Kyle Busch hits rock bottom with unwanted NASCAR – Sports News
Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch is driving a 100-race winless streak after failing to make a splash on the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville final Sunday.
Busch’s final Cup Series win got here on the 2023 Enjoy Illinois 300, however the Richard Childress Racing star has since missed the final two playoff campaigns. Last season, Busch managed simply three top-five finishes earlier than signing a contract extension with RCR for the 2026 marketing campaign. The 40-year-old’s last-second-place end got here on the 2024 Darlington Cook Out Southern 500. Last 12 months, Busch completed outdoors the top-20 in factors for the primary time in his profession, and now has began the primary 7 races this season with out a single top-10 end, one other unwanted career-first document.
To make issues worse, regardless of inking a new deal with RCR, which is able to expire on the finish of this season except an settlement to increase is reached, Busch and his No. 8 crew have struggled to get on the identical web page in 2026.
Last weekend, Busch was on the receiving finish of a brutal NASCAR penalty. His crew was penalized for a free tire rolling down pit highway at Martinsville earlier than later passing the checkered flag in Twenty fourth for his third consecutive end this season outdoors of the highest 20. To go with his Twenty fourth-placed end at Martinsville, it’s additionally the identical place Busch holds within the Cup Series standings.
Busch sits eight locations beneath the 16-car cutoff level for the postseason “chase,” NASCAR’s revamped championship-deciding format after it ditched its playoffs. The two-time champion, who received a Truck Series race earlier this season at Atlanta, is 48 factors behind Sixteenth-place Daniel Suarez.
Luckily for Busch, there’s loads left of the common season to make up misplaced ground. The 10-race “Chase” received’t begin till Sept. 6, when Darlington will host the Cook Out Southern 500, giving Busch 19 races to change the course of his season. Heading into 2026, Busch expressed optimism over RCR’s direction. However, to date, that enthusiasm seems to have evaporated. Busch can also be nonetheless attending to grips with his new crew chief, Jim Pohlman.
“I think this offseason will be different just based off of trying to build some camaraderie and some time with Jim,” Busch mentioned on the time. “Being able to spend some time with him and just kind of figure things out and what makes him tick, and obviously ways of things of what makes me tick and getting on the same page to start our season.
“Those are always the best ways of being the most successful with a crew chief is when you know when each other’s thinking, what they’re thinking and you can anticipate what’s next.”
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