"I've grown a little bit since then" - When Kyle Busch opened up about settling differences with Richard Childress

Back in 2023, Kyle Busch opened up about how he decided to settle his differences with Richard Childress and join the latter's team at the end of 2022. In an interview, the #8 driver said he arrived at the team when RCR was not winning "as much" as they used to, and decided to work with the team to claim more wins and championships.

After spending over 15 years in the NASCAR Cup Series with Joe Gibbs Racing, Kyle Busch arrived at Richard Childress Racing in 2023. The switch was regarded as a big move, especially as he was already an esteemed and established NASCAR driver while the team was not as successful.

At the time, Busch was already a two-time Cup Series champion having won titles in 2015 and 2019, and a holder of 60 Cup Series races when he arrived at RCR. Despite this, his decision to join RCR seemed unlikely after their infamous 2011 Kansas Speedway Truck Series altercation.

This was where Childress confronted Busch after the latter made contact with RCR's Joey Coulter. Years down the line, both parties forgot the incident and decided to move on.

Speaking about his decision to join RCR from JGR, and how he settled his differences, Busch said on the "Cars and Culture" podcast in August 2023,

"Probably eight years, seven years has gone on by since then and I've grown up a little bit since then and come to a different space and better light. And I think he's obviously an elder statesman anyways, but he's kind of suffered some disappointments in his race team in the past few seasons and the past few years of not just winning as much as he was accustomed to back in the earlier days.

"And so you know we were able to put all that behind us, talk about it, go through and really work towards the ultimate goal, and that's to be competitive and to win races, and to win championships."

The 39-year-old claimed his first victory for RCR at Fontana in 2023. He won two more races at Talladega and Gateway that year and qualified for the playoffs. However, he was eliminated from the round of 12 race at Charlotte Roval.

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Kyle Busch reflects on his winless 2024 season

After finishing 2024 without a victory, Kyle Busch touched upon the recently concluded NASCAR Cup Series season. Referring to the season, Busch termed it as "frustrating" as he recorded a winless season for the first time in 20 years, and failed to qualify for the playoffs.

Busch said during Championship Weekend at Phoenix Raceway,

"Certainly frustrating. Just not at all what we had hoped it to be after some success last year, especially early in the year and having those three wins, and then struggling a little bit on and off, but then this year, just seemingly not being able to get the monkey off our back."

Kyle Busch (8) during practice for the NASCAR Championship race at Phoenix Raceway. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Kyle Busch finished the season in 20th place with 766 points. He had one stage win, a pole position, five Top 5s, 10 Top 10s, and led 229 laps. His average start position was 16.917 and his average finish position was 18.306.