Whoa, is the next season here already? It barely feels like a day since the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series ended at Phoenix Raceway last year. Kyle Busch’s stacked-up miseries do not feel so far away either. In 2024, the two-time Cup Series champion broke his 19-year winning streak and faced 8 DNFs. Now Busch is feeling desperate to put an end to this streak of failures – as the season-opening race fast approaches.

Known as the ‘Great American Race’, the Daytona 500 is probably the most prestigious race on the NCS schedule. Legends like Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt Sr. have won the race multiple times. And despite his far-reaching achievements, Kyle Busch refuses to allow himself the ‘legend’ label without this coveted trophy.

Kyle Busch casts a longing look

The Richard Childress Racing driver is the winningest active Cup Series racer at present. Kyle Busch boasts a big arsenal of trophies – 231 victories across all three NASCAR national series and 63 Cup race wins. Add to that his championships (2009 in Xfinity and 2015, 2019 in Cup) and you have a dazzling NASCAR star. However, being true to his mentality of a legend, Busch refuses to wrap up so soon. Rowdy is looking forward to clinching that one trophy that has eluded him over a two-decade career. The Harley J. Earl trophy at the Daytona 500 is missing from his trophy cabinet, and Busch wants to win it.

The 2025 Daytona 500 is scheduled to be flagged off on February 16th – less than a month away. RCR recently released an immersive six-part mini-series that delves into team preparations for the prestigious race. We saw Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon, Jesse Love, and Austin Hill talking about the big event.

A glimmer of the 2024 heartbreak was visible in Kyle Busch’s words. Pulling through multiple upsets in 2024 was an ordeal for him. Now he desperately wants to not only get back on track but also to finally capture that elusive trophy, as he will not rest until he does so. “Being still in the driver’s seat, racing every Sunday, do I feel like today that I would be a failure if I didn’t win that race? Yes.” This year’s Daytona 500 will welcome motorsports icons – like four-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves or Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen. That gives Busch more fuel to perform well.

Kyle Busch also imparted his wisdom after 19 Daytona runs. Busch said in the video: “So the Daytona 500 in our sport is basically the Super Bowl of racing. The race which NASCAR was built on… having 250,00 plus people there – definitely makes it a big deal.” This year marked the 10th consecutive year of the ‘Great American Race’ being sold out. The President of Daytona International Speedway, Frank Kelleher echoed this sentiment when the sellout crowd was announced.

“The Daytona 500 continues to be a spectacle of elite racing and entertainment, and the consecutive sellouts just prove this event is one of a kind. You can quite literally feel the atmosphere from the moment Speedweeks begins. The crowd is buzzing with excitement and every team, from the driver to the crew chief, is eager to get their season started,” said Kelleher to NASCAR.com. This year boasts a stacked lineup with the open entries. Legends like 7-time champion Jimmie Johnson, and 2017 champion Martin Truex Jr. among others will race to qualify for the event.

While Busch’s entry is confirmed since he is a chartered car, his ambitions to win are being upheld by the bookies. Kyle Busch is drumming up massive hype for his 2025 season.

Rowdy fans unite!

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Granted, 2024 was a misery ride for Rowdy Nation fans. Besides numerous DNFs, Kyle Busch narrowly missed wins several times. He fell short in Atlanta because of a slim 0.004-second difference in a three-wide, and then Harrison Burton bested him at the Coke Zero Sugar 400. However, Busch revived his earlier speed towards the end of the season, posting a streak of top-ten finishes. Fans and journalist Bob Pockrass believe Busch will continue this into 2025. According to a DraftKings SportsBook prediction posted on Fox Sports, Busch has +1100 odds to win the 2025 Daytona 500 race as of January 24th, 2025.

Bob Pockrass recently hyped up Kyle Busch’s 2026 season – but that all depends on how Richard Childress Racing delivers in 2025. Although Pockrass does not focus on the Daytona 500, he believes Busch will be back in form in no time. However, he feels his future at RCR could be in jeopardy if they go through another lean year. Pockrass said, “When you look at Silly Season I’m going to look at Kyle Busch. And he’ll be the one that if they perform well off the start, you think, ‘Okay, he’s going to stay.’ But if they struggle, what is he gonna feel about it? How much is he going to look? And where does he end up? I think it will be kind of a big storyline. Maybe not going into Daytona, but I would say by the time you get to April or May, it will be.”

So Kyle Busch is not giving himself any rest until he visits Victory Lane. Be it the Daytona 500 or some later race, his fanbase will cheer for him no matter what.