“The organization has made Kyle Larson a better winner. The organization has taken Kyle Busch from being a competitive winning driver to just being a guy racing for 8th, 9th, and 10th,” Kyle Petty had said a month back. As things stand, Kyle Larson triumphed in Indianapolis while Kyle Busch and RCR’s misfortune continued with a crash involving Denny Hamlin. The way Rowdy squandered the opportunity of a top-10 finish has even made fans wonder if he did that on purpose, indicating a further deterioration of his tie with RCR.

NASCAR’s two favorite villains, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin, were trading blows with just three laps remaining in the Brickyard 400 last Sunday. Given Rowdy’s miserable run this season, he was slated for a solid finish, but it all came to a crashing end after wrecking with Denny Hamlin.

At the time, Kyle Busch was running 6th, just behind the No. 11 car of Hamlin. Having made up track position, the RCR star found it hard to make a pass on his former teammate for a potential top-five finish. After multiple attempts, he lost his patience and decided to send it all in on Turn 1, taking the inside lane.

It was a risky move as Denny Hamlin lifted to make an entry going into the corner. But Rowdy, having missed his markers and coming in too fast, eventually collided with the #11 Toyota Camry. The next thing you know, he ended up wrecking himself on the safer barriers. This was a case of him trying to bite more than he could chew, which wasn’t the first we saw from him this season.

Given that a good points day has been a rarity for the #8 team, a top 10 position could’ve been a good result going into the Olympics break. However, they had to settle for a P28 finish because of their driver’s questionable move late in the race. It’s fair to say the driver-team relationship hasn’t been the best in 2024, and perhaps this incident further highlighted those cracks.

Problems have been aplenty with RCR. They have faced issues with their pit crew. In March, they made some disastrous mistakes in the Las Vegas motor speedway. It included several 15-plus-second stops and a penalty for pitting out of the assigned pit box. As a consequence, Busch came down from second place with about 100 laps left to a 26th-place finish.

This led to a change in pit crew, a third such move in four races by the No. 8 team. A disappointed Busch had said back then, “All-in-all just a frustrating day to have the disaster that we did on pit road of just being really slow. And then for me to slide through to kind of add insult to injury on my behalf, we otherwise would have been a top-10 finisher.” Not only this, RCR’s cars have also been put under the scanner.

Ahead of the Great American Gateway 400, Kyle Busch faced troubles with his car during practice session at the ‘Tricky Triangle’. Busch complained of issues with his steering wheel, calling it “stuck and sticky”. This drew brutal criticism from the fans, who slammed RCR for not being able to provide Busch with the right tools to win a race, something that echoed Petty’s statement.

A video clip of the Brickyard 400 race showed Kyle Busch trying to make a pass on Hamlin has been doing rounds online. The instructions given to Rowdy were clear: to finish the race on a good note. However, the driver had other ideas, which has allowed fans to share their take on the predicament Rowdy finds himself in.

Is everything alright between Kyle Busch and Richard Childress Racing?

Coming into the Brickyard 400 race, in his previous nine starts, he only had a single top-10 finish. There was potential for a top 10 or even a top 5 finish had he stayed away from chaos and drama. According to this fan, he shot himself in the foot with a low-percentage move. “He just has so many bad finishes, so he tries to get higher finishes when he’s already 6th and starts to overcomplicate, eventually leading to something like this.”

“I know you’re annoyed but it’s still a good day, big picture.” This was the message Busch received on the radio after he couldn’t find a way to pass Hamlin. But he certainly didn’t follow the instructions and eventually wrecked himself. Fans couldn’t understand why the driver made that call, knowing that he had a good points day. “Tells him we need to finish, he wrecks the car, then acts like he always does when asked about fixing it, and swerves at Hamlin after he’s wrecked hard. The man has never changed one bit.”

Looking at the clip, it was evident that the #11 Camry was just good at entering the corner and making a clean exit. Busch wasn’t able to match the speed or the lap time set by Hamlin. It was indeed a questionable call on his part to proceed with that aggressive move, knowing that his rival would respond with defensive blocks. Making a mockery of Rowdy’s racecraft, this fan replied, “bro tried the same move over and over and was mad it didn’t work? Lmao.”

Either his crew chief, Randall Burnett, or a crew member completely lost their cool seeing Busch throw away a potentially good result. “I just f***ing said, we need a good finish” was the message heard on the team radio. Reading between the lines and suspecting tension within the No. 8 team, a fan shared an interesting take on the situation. “The crew doesn’t sound happy with him. Maybe he is on his way out.”

On a similar tone, another fan pointed out, “Dude could’ve just gotten a good finish but he let his ego win out like he always does and got wrecked. His team sounds as checked out with him as he does with them. This whole group is a mess.” Meanwhile, a surprising development has added more fuel to the speculation that Busch might move away from RCR.

Spire Motorsports just announced the ending of their ties with Corey LaJoie. This instantly started the discussion is Busch is going to replace him for the No.7 position in the 2025 season. Although FOX’s Bob Pockrass has shut down the gossip, even he came with a “never say never” disclaimer!

It has to be noted that Indianapolis was a late-race wreck. And had Busch kept his hands clean, Brad Keselowski might have pulled off the biggest fuel-mileage race in recent history. Frustrated by seeing their favorite driver’s hopes of a win being washed away by a silly caution, this fan wrote, “I lost a keselowski win for that?”

Kevin Harvick didn’t mince words in calling out Kyle Busch’s desperate attempt, stating, “Kyle is driving way over his head.” Even Rowdy’s ardent supporters are puzzled to see him resorting to such tactics on days when he could have a positive outcome. “I know RCR is struggling but what in the world is going on with KB. It almost seems like he’s doing this on purpose. Otherwise none of this makes any sense. I sure hope he can right the ship after the break. Nascar is better with KB winning races.”

In the aftermath of the race, Busch reflected on his muck-up and apologized to his entire team via his social media handle. However, with just four races to go in the regular season, it’s just hard to see him miraculously make a comeback.