“Some Guys Have Done a Better Job” – Kyle Busch Admits to Fall Off Since JGR Exit as He Remains Doubtful Heading to Goodyear400

As NASCAR rolls into Darlington Raceway this weekend, Kyle Busch is hitting the track with some mixed stats. In 24 starts, he’s clocked an average finish of 13.3, including just one win, 6 top-5s, and 14 top-10s. However, that lone victory was way back in 2008, a time when the cars seemed to be more in Busch’s wheelhouse compared to the next-gen cars today.

A big chunk of Busch’s hesitation comes from his ongoing tussle with the next-gen car. Even after two seasons, he’s still not quite in sync with it. At his pre-race press conference in Darlington, Busch opened up about his challenges, even touching on some specific technical troubles he’s grappling with the new setup.

Pointing fingers at the setup of the next-gen cars for his recent struggles on the track

The two-time Cup champ has been vocal about his battles with the Next Gen car, describing his experience as stepping into a “new realm of confusion.” The ongoing tweaks to the car setups have seemed to leave him a step behind his competitors. Clearly, Kyle is among the NASCAR drivers who are frankly fed up with the current car. Some races go better than others, but overall, there’s a strong sense of discontent about the car across the board. He’s hopeful, though, that there will be some improvements, especially with the tires on short tracks and road courses.

Just before the Darlington race, Lee Spencer from SiriusXM NASCAR Radio asked Busch about the shift from last year, when he snagged three wins, to this season, where he’s yet to visit victory lane. Busch explained, “I think the better piece that you have at the racetrack you know it’s going to be a lot of things it’s going to make your job easier. […] Some guys have done a better job of that.”

“You know we were leading I think twice or yeah we were leading twice and had engine failures in the final races of the JGR cars. And then uh last year we were good out of the gate and had some good stuff. Then as times have changed and the setups have evolved and guys have found how to make their stuff go faster um we just hadn’t been able to do that.”

Furthermore, Kyle Busch admitted that the last couple of races at Dover and Kansas looked promising—they were finally contenders again, and things felt like they were on the upswing. He mentioned these tracks brought a nice change of pace, boosting their performance to consistent top-five finishes, making him hopeful that the consistency eventually positions him just right to snag a win when it counts.

Despite these positive strides, Kyle Busch didn’t hold back on detailing the struggles he has been facing with the next-gen cars. He was candid about the technical headaches the car has brought him, showing he’s still got plenty to figure out with this new setup.

Kyle Busch shared his gripes about the new car model

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Further during the chat, when asked if anything specific about the car was bugging him, Busch said it definitely handles differently from the old models, though he couldn’t pinpoint exactly how.

However, he did explain, “It seems when you lead into the corner and the right front is outside the right rear the car is much tighter. When you get to the center off of the corner and the right front is inside the right rear coming downhill it’s much looser. And so trying to find that balance of that uh is been difficult, trying to get that right but the old car didn’t have that sensation.“

Kyle Busch noted that with the older cars, taking a smooth corner and maintaining balance throughout was easier, whereas now he’s constantly wrestling with balance issues. On top of that, Busch pointed out the aero problems when driving in traffic, which just adds to his frustration. He admitted to feeling like while he’s trying to do one thing, the car does another, which often costs him time as he tries to get a feel for the car’s quirks.

Well, hopefully, he’ll get the next-gen car things sorted so that he can win a few races and make it to the playoffs this season as well.