I guess the good news for Denny is he’ll have to catch him first.
It’s no secret that it’s been a tough couple of years for two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch.
Busch moved to Richard Childress Racing back in 2023 after 15 seasons at Joe Gibbs Racing, and initially it seemed like things were going to work out well for both sides with three wins in the first 15 races. But since then, things have gone south for RCR as a whole: Busch ended up finishing the 2023 season 14th in the points after getting bounced in the first round of the playoffs, before missing the postseason entirely and finishing 20th and 21st in points the past two seasons.
And while there was hope things would be better for RCR as a whole this season, it seems things have somehow gotten worse, if that’s possible: Through 8 races, Busch has a best finish of 12th at the Circuit of the Americas road course, and has 5 finishes – including all of the last 4 races – of 21st or worse.
Busch has struggled with his car all season, and isn’t anywhere remotely close to competing for wins any time soon. And his struggles haven’t gone unnoticed by fans or his fellow competitors.
Earlier this week on his Actions Detrimental podcast, Denny Hamlin discussed what’s going on with his former teammate, including all of the speculation that Busch could end up leaving RCR at the end of the season:
“Where’s he going to go? What big team is going to hire him? I know one that’s not. That’s Gibbs, they’re happy with their lineup. Kyle’s 40 years old.”
Denny also pointed out that Busch struggled in final two seasons with Gibbs, which also happened to coincide with the introduction of the Next Gen car. (Busch made the playoffs both seasons, but failed to make it out of the first round and won only one race in his final season in the #18 car).
“In his last couple years at Gibbs, things were not good. This is not, ‘Oh my gosh, where is this coming from?’ It’s been like this for 5 years. We have to have an honest conversation at some point.”
And while Denny admitted that RCR as a whole isn’t good right now, he didn’t believe that Busch’s struggles could be placed entirely on his team while implying that Busch seems to have struggled to figure out how to drive the Next Gen car:
“You’re a Hall of Fame, Mount Rushmore driver. Carry it better than your teammate then. If you’re the greatest, then carry it better than your teammate who’s won 10 races. Find a way. I think that’s what he should be able to do. But it’s not happening. It’s time to be honest about what’s going on. I think that he doesn’t know how to get the speed out of the Next Gen car on a consistent basis. There’s been flashes of it. …
He’s struggled for five years now. And so, we just have to be honest about our expectations, and if you’re expecting Kyle Busch to just go back to victory lane on a regular basis, you’re kidding yourselves and you’re going to be very disappointed.”
Well ahead of this weekend’s race at Kansas Speedway, The Athletic reporter Jeff Gluck caught up with Busch to get his thoughts on Hamlin’s comments. And as expected, he wasn’t exactly a fan – and issued a not-so-thinly-veiled threat to his former teammate:
“If Denny wants to switch cars, I’ll switch cars with him any day of the week, any time. I would love for him to show me that he can carry it better than I can. … I don’t feel like Denny Hamlin even knows what the hell he’s talking about. So he can bash me all he wants and I can certainly make his life hell.”
Do we have a new rivalry brewing? Something to keep an eye on at Kansas this weekend, and especially at Talladega next weekend.
That is, if Busch can ever catch Hamlin on the track…
