“I think the speed has been there… but more and more we continue to work on that and get that closer to where it’s consistent speed.” Kyle Busch didn’t shy away in his recent reflections on his 2025 campaign. The numbers echo sentiment on track as well. After 20 starts, the No. 8 Chevrolet sits 15th in points with zero wins, no poles, two top fives, and seven top tens, falling short of playoff pace. However, team leadership continues to back him; after all, Busch has signed a one-year extension on his current Richard Childress Racing deal.
While his overall season has seen a continued slump from his winless 2024, Busch has sprung up in form recently, finishing 5th at Chicago and 10th in Sonoma, and entering a stretch of ovals that Busch has been historically good at, crew chief Randall Burnett was filled with confidence. He recently reminded everyone that Kyle is far from irrelevant, and that the next two races could be his breakout moment.
Kyle Busch’s playoff hopes are on the line
Busch’s 2025 slump has been painfully obvious. His average start of 15.7 and finish of 17.25 rank him among the back markers this season. Despite 4790 laps completed, he has led just 62 of them, most of them at the Circuit of The Americas, a far cry from the front-running firepower fans expect. With 2 DNFs at key races and self-inflicted wounds, including a spin nearly every race and speeding on pit road, it has been a season of frustration.
But as NASCAR returns to the Monster Mile, Busch’s resume shows high hopes. Rowdy is currently the winningest active driver at Dover with three career wins at the track. Busch also has two top-10 finishes and two pole wins at Dover in the Next-Gen era. In 2024, Kyle Busch qualified on pole, led laps, and finished fourth, showing the kind of performance RCR thought would repeat.
This year, those expectations are still the same, as crew chief Randall Burnett told Motor Racing Network, “Yeah, you know, like last year we ran really well at Dover. I think we qualified on the pole there, ran the top 5-6-7 all day long, and ended up fourth. So Dover was a really strong track for us last year.” Well, Dover highlights favorites like Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin, meaning things could get tough for Busch. So what’s next after Dover? Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The Brickyard has brought hope and then heartbreak for Busch. A qualifying mistake kept him from fighting at the front, but smart pit calls in late race strategy had him running fifth or sixth. But a late race incident derailed momentum, ending a race where. Busch could have earned a breakout 2024 result. His crew chief’s frustration was clear.
Randall Burnett added, “Indy, we ran good at the end of the race. We kind of missed it at the beginning, didn’t have a great qualifying lap, and kind of missed turn four. So we were kind of mired in the back of the pack, you know, at Indy for a little while during the day. But once we were able to play some strategy and get the car up towards the front, we, you know, we were running, I think, fifth or sixth, and then had a little incident there at the end and took us out of the race.” Besides these upcoming races, another track that Busch could use as a wildcard is Daytona.
The NASCAR Cup Series playoffs are looming and @KyleBusch is on the outside looking in.
His Crew Chief Randall Burnett joined @ThePostman68 & @ToddBGordon to preview the upcoming slate!
: https://t.co/wZfjfY3BHg
: https://t.co/hRACQQU1D6#AskMRN | #NASCAR | @RCRracing pic.twitter.com/5xhA38Swye
— Motor Racing Network (@MRNRadio) July 18, 2025
Busch has been pegged as the favorite to break through at Daytona. And for good reason, too. He came within inches of victory in July 2024 at the same 2.5-mile oval. Leading the overtime restart and battling side-by-side with Christopher Bell for the final laps. He surged ahead, but in a dramatic last-lap push by Parker Retzlaff on Harrison Burton, the latter emerged from Bell’s slipstream to steal the win by just 0.047 seconds, leaving Kyle with the runner-up finish by a whisker. Burnett also concurred with Daytona being a strong candidate, adding, “So, you know, I think Indy and Dover the next two weeks, you know, show some promise for us. We almost won Daytona last year, came up, you know, about three inches too short at that one.”
Kyle Busch entered the 2025 Daytona 500 still chasing his first win in the Great American Race, but despite showing a strong pace in practice (fourth fastest) and running in the top 10 for much of the day, his hopes were dashed in a late-race crash instigated by Joey Logano that left him 34th. While Busch’s misfortunes on the track have been a trend in 2025, his crew chief also shouldered the blame, recently pointing to a setup failure that has plagued them all season.
Kyle Busch drops the name of his favorite NASCAR driver
Even as Kyle Busch has become a NASCAR icon in his own right, he hasn’t forgotten the legends who first drew him into the sport. Looking back on his childhood, Busch recently said which drivers inspired him the most. With Jeff Gordon standing out as a particular favorite. Long before Kyle was breaking records and winning championships, he was simply a young fan captivated by the stars of the 1990s.
Though there was a 13-year age gap between Busch and Gordon, it was Gordon’s breakout performance in the mid-1990s that truly captured the imagination of a nine-year-old Kyle. Gordon’s flashy DuPont rainbow scheme, his aggressive driving style, and his ability to challenge the established veterans made him the ultimate rising star and an easy choice for Busch to root for.
But Gordon wasn’t the only name Busch followed with admiration. The No. 8 driver noted, “Me being nine years old at the time, and then of course, though, I always enjoyed watching, you know, Dale Earnhardt, Mark Martin, Dale Jarrett, all those guys that were winning races at that time.” These drivers, each a powerhouse in their own way, helped shape the competitive landscape of 1990s NASCAR and fueled the ambitions of future stars like Busch.
Busch vividly remembers the moment he became a fan, pointing to Gordon’s early successes in 1994 and 1995 as the turning point. That era shaped his view of the sport, and watching Jeff Gordon dominate over legends like Dale Earnhardt gave Busch a front-row seat to the kind of career he would one day chase for himself. Let’s hope Kyle Busch finds his mojo again and gives us one last taste of his true Rowdy side.
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