As the laps wound down at the 2024 Brickyard 400, it sure seemed like Kyle Busch was FINALLY going to have a good finish after weeks of disappointment and sub-par results. With three laps to go, he wasn’t going to win but it sure seemed like he had a shot to return to the Top 5 for the first time since Dover back in April.
However, it was not to be. He made contact with former teammate Denny Hamlin and the glimmer of hope was diminished. Busch would have to settle for a 25th place finish, doing more to ensure he’ll need a win at one of those “wild card” tracks on the schedule if he’s going to make the playoffs.
Meanwhile, in the 11 races since the Top 5 at Dover, Busch has finished outside the Top 20 a total of seven times.
Busch’s struggles are not something that only people crunching the numbers have noticed. The TV commentators on Fox and NBC have made it one of their recurring storylines and the blue checkmark “experts” on social media continue to weigh in on it.
But isn’t this Kyle Busch that many had anointed the most talented driver in the history of NASCAR? Doesn’t he sit atop the leaderboard with the most wins in the Xfinity and Truck series? And let’s not forget just how much hype was placed on his claiming the top spot in wins combined over all three national series!
So where is the Kyle Busch of old? Is it just possible that, for all the hype of him being “a wheel man who can drive anything,” it was not man but machine that made all the hype and stats possible?
Since the 2018 win by Joey Logano at Auto Club Speedway where he drove away from the field on old tires on what was, by Logano’s own admission “a very special car (LOL!),” it’s been impossible for me to take seriously any claims that the cars/trucks that Cup drivers drive in lower series are even close to equal to what the series regulars have. Of course, having Xfinity teammates
However, Busch does have 63 Cup wins, good enough to put him in the Top 10 all-time. However, all but seven were with the vaunted Joe Gibbs Racing team. Four more came with Hendrick Motorsports, who is never hurting for money and resources either.
When it became obvious that Busch was headed out the door at JGR at the end of 2022, I was beyond shocked to hear rumours that he would land with Richard Childress Racing. Now, it’s no secret that I’m an RCR guy mostly due to the fact that Dale Earnhardt drove the bulk of his career for the team.
However, the narrative among NASCAR “experts” has always been that RCR was a mid-level team in terms of money and resources. I knew Busch had no friends over at Penske and there was no room at the inn, so to speak, with Hendrick. Stewart-Haas? Well, we didn’t know then what we know now. Still, I figured the “Kyle Busch to leave JGR” was just a wild rumour designed to screw with the fanbase.
While Busch showed up at RCR and won three races in his inaugural season with the team, but 2024 has been more notable for his fight with Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and admission that “I suck, too!”
Actually scratch that…Busch’s 2024 has been most notable that the same media types that praised him to high heaven when he was driving away from the field in the Xfinity and Truck series – to the point of laughing at the idea of anyone else winning a lower-level series race he was in – are now writing him off as far as being any kind of championship contender goes.
But maybe, just maybe, the question of “What’s happened to Kyle?” is the wrong question. Perhaps the question should be “Is this the real Kyle we’re seeing?” For all the insinuation that Busch could take a mediocre car and make it a winning car, with every passing week, we’re seeing evidence to the contrary.
If there’s no denying that Busch’s Xfinity and Truck records were the equivalent of Barry Bonds’ home run records, should we now be reconsidering just how much of his Cup record is the result of JGR having those same “special cars”?
Perhaps not, but at the very least, Busch had the advantage of being with a team who had more resources than nearly every other in the field. With that advantage gone, however, has Busch’s true level of talent and ability been exposed?
The 2024 season isn’t quite finished yet. There are 14 races left to go. Busch might come back from the Olympic break with his run of bad luck over and grab a couple of wins, make the playoffs and take a shot at his third championship.
But if he doesn’t, should we not be asking some important if difficult questions?
johnmilner.ca 