Kyle Busch voices concern over NASCAR's challenge in shifting '90s fans from Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon to today's stars

Richard Childress Racing driver Kyle Busch believes that NASCAR's transition from the 90s to the modern era has seen the sport lose its popularity among the fans.

NASCAR has come a long way from the days of "The Intimidator" Dale Earnhardt and Rusty Wallace. The sport, which once used to feature men of the working-class making their way up to the sport's highest echelons, now finds itself in a financial bubble which only a set group of up-and-coming drivers can breach.

The sport has also seen a shift from its style of racing and racetracks. The transition of NASCAR to its seventh-generation car, or the Next Gen era, has brought the races far away from what they used to be in the 90s.

The transition, coupled with retiring legends of the sport, has seen NASCAR experience a shift in its fan demography. Shedding more light onto the topic, two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch stated during a press conference ahead of the recent Cup race in Bristol:

"You have die-hard fans of NASCAR, the Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, Rusty Wallace, Terry Labonte, Mark Martin, Harry Gant, you name it. The guys from the 90s. Our world today in 2024 is a lot different fan base following along,” Kyle Busch stated ahead of the race at Bristol Motor Speedway."

"I don’t feel like we were able to transition a lot of the fans that were fans of those drivers that I just mentioned into a William Byron fan or a Kyle fan," he added.

"But, before that, their stadiums were empty, you know what I mean. You can find the same struggles across different sports, is what we see sometimes," Busch continued.

---

Where does Kyle Busch race next?

After a 12th-place finish in the recent NASCAR Cup Series Daytona 500 race, Kyle Busch and his Richard Childress Racing No. 8 crew will head towards the iconic Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.

This will be Busch's sixth Cup race of the season, his ninth race of the 2024 campaign overall. He has accumulated a total of 122 points in the five Cup races so far this season and ranks 16th in the NASCAR Cup Series standings.

The Las Vegas native, who made a blockbuster move to Richard Childress Racing last season, has struggled to find pace in the last three Cup Series races. Following a third-place finish in the historic three-wide conclusion of the Atlanta Cup race, Busch has failed to secure a top-10 finish, raising concerns.

Kyle Busch also put on a double shift this weekend in Bristol. His Food City 500 outing was preceded by a second-place finish in the Weather Guard Truck Series race at the same venue.

With a win, a runner-up finish and a 15th-place finish in three races so far, Busch will make two more appearances in Texas and Darlington later this season to bring an end to his part-time Truck Series campaign.