NASCAR: Kyle Busch’s frustration is rooted deeper than backmarkers

Kyle Busch let off a lot of steam following the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series playoff opener. But his frustration is rooted deeper than his run-in with a backmarker.

After Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch turned what should have been a 30th to 35th place finish due to early contact with the wall into a potential top five result in the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series playoff opener, the South Point 400, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and it got away from him late, he was frustrated, and he wasn’t afraid to let anybody know it.

Busch ran into the backmarker #52 Rick Ware Racing Ford driven by Garrett Smithley late in this 267-lap race around the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) Las Vegas Motor Speedway oval in Las Vegas, Nevada, causing significant damage to his #18 Toyota.

As a result, he plummeted down the order before the checkered flag flew. He ended up finishing in 19th place, one lap off the lead lap.

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Busch made several inflammatory remarks following this race, even though his position in the playoff picture was hardly altered by his poor result because he entered the playoffs with so many playoff points.

But looking at his recent results, Busch’s frustration appears to be rooted deeper than simply running into a backmarker who he felt should not have been where he was at the time.

The 34-year-old Las Vegas, Nevada native is currently on a 13-race win drought going back to his fourth victory of the season in the season’s 14th race at Pocono Raceway in early June. He has not been on a win drought this long since he went on a 36-race win drought from 2016 to 2017.

This win drought comes after he started the season with two wins in the first five races and three in the first eight. Since he last won a race, nine different drivers have found victory lane.

Included among these nine drivers is Spire Motorsports’ Justin Haley, the 20-year-old Winamac, Indiana native who has made three career starts and had a career-high finish of 32nd place when he won the crazy rain-shortened race at Daytona International Speedway in early July.

Spire Motorsports have earned two lead-lap finishes ever, and they have still won more than one month more recently than Busch.

What’s that about backmarkers?

But that’s not even the worst of it for the 2015 champion.

What’s worse for Busch is that he hasn’t even been the best Joe Gibbs Racing driver as of late. He has finished as the team’s highest driver in only two of the 13 races that have been contested since he last won a race, and one of these races was the crazy race at Daytona International Speedway, which he only finished in a disappointing 14th place.

He is the only Joe Gibbs Racing driver who hasn’t won in the last 13 races, with Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin having each won two races and Erik Jones having won one.

In fact, they have each won one of the last four races now.

Busch has made clear that this has frustrated him.

“We’re flat out getting our ass kicked right now by our teammates, so we’ve got to get better,” he stated after the August race at Bristol Motor Speedway, which was won by Hamlin. Busch finished this race in fourth place, but you’d have thought he got wrecked by a backmarker on lap three.

Couple Truex winning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to give Joe Gibbs Racing yet another non-Busch victory and Busch seeing what still would have been a disappointing top five result become a whole lot worse, and the reaction that we saw out of him was practically inevitable.

Kyle Busch wasn’t afraid to make his angry feelings known after contact with backmarker cost him several valuable points late in the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series playoff opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. But the fact is, his frustration has been boiling for quite some time, and the fact that this happened to start the playoffs didn’t make it any better.