused Busch misery at Talladega in 2024.

‘Rowdy’ went on to say on the Door Bumper Clear podcast, “You pull out a line, and like I tweeted last year. I’m like, ‘You try to go for a win and make a move and pull out a line, and then if only one guy goes with you, you’re both going to the back. So that guy doesn’t want to go with you. You’ve got to have a slew of eight of them to go with you to do anything.”

What Busch is referring to is that he couldn’t risk making a move to gain track positions, as the maneuver would have backfired. In such a circumstance, he went on to say, “I was needing a wreck. I was looking for five or six spots,” but unfortunately, it never came. The race ended with no drama, controversy, or ‘big ones’, a surprising outcome for a track like Talladega, where drivers rarely lift in the closing stages. However, the mentality changed with fuel strategy and drag playing a major role in Next-Gen superspeedway races, with last year’s YellaWood 500 being a prime example of that.

Last year at the Talladega playoff race, Busch was putting together a top-10 run until he decided to make a move outside the draft, and no one followed him. One reason was the fuel strategy playing such an important role, as most drivers use the draft at half throttle. And secondly, as Busch said, leaving the drafting line just adds way too much drag on these cars.

This led to Busch being swept behind the rest of the pack and finishing in 19th place. Busch’s spotter, Derek Kneeland, said on the radio during the race, “I might as well just retire from Cup spotting at restrictor plate races and just stick to the Trucks and Xfinity stuff because I don’t know when we can race. I don’t know when we need to ride. I don’t. It just f—– sucks.” A frustrated Kyle Busch had posted on X, “Ride in line=finish where u r, TRY to race for win=finish last. I hate these 🤬 cars!!!”

Freddie Kraft, Bubba Wallace’s spotter, pointed out how it was just the front row of Austin Cindric and Ryan Preece who benefited from the draft, as anyone else stepping out of line felt the immense downforce of the Next-Gen car, causing them to lose spots instantaneously. Kraft said, “I’ve seen some people being critical last night of the second lane. I think it was two Hendrick cars [Kyle Larson and William Byron], and they said, ‘I can’t believe they didn’t even try.’ You can’t try!” Busch echoed his sentiment, adding, “You’re penalized by trying.”

Busch had to lick his wounds after a race with no wrecks, but it was just one on-track incident that ruined what was looking like a great run for the #8.

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Busch suffered from steering woes at Talladega

Things just went from bad to worse for Kyle Busch at Talladega Superspeedway. A weekend that started with a lot of promise quickly turned into a nightmare when Rowdy got caught up in a tangle with Brad Keselowski in Turn 4 while attempting to enter the pit road, with Ryan Blaney also getting caught up in the crossfire. Even though the No. 8 Chevy didn’t suffer as much damage as the other two, the setback was irrecoverable.

After the first caution of the race was waved, Busch was heard saying, “I don’t know how to fix it, but I need help.” He also reported that his steering wheel was ‘90 degrees to the right’, a nightmare scenario for any track, let alone Talladega. His wife, Samantha Busch, also tweeted, “One lap down got out before the second lap down. Steering wheel is off so going to use this lap to see what’s up and then head back in.” It wasn’t looking good.

To make matters worse, Kyle Busch, along with several others, was also hit with a pit road penalty. All in all, the 2025 Jack Link’s 500 was a forgettable race for the two-time Cup Series champion driver, who will look to look to make amends at the Würth 400 presented by LIQUI MOLY. Luck hasn’t been on Rowdy’s side for quite some time now, but all he needs is a single win to change the narrative once and for all.