DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — At this point three years ago, Kyle Busch didn’t have a firm deal with Joe Gibbs Racing for the following year, but few could truly envision him leaving his home of 15 seasons where he won two Cup titles.
But as negotiations deteriorated and sponsorship talks cooled, Busch found himself talking to other teams — including unlikely ones such as Richard Childress Racing.
Busch and Richard Childress put their old beefs aside and Busch signed a base three-year deal. As he enters the third year, the uncertainty of a few years ago is an underlying theme as he enters 2025.
After a three-win 2023, Busch carries a 57-race winless streak into 2025. Whether he remains at RCR for the long term could be determined this year.
“You’ve got to win, right?” Busch said. “And unfortunately, we weren’t able to win last year. So being able to get back to victory lane, being able to build on some consistency, getting those top five, top 10s, getting that number higher than what it was this year is definitely paramount.
“We had a rough summer last year, had a lot of DNFs in that stretch that kind of brought us outside the playoff and being able to get ourselves in contention.”
If Busch is to have confidence in RCR, getting in contention probably needs to come sooner than later. There would be no better time than winning the Daytona 500, the race that has eluded Busch in 19 starts.
“Earlier in the year would be better, but it’s always a long year, and you got to fight it out every week,” Busch said.
The wild thing about talking with Busch regarding his 2024 season is that he lost two races by inches. A few inches better would have delivered two victories for him, and questions about his future might not even arise.
“It’s just tough,” Busch said about the near misses. “With all the cars being more equal, you’re fighting for hundreds or thousandths of inches.
“We used to talk about tenths or whatever, and now it’s just crazy how tight everything is.”
Busch was recruited to RCR by his teammate, Austin Dillon. The grandson of team owner Richard Childress, Dillon is expected to run the company at some point after he retires from driving. So it would make sense that Dillon would want Busch in his stable, even if the two-time Cup champion would likely be considered the lead driver of the two.
“I think Kyle is learning a lot over the couple years that he’s been with us,” Dillon said. “I think he’s a happier person, personally.
“I like being around Kyle. He obviously is the same when it comes to hating to run bad or not up to his standard. And his standard is as high as it gets. He’s a champion of our sport.”
Champions struggle when they are on winless streaks. Brad Keselowski, known as one of Busch’s biggest rivals, snapped a 110-race winless streak last year. He explained that confidence for a race-car driver isn’t something lost or gained in a week.
“Having consistent good cars is such an enabler for a driver — it pushes you to make those moves that quite often differentiate between winning and losing,” Keselowski said. “And when that is lost for a period of time, it’s extremely difficult to recover.
“And you almost have to have a session or multiple sessions, where it’s there again before you can even put your arms around it. And that’s the challenge of momentum in the sport, particularly for race car drivers.”
While RCR has made some changes in its competition department leadership, it has let Randall Burnett remain as crew chief for Busch. A veteran crew chief who doesn’t seem to get rattled, Burnett knows the demands.
Burnett said Busch handled his first winless season like a professional.
“We went through some tough times — especially the mid-part of the season — we had a lot of stuff not go our way, not pan out for us,” Burnett said. “At the beginning, with all the short tracks stacked up at the beginning of the year, we didn’t come out with great speed at those places. And had a lot of work to do.”
Busch and the team worked hard to get better.
“Obviously, he’s Kyle Busch, he wants to win a lot of races,” Burnett said. “And he should be winning a lot of races. It’s up to us to to get him back in victory lane.”
The organization is focused on doing just that.
“For us at RCR, we just have to put maximum effort in every week to deliver the best product,” Dillon said. “And that’s the best we can do. Try and give maximum effort every weekend.
“Put yourself in the best position we can. Put him in the best position we can. And we’ll see where all the chips fall at the end. But I think he’s enjoyed his time at RCR and wants to be a part of this organization to the end, I hope.”
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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