Kyle Busch pushed to the back of the field in Kansas playoff race

Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch's quest for his third title has begun on a bad note as he will start at the rear of the field for the second week running in the 2023 playoff season.

Busch was dropped to the rear of the field in the playoff opener at Darlington Raceway for unapproved adjustments. This weekend at Kansas Speedway, Busch couldn't turn a lap in Saturday's qualifying session as he had damaged his car in the practice session earlier in the day.

The #8 Richard Childress Racing (RCR) driver was setting good times in the Group B practice session when he scraped the outside wall and had to return to the pits for repairs. Later he didn't post a lap time in the qualifying session, leaving him dead last of the 36-car field for Sunday’s (September 10) Hollywood Casino 400.

Kyle Busch was frustrated with the continuing playoff woes, as he will once again be on the backfoot at the start of the race.

“Just like every other weekend. Always put in a hole, always put behind, always have to come and dig ourselves out,” Busch told NBC Sports. “So, hate it for all the guys, I mean, the car was really good, had good longevity there. ”

The Richard Childress Racing driver regretted being left out of the qualifying session as he believed he had a quick car. His teammate Austin Dillon will start on the fourth row in the race.

Busch said:

“We were just running laps and run some pretty good laps comparatively to the rest of our group that we were with at that time. Just gonna fine-tune on some things in order to get ready for qualifying, and here we are starting last again. It just never ends. I don’t know what to do to change it.”

Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson will lead the field to the green flag this Sunday, while Kyle Busch will line up on the last row beside rookie Ty Gibbs, who also didn't set a time.

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Kyle Busch hoping for a turnaround in his playoff fortunes

Despite having three wins in the bag this season, Kyle Busch entered the playoff season with inconsistent results in the summer stretch. While the Richard Childress Racing Chevies are quick, plenty of operational issues have bugged the #8 team.

Busch wants to have a clean weekend next time out, as he reckons he cannot put on a comeback drive every weekend.

"If we do what we're capable of every week, we'll be fine. We wouldn't even be worried. We can't have those issues every week and think you're gonna come out of it," he told Frontstretch.

The #8 RCR driver had recovered to an 11th-place finish at Darlington, which put him seventh in the standings, 20 points above the cut-off mark. He will be hoping for a similar charge through the field at Kansas Speedway this weekend.