Kansas Speedway has 17-20 degrees of banking, allowing for multiple grooves in the turns. However, even the tricky nature of the 1.5-miler might not be the reason for Kyle Busch’s woes. The two-time Cup Series winner is running his 19th year at NASCAR’s premier level, and it is not going well. He has yet to reach his mojo after missing the playoffs, although he came dangerously close to it in Kansas. While most playoff drivers wallowed in misery at Kansas, their rivals soared. Busch could have played spoilsport as an outside driver as he led laps towards the end. But bad luck caught him up yet again – but it may be decaying skill, as a NASCAR insider opines.

“I’m numb. I don’t know what to do,” Kyle Busch said after narrowly scraping Victory Lane at Kansas. He was in the limelight for a major part of the Hollywood Kasino 400  – he started third. Although he lost his pace a little at first, Busch was in the top ten from the second stage onwards. By lap 205, he was shuffling the race lead with Chastain, and on lap 226 it genuinely looked like the Richard Childress Racing driver would win. But in a shocker, the No. 8 Chevy was pinched to the wall on lap 235 and Busch spun down the backstretch.

There lay shattered another chance to continue his 19-year victory streak. In a recent episode of The Teardown, NASCAR journalist Jordan Bianchi expanded on Kyle Busch’s woes. “He’s really had a year where he hasn’t been in contention for many wins. Obviously, Darlington and Atlanta come to mind as exceptions.” Busch’s sudden dominance at Kansas really turned some heads, as people believed Rowdy was back in action. However, reality set in soon enough. “But this really felt like, okay, here it is. Here’s the opportunity. Whether he could have held off Chastain or not, we don’t know. But certainly, a missed opportunity.”

Then, Bianchi declared Rowdy had lost his winner’s touch. Although Carson Hocevar blamed Chase Briscoe for hurting him and Kyle Busch – the reason for Busch’s wreck may lie in his skill set. “It speaks to I think a bigger issue for Kyle Busch since this new car…I don’t think his skill set is adapting well to this. It’s been a struggle for him sometimes to get his hands around it. And sometimes when he doesn’t have great cars, he’s pushed too much. Other times when he’s had good cars, maybe tried to do a little too much. He’s got himself in trouble. And today, it just looked like he got crossed up a little bit.”

Although the experts are citing Kyle Busch’s dwindling hopes, his rivals were fairly supportive of him. After all, Busch is a legend of NASCAR.

Rivals feel for Kyle Busch

“He’s been so close all year long, and I’m a Kyle Busch fan. So I wanted to see him keep the streak alive.” Chase Briscoe said this after apparently being the cause of Busch’s Kansas misery. After all, Rowdy has already stamped a legacy in NASCAR that few drivers can achieve. His 231 victories across all three NASCAR national series rivals even Richard Petty’s total Cup win tally of 200. His 19-year streak of victories has found no match yet. So fans and even his rivals ardently hope that he gets to turn that number into 20 soon.

Even Kansas winner Ross Chastain, who fiercely battled Busch in the ending laps, felt for him. He cited a different reason for Busch’s wreck: “(Busch) fought the entire turns one and two. That lap he wrecked, he fought the entire turn to get outside of (Briscoe). That’s a spot that I didn’t believe was a vulnerable spot when this car first started, and I heard my amigo, Daniel, tell me, I heard other Chevy drivers tell me, like, ‘Careful when you are on the right rear.’ Then I had it happen at Phoenix this year, and I finally was a believer. Yeah, when (Busch) spun, he was in the most vulnerable spot he could be to get loose, and he slapped the wall and spun out unforced.”

So, Kyle Busch’s continued misery is upsetting even his rivals. But he seems to be days or weeks away from his much-awaited glory ride. Let us hope we get to see that soon.