Why Kyle Busch's milestone start comes with more questions than answers for RCR

At 40 years old and entering his third full season with Richard Childress Racing, Kyle Busch is all set to hit a bittersweet milestone in 2025: his 100th NASCAR Cup Series start for the Richard Childress Racing team. It’s a feat worthy of celebration, yet so far, it’s coming with more questions than answers for both “Rowdy” and his team.

On one hand, Busch has shown glimpses of his old brilliance. His run at Circuit of the Americas earlier this year was vintage Rowdy, leading a race‑high 42 laps before fading to fifth under questionable strategy. He has scored eight top-ten finishes this season, indicating an improvement compared to his disappointing performance last season.

Kyle Busch's crew chief, Randall Burnett, spoke about the year that Busch has had with the team without being hesitant about it in a podcast.

"Well, obviously, we are not in the exact spot we would like to be. We have had some decent speed at a lot of tracks, and through various things, have taken ourselves out of it or gotten taken out of some good finishes. There have been some tracks where we have been absolutely terrible at," Randall Burnett said via the NASCAR Live podcast.

The last victory for Kyle Busch came at the World Wide Technology Raceway in June 2023. The driver, who once seemed unbeatable in this sport, is now on a winless streak of 84 consecutive races. This winless streak raises questions for Busch and his team and also hurts the fans of the 'Rowdy' driver, whom they once saw winning regularly.

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Kyle Busch recalls last year's crash at the World Wide Technology Raceway

Richard Childress Racing driver Kyle Busch had an unfortunate finish during last year's Cup race at the World Wide Technology Raceway in Illinois. The driver was battling with Kyle Larson when the two made contact and crashed together on lap 140 of the race, with just ten laps left in Stage 2. Busch got the worst part of the crash as he had to end his race right there due to damage on his car, resulting in a 35th-place finish.

Busch was recently asked about the incident, and he recalled whatever he remembered from it.

"From what I recall, Kyle Larson caught me from a ways back, and it’s hard to pass with these cars, obviously. So I guess he felt it when he got to me, he needed to nerf me a little bit and get me up out of the groove.I just wasn’t too happy with that and crowded him a little bit getting into Turn 1, he lost his race car, and we both ended up crashed. I guess that’s part of the course,” Busch said (via The Sports Rush via Speedway Media).

Kyle Busch finished eighth during the last Cup race at the Darlington Raceway and is currently 19th in the NASCAR Cup Series, scoring 570 points so far. He will be back in action for the Enjoy Illinois 300 race this weekend.