“Everybody is rooting for Kyle Busch”: Kevin Harvick explains the significance of #8 going to victory lane

Kevin Harvick, in his podcast Harvick Happy Hour, explained why he thought Kyle Busch would win the race at Texas Motor Speedway. He credited the team with providing the right pit stops and strategy to bring him into a position of winning. He also claimed that Busch’s #8 was fast for the track.

Kyle Busch finished 20th in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway, driving the #8 for Richard Childress Racing. His day was marked by a steady performance. The RCR driver was able to secure stage points by finishing 10th in Stage 2, showing great competitiveness during the middle portion of the race however, unable to capitalise on the momentum in the final stage. He slipped out of the top 15 as the race progressed. Busch’s race was affected heavily by the high number of cautions during the race which saw several front runners shuffled to the back of the pack during overtime restarts.

Kevin Harvick had backed the #8 from the commentator's box, and as he was giving reasons as to why Kyle Busch might win the race, the latter spun out. He said on the podcast:

"They had to put themselves in a position and you know, we'd talked about their, their pit crew and the ranking. They did a great job on, on pit road to put themselves in position to have a chance to win the race. And the eight car was fast, had a great sponsor on board this week with seven, 11 great brand look cool. Um, everybody's rooting for Kyle Bush. Everybody wants Kyle Bush to, to win right now. And I was trying to give the guy some love and mid sentence where a backed into the fence off of, off of turn four."

After 11 races in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series, Kyle Busch is ranked 16th in the championship standings with 228. He is currently ranked just outside the playoff cutline with one top-five and four top-ten finishes.

---

Kyle Busch reveals the 'grim' reality that forced him to sell his NASCAR team

Kyle Busch recently opened up about the difficult decision to sell his NASCAR team, Kyle Busch Motorsports, to Spire Motorsports in September 2023. Speaking on the Door Bumper Clear podcast, Busch shared that while he deeply misses the camaraderie and daily teamwork at KBM, the sustainability of running the team became increasingly challenging.

"I still kinda miss those days. You miss the camaraderie of those people, the Rudy's of the world the Eric Phillips of the world, and those guys that were always there every single day to make that company as strong as it was and as dominant in the Truck Series. I miss working with the Toyota guys too on that front," Busch replied.

"But it just kind of came to a point where it started to look a little bit grimmer on sustainability, and so I was like, 'You know what this might be the time'...and then all of a sudden, a knock on the door from Spire guys, they were like, 'Yeah, we need your shop," he added.

Founded in 2010, KBM grew into a powerhouse in the NASCAR Truck Series, winning two championships (2015 and 2017) and serving as a springboard for future Cup Series stars like Christopher Bell and William Byron. However, mounting operational pressures and financial realities made it clear to Busch that continuing independently was no longer feasible.