DARLINGTON, S.C.: There has been a resurgence of sorts for Kyle Busch and Richard Childress Racing, but is it too little too late?
Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 marks the finale for the NASCAR Cup Series regular season with Busch desperately needing a win to vault his No. 8 Richard Childress Racing team into the Playoffs and a shot at the Cup Series championship at Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway in November.
Busch’s sophomore season at Richard Childress Racing has been nothing like the first. Last year, the Las Vegas, Nev. roared to three wins and a 14th place overall finish in the championship standings.
This year, Busch and the Randall Burnett-led organization have struggled to find some of the same speed that showcased in their freshman season together.
“The whole season’s been frustrating,” said Busch Saturday at Darlington Raceway. “Every week, it just kind of seems like, okay, what’s next? But that’s something that we can’t change. Chris Buescher just said it beforehand, you know, there’s a lot of things and a lot of questions that we have for ourselves and answers that we might not be able to answer exactly right now as to how our year has gone, but that’s in the past, and you know you can use that as a distraction or a motivation tool, and we’ll look to try to make that as a motivation tool.
“We did not run well here in the past. This race in the spring we did not run well, but we don’t come in this weekend holding our heads low and thinking that we’re gonna not run well again. We put our heads to paper and try to figure out why and said we’re gonna go there with the best piece we can and try to kick their butt and get a win.”
However, since returning to the track from the summer Olympic break, the team’s performance has improved, including a season-high second-place finish last Saturday night at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.
Ahead of one of the sport’s Crown Jewel races, Busch knows that his only shot at being a part of the Round of 16 beginning at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway is to deliver his 64th career Cup Series in 500 grueling miles at the track dubbed “Too Tough To Tame.”
With an average finish of sixth since returning from the summer break at Richmond (Va.) Raceway earlier this month, Busch praised his Richard Childress Racing team and the internal changes for the recent surge in their on-track performance.
“Just a lot of hard work and everybody really pulling together, and you know, a few changes personnel-wise behind the scenes, but really just, you know, great effort and great work really coming together,” Busch added.
“A lot of that’s been from April to May timeframe of just conversations of processes and procedures that we need to improve on and work on and we’re starting to see the fruits of that labor now.”
At a track, where strategy can sneak its way into the picture, especially in the closing laps of the race, Busch is hoping that the team’s speed will be front and center on Sunday night – knowing that he can’t count on the strategy factor completely.
“Don’t know that you can really get a whole lot done here because of all the fall off and tire wear and things like that,” offered Busch on pivoting to an alternative strategy. “If you have a three-lap run, do you stay out?
“I don’t predict you’re gonna be able to hold them off very long so unless it’s a green-white-checker, which in that case you’re probably gonna get a few as we tend to do this day and age so I don’t know that you’ll be able to see a whole lot of different strategy play. We’ll just have to have some outright raw speed and go get ‘em.”
Winning has proven, even just last weekend with Harrison Burton’s upset win, that life can just get simpler for a short time.
Busch has been vocal about the on-track struggles in 2024. While there has been good progress recently, he’s relying on the steady step forwards to aid him in a mission should a Playoff spot not arrive following Sunday night’s race.
For the past 19 seasons, Busch has won at least one NASCAR Cup Series race. This year, he’s winless so far with 11 races remaining.
Should the win not arrive at The Lady in Black on Sunday, the team’s priority can shift slightly towards trying to keep his streak alive while also delivering a much-needed boost of convenience for the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing team.
“I mean, you want to go out there and contend every week, but getting wins is a whole different story,” Busch remarked. “So, for us to be able to capitalize on our good runs, like last week, we just missed and didn’t execute well enough in those final moments to get the job done.
“Anything can happen. You’ve got to live it out until the end and we’ve got 11 more weeks to get it done. It would certainly be nice to get it done here in Darlington and put that story to rest but also put ourselves in the Playoffs and have a shot to continue to build on this momentum that we’ve had with RCR and our stuff getting better to take our Chevrolets far into the Playoffs.”
Follow Chris Knight on X (Twitter) @Knighter01 or email at [email protected].
