Veteran Crew Chief Fires Shots at Kyle Busch’s Unending NASCAR Misery With 3-Word Declaration

A new year, yet the same Kyle Busch? We all know about the career lows that the Richard Childress Racing driver hit in 2024. Busch broke his long 19-year streak of winning at least one Cup Series race. The two-time Cup Series champion missed the playoffs for the first time since 2012. Busch last visited Victory Lane at World Wide Technology Raceway in June 2023 – 57 races ago.

You would think that a new year would bring fresh promises of hope to the table. However, the NASCAR 2025 season just conducted its first race, and no hope is visible yet. Kyle Busch ran into several problems at Bowman Gray, which is infamous for its wreck fests. But one NASCAR veteran believes it’s not the Madhouse, it’s Busch himself.

A new nickname for Kyle Busch

Rejuvenated sparks of energy were visible at the turn of 2025. Kyle Busch aced the Tulsa Shootout, winning two races, and also made an impressive debut in the Chili Bowl Nationals. All eyes were on him as NASCAR proceeded to begin its own 2025 journey. But trouble came knocking on the door. During the 25-lap Heat Race 1, Busch qualified 29th and started on the outside of Row 4. On lap 6, he collided with Justin Haley and Noah Gragson, and the contact led to a spin. Later in the evening he contacted Haley’s No. 7 Spire car and spun out yet again. Busch tried to take revenge, but NASCAR authorities shunned him.

During the final Cook Out Clash race, another incident was awaiting him. This time, it involved contact with Ryan Blaney’s No. 12 Ford. Following that, Kyle Busch’s No. 8 Chevrolet went for another spin on lap 21. Blaney broke down the incident on a recent episode of ‘Door, Bumper, Clear’: “I mean, Kyle didn’t really do much… We were lapping Kyle. I think I was a half-car-link or a quarter-car-link back into Turn 1. He let Chase go, and I’m like, alright, he’s going to let me go. He turned the bottom and we kind of hit a little bit. But that was a passionate fan right there.”

The recurrence of so many spins in just the first race of the year does provide us with some food for thought. Kyle Busch is already floundering in his 2025 attempt. So what will the rest of the year have in store for us? On that note, veteran crew chief Tommy Baldwin Jr. gave him a three-word nickname. “He’s already taken the lead of cautions, right? …His new nickname for me is Spin Out Harry. That’s all he does lately – spin out – all of last year.”

Even Kyle Busch was issuing veiled cries for help in his post-race statement.

Busch harbors doubts

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Well, the doubts prevailed ever since Kyle Busch left Joe Gibbs Racing at the end of 2022. He joined Richard Childress Racing, answered with three race wins in the first half of 2023, and snuffed out some of those doubts. And then began a 57-race winless streak which has continued until Sunday’s Cook Out Clash race. Although Busch could salvage a 15th-place finish in the exhibition event, it is hardly the redemption story we are looking for. Where is that Rowdy rage, which was visible across 231 NASCAR national series victories including 63 Cup race wins? Busch himself agrees that he is yet to rediscover that winning form again.

After the ‘spin-out’ -riddled Cook Out Clash race, Kyle Busch was honest about his misery. “The overall event at Bowman Gray Stadium was a good one. But it wasn’t the result we wanted for our zone Chevrolet team. At the start of the feature, the car was plowing tight and wouldn’t turn. We got spun around and ended up going two laps down before the halfway break…Randall and the No. 8 guys made adjustments during the break. And when we went back green, it was the best the car had felt. It was doing what it needed to do.”

Evidently, it has been a rough start to 2025 for Kyle Busch. In the two weeks left for the main Cup Series season to start, who knows if any miracle will befall the veteran driver?