Editor’s note: This is the tenth in a series in which we goodbye the top 30 drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series in reverse order of the final 2025 standings.
Driver: Kyle Busch, No. 8 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing
Team leaders: Randall Burnett (31 carries) and Andy Street (five carries)
Final ranking 2025:17th
Key Statistics: 0 wins, 3 top-5s, 10 top-10s, 88 laps led
How 2025 ended: The two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion closed the season at Phoenix with a fifth-place finish, matching his best finish of 2025. After missing the playoffs for the second straight year – and only the second time in his career – Busch rallied to close the season with three top 10s in the final 10-race stretch; notably with two different team leaders. Randall Burnett, who guided Busch for most of his three-season tenure at Richard Childress Racing, announced he would move to a new team in 2026, and Andy Street was moved to the top of Busch’s booth to close out the year.
Advertisement
Best race: For a driver who dominated on ovals for much of his famous career, Busch actually had his best performance in a single day on the road course at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas. Busch started eighth and led six times for a season-high 42 laps before losing the lead to Christopher Bell and finishing fifth.
MORE: 2026 Cup Series Schedule | Kyle Busch Driver Page
Other highlights of the season: Busch, who owns 34 Busch Light Pole Awards in his career, has won two front row starts this year, starting second at Talladega Superspeedway in the spring and then again at Michigan International Speedway five weeks later. Two of his best finishes came on road courses – fifth at COTA and fifth again at the Chicago Street Race. As the two-time champion continues to find form at RCR, he had a string of three top-10 races early this season at the 1.5-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway (seventh), the Austin road course (fifth) and the one-mile Phoenix oval (eighth).
Stat to know: Busch’s season-low tally of two retirements was bettered by only one other full-time driver, Tyler Reddick, having one. And while Busch’s average of 17.9 isn’t what you’d expect from the former champ, it improved from last year’s mark of 18.3.
Advertisement
RELATED: Final ranking 2025 | Busch through the years
Quotable: “There is still a building process that needs to take place to get us on this path. Being the most consistent every week and consistently finishing in the top five is the easiest way to prove that you are capable of achieving your next victory. So we need to get to that point first.” — Busch said he had returned to winning form and would have done so with a new crew, Jim Pohlman, in 2026.
Looking to the future: Granted, Busch was frustrated with the outcome of the 2025 season, but he’s a champion, and there’s a reason he’s the National Series winningest driver in NASCAR history. The 40-year-old has said nothing about retirement and clearly wants to turn the page and start fresh with a new crew chief (Pohlman), who hopes to return the No. 8 team to playoff form. Pohlman led fellow Chevrolet driver Justin Allgaier to the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship and previously worked at RCR, leading the development of the organization’s Next Gen cars. There is much hope for the team’s revamped technical assets next season, which will include the former RCR technical director. Mike Dillon, who will take a more active role. The whole restructuring looks promising for Busch, who began his three-year tenure with the team with a three-trophy season in 2023. His last victory came on June 4, 2023, at Gateway, where he started from the pole and led a dominating 121 of 243 laps.
