“Nope, not this weekend,” Kyle Busch had pointedly said about clinching a win days before the Cup Series reached the Homestead-Miami Speedway last weekend. For a veteran who’s snagged two championships in NASCAR’s top tourney—topping it off with a Coca-Cola 600 race win in 2018, the Xfinity Series championship in 2009, a Brickyard 400 win (2015, 2016), among countless other accolades—that statement was not like a breath of fresh air, but the reinforcement of a certain dread Rowdy fans have carried in their hearts for 63 races now. The last time the 39-year-old clinched a Cup victory was in 2023 at the Enjoy Illinois 300 at the World Wide Technology Raceway. And since then, the way has been down. But looks like the community has finally got the answers to Busch’s struggles. In fact, they didn’t even mince words when directing some attacks at Richard Childress Racing for its driver’s ill-fate.

But before we get to that… Notably, Busch has never finished above P18 at Homestead-Miami ever since he joined RCR ahead of the 2023 season. All of his Top-10s (2009, 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022) and victories (2015, 2019) at the track have come under the Joe Gibbs Racing banner. While the veteran ended his first season at his new team with three wins, 10 top-5 finishes, and 17 top-10 finishes, playoff struggles ran wild ultimately eliminating him in the Round of 12 at Texas Motor Speedway. However, the real struggles started a few months later…

As the 2024 season rolled by, the former JGR driver found himself pulled under. Meaning? He registered 0 Cup race wins in a season for the first time since 2004. Busch also finished 20th in the championship standings—the first instance since 2005 of him outside the Top-15. Talking about it, the racer had lamented, “Certainly frustrating. Just not at all what we had hoped it to be after some success last year, especially early in the year and having those three wins, and then struggling a little bit on and off. But then this year, just seemingly not being able to get the monkey off our back…We probably had a handful of opportunities that slipped out from under us.”

Richard Childress also appeared dejected in a conversation in October last year, days after Busch missed out on a win at the Kansas Speedway after spinning out and finishing P19. “It’s been one of those years. You know, crashes…We’ve been involved in so many crashes…It’s been a tough year, but everybody has fought hard. We see that we’ve got to make some changes and we got more changes coming…You know, you can’t dwell on the past, you have to learn from the past. History teaches you. And that’s what we’ve got to learn from is what happened this year and take it into next year with a positive attitude that we’re not going to do it,” he said after both Busch and his grandson Austin Dillon failed to make it to the playoffs. Unfortunately, not much has changed…

Let’s be honest, things were looking bright for a while for the #8 when the 2025 season started. Across Daytona, Atlanta, and Circuit of the Americas, Kyle Busch led up front several times. During the COTA race, the No. 8 car held the lead until 8 laps to go, when Busch’s car faltered and Christopher Bell got ahead. Many wondered: Is Rowdy finally back? In retrospect, that was a question asked too soon. The Homestead-Miami outing turned into a flat mess for the RCR star. On the back of NASCAR suspending jackman Joseph Moser and tire changer Shiloh Windsor after a tire came off during the Las Vegas race, technical issues continued for the No. 8 team.

After starting 22nd, Kyle Busch could never push forward. Across the three stages of the Cup Series race, Busch was a passing afterthought. We never saw a whisper of the No. 8 Chevrolet emerge near the top ten. Ultimately, he finished a lowly P21; his second straight finish outside the Top-20 this season. Interestingly, this dire situation led NASCAR community member Eric Estepp to post a question on X: “Kyle Busch fans fill me in… why is he running 30th?” 

And let’s just say fans hardly held back…

Top Comment by Terry R Shearer

For some reason they cannot get the Gen car good for Kyle Busch to drive it’s either too loose or...more

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NASCAR fans continue their diatribe

Well, Richard Childress‘s woes are nothing new. Before Kyle Busch joined his fold in 2023, wins had grown sparse for the legacy team. Contrary to Dale Earnhardt’s 67 wins or Kevin Harvick’s 23, Austin Dillon could fetch only five Cup Series wins across a 13-year career. So one fan blamed Busch’s worries all on Childress’s waning team. “RCR is bad. Very bad. Can’t fix the car to his liking.” Somebody else also chimed with the same sentiment.

Watching Busch falter and stutter every race weekend has been sore for everybody – now he stands at a 63-race winless streak. “@RCRracing is so frustrating to watch.” And then there’s Busch who’s thrown a spanner in the works with a cryptic tweet announcement that said, “News at 18:51 on Monday.” Could he be hinting at a potential return to his roots at Joe Gibbs Racing?

Other fans brought the focus on the No. 8 team. 2025 marks the third year that Randall Burnett is working with Kyle Busch as the crew chief. Despite Busch fetching three Cup wins at the beginning of 2023, the slumber that both plunged into is still going on. Burnett tried to fix the car setup for the Homestead-Miami race, but fans opined that was useless. “Randall doesn’t know how to setup a car or RCR as a whole doesn’t know how to build them. 🤷🏼‍♂️” Could a change in crew chief be the solution Busch needs? It worked wonders for Bubba Wallace. While he hasn’t gotten a win, Wallace certainly looks comfortable in the standings. Another fan appeared to quote Burnett himself, showing how frustrated he was: “I’ll quote Randall Burnett. “I’m trying to fix a Sh!t Box.”

Notably, after the Homestead0Miami race, Kyle Busch blamed his racing problems squarely on the car set-up. Yet at the same time, he acknowledged his team for making adjustments that lent him a bit of support. Busch said, “Certainly wasn’t the day we were looking for with our Bank OZK Chevrolet. We definitely missed the setup. Randall (Burnett, crew chief) and the guys kept working on it with every stop and we were way better at the end. Appreciate the effort they put into it. We never gave up. We’ll keep working on it.”

Having said that, other NASCAR fans pointed out Kyle Busch’s own lack of momentum. The 63-time Cup Series race winner was a fiery force to reckon with in his prime. So what is going wrong with Busch? Maybe the dynamic between him and his teammate does not match, as one fan wrote: “He’s in permanent decline and RCR can’t improve until Austin Dillon is fired.” Somebody else echoed the same opinion: “Maybe he’s just not that good anymore. Time to face reality.”

Evidently, most fingers point at Richard Childress Racing for Kyle Busch’s ongoing misery. We can only wait and see if this winless streak will snap sometime soon.