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via Imago

via Imago

Kyle Busch‘s arrival at Richard Childress Racing was big. He could have skyrocketed their fortunes. However, the 2023 season was a testing phase for both the driver and the team to strike a synergy with each other. And therefore, a P14 finish in the championship was somewhat justified. In theory, 2024 was supposed to be the year when the team would back Rowdy as a genuine title contender. But in reality, they are far from it.

RCR Camp has had a ton of problems since the start of the season. Kyle Busch had his pit crew change a couple of times. Not only that, the team is also miles behind in providing Rowdy with enough speed to compete. For the time being, Busch has been tight-lipped about the lack of support from his team, as RCR VP, Andy Petree, in his last address said, “The team is looking for long-term solutions.” But according to Steve Letarte, that won’t be the case for long!

Kyle Busch could miss out on the playoffs at the current pace

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From pit road woes to crew reshuffling, it is possibly Rowdy’s worst start to his Cup Series campaign. If you are to compare his number with what was considered an okay 2023 season, it gets worse. In his first ten starts in his debut year with RCR, he managed two wins and another three top-ten finishes. NASCAR highlighted the inefficiency of the RCR team with their playoff predictor.

Busch talked last month at Atlanta about the organization being unable to sign some free agent pit crew members, in part because Richard Childress Racing’s location in Welcome, North Carolina, is about an hour from where most Cup teams and pit crew members are based. Absurd right? It looks like someone needs to remind RCR that Kyle Busch not only falls out of the 16 drivers but only has a 64.58% chance of making the cut in the last 4 picks.

Speaking on ‘Dirty Mo Media’, Steve Letarte presented an unfiltered opinion on Kyle Busch’s run this season. “So I will say this, and I’m going ahead and saying it. Something doesn’t taste right in the RCR camp. Like they’re just, I don’t know how to say this any nicer than they’re not good. They’re not having a good year. They don’t have good speed. They made a crew chief change.”

Even Busch has channeled his frustration over not being able to perform with the Next Gen car. But things can turn sour quickly if the streak of poor results continues. Owing to this, Letarte said, “I know it was coming off Talladega, but we’re starting to get some more rough and grumbled Kyle Busch quotes in the media. I know some of the predictors and some just bad mojo. Man, I think the mojo matters, right now I’m feeling bad mojo at RCR.” 

Furthermore, Dover isn’t exactly the place where one can hope for a miracle or a surprise result. And Rowdy is very much aware of this fact going into this weekend’s racing action.

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Kyle Busch highlights the challenges of running at Monster Mile

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The 1-mile race track has a reputation for being a tough nut to crack for the drivers. What makes running at the venue so hard is the fact that it features 24-degree banks on the turns, along with 9-degree banking on the straightaways. The concrete racing surface is another roadblock that the drivers have to deal with.

Sharing his views about the challenges at Monster Mile, Busch via Speedway Digest shared, “I would say, it’s pretty easy for drivers to find trouble at Dover. Typically, the looser you are, the faster you are. But when you get too loose, it’s really easy to spin. If you spin at Dover, more than likely you are going to get hit both the outside and inside walls. As crashes happen, you’re going so fast that sometimes you can’t get checked up fast enough.”

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Dover hasn’t been the best of venues for Kyle Busch in terms of getting a solid result. However, given the circumstances, a top-five finish certainly could boost the morale at the RCR camp. Imagine who is best at the pit road, has been having the worst pit stops, or the pit crew struggles have led to him being penalized the past two weeks for speeding and pitting outside the box. It is definitely frustrating, and the “bad mojo” could just turn real in no time!

However, these issues are not new for Richard Childress Racing. What are your views on RCR’s efforts and Kyle Busch’s season so far?