- Kyle Busch explains why their car setups have slipped since 2023.
- NASCAR took issue with the gray area and told RCR not to bring it back.
- There may be several other reasons behind RCR’s drop-off.
Kyle Busch finds himself in a rut, with a winless run that has crossed the 100-race mark. It was not always this way at Richard Childress Racing, though. When Busch joined the team in 2023, he hit the ground running, collecting three wins in the first half of the season at Auto Club Speedway, Talladega, and Gateway. Then the tide turned.
Since that stretch, despite knocking on the door on several occasions, Busch has not returned to Victory Lane. Now, the two-time champion has pointed to the moment when the tide began to shift.
Busch says NASCAR smacked them on their hands for a setup change
Speaking on the latest episode of Hang Out with Sean Hannity, Busch revealed that his team’s early edge drew attention from NASCAR, leading to a directive that halted what had been working.
According to the No. 8 RCR driver, the team “got our hands smacked” after the Gateway win in 2023 for elements within their setup, with NASCAR instructing them not to bring those elements back.
Kyle Busch traced the drop in form to a familiar pattern within the garage. As teams logged laps with the Next Gen car, the gap closed. What once served as an edge for RCR became common ground for rivals. Organizations such as Joe Gibbs Racing, Team Penske, and Hendrick Motorsports caught up and moved ahead, while RCR has yet to find another step forward.
He laid it out without dancing around the point. “But when we in 2023 when I won those three races after the third race that we won at Gateway, we got our hands smacked for some of the stuff that we were doing to the race car that NASCAR didn’t like and said, ‘Don’t bring that back.’ That’s happened over the course of NASCAR for, they’ve been in existence.”
Busch stressed that the approach did not break the rulebook but instead pushed its limits. “It wasn’t anything like against the rules. It was just you always exploit the gray area, right? So we exploited a gray area, and we found something, and we had an advantage. It’s cheating without cheating,” he added.
In NASCAR teams’ search for gains within the lines, that approach is part of the playbook. Crews chase downforce, trim weight, and lower the center of gravity in an attempt to carry speed through the corners. Every inch matters, and every gain is chased. For RCR, that edge has slipped away as others closed ranks.
Busch also noted that one of the factors that drew him to RCR in 2022 was the belief that the team had a handle on the Next Gen platform, pointing to Tyler Reddick’s results at the time. But since then, that advantage has faded.
The issues have not stopped at the car setup
There have been a string of problems on pit road, including stops that cost track position and penalties that wiped out progress. Execution during races has often let strong runs slip through the cracks. In 2024, Kyle Busch admitted to pushing too hard on pit entry in an effort to make up for a lack of pace. But instead, that move led to penalties and further loss of ground.
That same season also saw a stretch of DNFs during the summer, particularly between Gateway and Pocono, placing the team in situations where only a win would do.
Busch has also found it harder to move through the field with the current car when starting deep in the order, a contrast to his past ability to carve through traffic.
Voices within the garage, including Kevin Harvick, have pointed to a mismatch between Busch’s driving style and the demands of the Next Gen car. Where earlier cars allowed for a certain approach, the current platform calls for precise feedback and setup, where even small missteps can lead to handling issues such as those seen at Bristol and Las Vegas.
Changes within the team have been another problem in an attempt to find solutions. RCR has rotated crew chiefs and personnel, moving from Randall Burnett to Andy Street in late 2025 and bringing in Jim Pohlman for 2026, as the organization searches for footing in leadership.
The downturn extends beyond one driver in RCR, though. RCR as a whole has endured a rough start to the 2026 season, with both the No. 8 car and the No. 3 entry of Austin Dillon failing to record a top-10 finish through the first nine races. So, the numbers point to deeper issues tied to engineering and body style adaptation.
Team owner Richard Childress has acknowledged as much, stating that the organization has fallen short and must find a better path in its engineering efforts to return to Victory Lane.
