Kyle Busch admits matching Shane Van Gisbergen's street racing dominance could take up the rest of his NASCAR career span

Shane van Gisbergen is so good at road racing that even Kyle Busch, a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, feels that it would take him his entire racing career to reach Gisbergen’s level. The Las Vegas native is going to run his 20th race of the season, which also happens to be a road course event.

Named Toyota/Save Mart 350, the 110-lap race will play out at Sonoma Raceway, a 2.52-mile street circuit in Sonoma, California. Kyle Busch has 19 starts at the racetrack and has won twice in 2008 and 2015. As of 2025, the driver is vying for his maiden win of the season.

Busch recently met with a group of reporters at the premises of Sonoma Raceway. One of them asked Busch his thoughts on why Gisbergen is so dominant at road courses. Busch said that maybe it’s because Gisbergen had grown up running on road courses.

“I mean just the longevity of it all but we’ve also had others that have been here that have grown up just doing that as well so I don’t know,” Kyle Busch explained. (1:14 onwards)

“He’s just really, really good. He has the heel-toe method I know. So, for me to try to figure that out it would be until my retirement before I’m even 10% as good as he is at it, so that’s out the window,” the veteran racer smiled.

Kyle Busch is in his third season driving for Richard Childress Racing. As per reports, he will return behind the wheel of the No. 8 Chevy Camaro in 2026.

Last year, Busch broke his 19-year record of winning at least one race each season. Only seven races remain in the regular season, and the 40-year-old speedster sits 16th in the driver standings with 397 points to his name. This means that Busch has to log a victory to make the playoffs this year.

---

Kyle Busch shares his thoughts on last week’s Wallace-Bowman episode

Last week, during the Grant Park 165 at the Chicago Street Course, Bubba Wallace and Alex Bowman were seen bumping each other as both tried to gain the upper hand. However, Wallace spun out in the end and settled for a P28 finish.

Kyle Busch reacted to the tussle between Wallace and Bowman during an interview with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. He said,

“Yeah, what was interesting, I think there was, I don’t know if it was in Bubba’s mind, had to have been a little bit, that him and Bowman were going against each other for the bracket challenge for the weekend.”

“So, he was trying to hold back the 48 (Alex Bowman) as much as he could, even though the 48 was on fresher tires,” he added.

Despite the heated incident, Wallace and Bowman talked it out after the race with smiles on both of their faces. So it’s perhaps safe to say that the drivers don’t hold any grudges. Kyle Busch finished the race in P5, marking his second top-five of the season.