For the first time in 20 years, Kyle Busch went winless in the NASCAR Cup Series.
Since his rookie campaign in 2005, Busch has earned at least one victory per season – and as many as eight times (2008, 2018) – at the sport’s highest level. His 19 consecutive winning seasons is an all-time record – one he expected to continue in 2024.
But an unusual drop in performance from the preternatural standard Busch had set for himself resulted in the fewest top fives (five), top 10s (10) and laps led (230) of his career, averaging 18 .3 which marked his worst since his rookie year (21.0, 2005).
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Simply put, Busch described the 2024 season – his second behind the wheel of the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet – as “character building.”
“Definitely frustrating,” Busch said during the championship weekend at Phoenix Raceway. “It’s just not at all what we had hoped for after some success last year, especially early in the year and those three wins, and then we struggled a little bit from time to time, but this year apparently we’re not able to do it let’s get rid of the monkey I mean even have a chance to win at the end of the day and be close at Daytona and maybe even closer at Kansas and. simply not being able to get out of it.
“We probably had a handful of opportunities that eluded us. So we can’t say we shouldn’t have won this year or that we never had the chance to do it, but we obviously didn’t get there.
The last two years have brought significant changes for Busch. Now 39, Busch began his career with three years at Hendrick Motorsports before joining Joe Gibbs Racing for 15 years. His success over those 18 seasons was remarkable, as he collected 60 victories and two NASCAR Cup Series championships.
That tenure with JGR ended after the 2022 season, leading the Las Vegas native to Richard Childress Racing. He laments that the record is finished, but he has a different perspective now that it is finished.
“I would have much preferred it to last – if I had to run six, seven more years – for it to last 25, 26 years, and just be a mark that will never be achievable, don’t isn’t it?” » Busch said. “But unfortunately, those things didn’t happen. Things changed for me a few years ago and I was grateful to be able to extend the streak last year and make it my own. But honestly, with guys being 17, a guy being 18 and now a guy being 19, it’s hard to put so many good years like that in a row. It’s difficult.”
It’s this sustained success throughout his career that Busch hopes to count on in 2025. Crew chief Randall Burnett will return to lead the No. 8 team, but RCR has changes of direction already in this young offseason which, the company hopes, will lead to improved performance.
Veteran crew chief and competition director Keith Rodden has been named the team’s vice president of competition, while former Stewart-Haas Racing executives John Klausmeier and Richard Boswell have also joined the team. ranks. Klausmeier will serve as RCR’s technical director, while Boswell will become the new crew chief of the historic No. 3 Chevrolet and driver Austin Dillon.
Even though Busch’s results left much to be desired in 2024, optimism remains that a new winning streak will begin in 2025.
