Aside from getting collected in the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, Kyle Busch had had a relatively strong start to the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season.
He finished in seventh place at Atlanta Motor Speedway, fifth at Circuit of the Americas after leading the most laps, and eighth at Phoenix Raceway. He then qualified fourth at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, his home race track, and figured to be a threat for the win.
But he lost a tire and hit the wall on a restart during Sunday's Pennzoil 400, and that sent him to the garage for repairs on his No. 8 Chevrolet. He was officially scored in 33rd when the checkered flag flew.
Though only five races have come and gone so far this season, we have seen this story before for Busch.
After winning three races before the halfway point of the regular season in his first year with Richard Childress Racing two years ago, Busch has gone cold and stayed cold. Even with three wins, he finished in 14th place in the standings, his worst result since his rookie season in 2005.
Then last year, he spent much of the regular season hovering right around the playoff cutoff, and because of how many different winners there were, he ended up being in a must-win situation. He was unable to find victory lane and missed the playoffs for the first time in 2012, and he ultimately failed to win a race, ending his record-breaking 19-year win streak to start his career.
There were plenty of moments last year when Busch looked like he could be a threat to win, yet he was never able to pull it off. That same scenario has played out through five races in 2025, and he finds himself two points below the playoff cut line in 17th place in the point standings.
It's exactly where he does not need to be.
The two-time Cup Series champion, whose losing streak has now reached 62 races, is in the final year of his contract with Richard Childress' team, and if things don't finally turn around in the form of more wins, there will need to be some serious discussions about his future.
Richard Childress Racing, of course, have no reason to move on; Busch's teammate, Austin Dillon, is only 32nd in the point standings, and he hasn't finished in the top 16 in the regular season standings since 2016. All four of his playoff berths since then have come via an upset victory, and it would have been five had his Richmond Raceway win from August 2024 not been encumbered.
But Busch has never been interested in riding around losing, and a second consecutive playoff-less, possible even winless, season would almost assuredly bring about some kind of change for the Las Vegas native.
Fortunately for Busch, there is plenty of upside. He has had speed in all five races this year. The downside to that is that, even with that speed, he isn't in the current playoff picture, and as we saw during the mid-to-late stages of last year's regular season, that speed disappeared. At one point, he ran 25th or worse in seven out of 10 races, finishing no higher than ninth during that stretch.
So once again, he is exactly where he does not need to be after the No. 8 team's Las Vegas miscue. The question is whether or not he can get back to where he does need to be, and certainly where he wants to be, before it's too late.
Because "too late" two years in a row could spell disaster.
Busch is a two-time winner at Homestead-Miami Speedway, which is scheduled to host this Sunday afternoon's Straight Talk Wireless 400. But he only finished in 31st place last year. Tune in to Fox Sports 1 at 3:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, March 23 for the live broadcast. Start a free trial of FuboTV and catch all of the action!