What Is Going Wrong With Kyle Busch?

I always go back to Kyle Busch’s worst enemy is himself.

The problem with Kyle Busch is that he’s exactly the same racing driver as Sebastian Vettel. Both drivers liked oversteer under the condition that the car has rear end security. When they were given that, they’re just as good as any driver that came before them. Vettel’s security came from the blown diffuser from ‘09-‘13 and Kyle’s came from the fender flare from ‘06-‘18. While there was still flared fenders in ‘19-‘21, the 550hp wasn’t enough power for Kyle Busch to pitch the car into the slip angle he wanted in the middle of the corner (Johnson suffered from this as well but didn’t need nearly as much rear end security). Kyle tends to play catch-up with the throttle when the setup or car isn’t to his liking and feels the need to brake extremely late and get on the power early to the point that he’ll lift off the throttle on corner exists and kill his straight line speed (watch literally any track less than a mile and a half during practice). Vettel had a very aggressive V shaped racing line into many corners and while they both are short corner drivers (spending the least amount of time at the moment of rotation) they never were the best drivers to get the car settled in the middle of the corner which is why they both spun or lost the car in the middle of the corner more times than a Jeff Gordon or Alan Prost. Gordon and Prost never leaned on the tires as much as Vettel or Busch through corners and both had really good platforms (flat car) which produced a more evened out tire wear over a fuel run compared the Busch and Vettel. Although this a driving style analysis, RCR definitely has lost speed year over year in the next gen era and gets majority blame since they’re on the same tier as Hendrick. The lack of practice does mean that car feedback is limited for Busch (ironically I rate both Vettel and him on setup feedback) but they haven’t had a test in where they hit the setup for a specific type of track in awhile except for Gateway

I’m surprised no one has mentioned Adam Steven, won both championships with Kyle Busch and was no longered paired with each other after 2020. Adam Steven has made the final 4 twice since they split so it just feels as if he has a bit of impact on Kyle’s decline as well.

Edit: Another thing to consider. When they started together in 2015 they made every Championship race until 2020, their only year they didn’t make it.

I’m not trying to completely defend Kyle Busch, but some of the problem is his team. His cars are not as good as last year and his pit crew is constantly screwing him up. However, I feel the further we get into the season, the more of a problem it is on the driver.

In my opinion, the reason veteran drivers fall off in the years since the newest generation car arrived, is because their vast experience was erased with the touchy-feely new car. This new car takes longer to learn after you had the other generation cars mastered. Not only has it sent the engineers for a loop, but all the teams. You can see that even the best younger drivers have inconsistent runs week to week. The car is really a lemon in its present rules package. Kyle Busch has just added to the problems with the car out of recklessness.

Talk to people in the industry they said that Kyle Bush was one of the best dialing in the car in practice in the last 20+ years. Also, no matter how good of a driver you are you can’t drive a slow car. lol I think it’s showing how much Childress racing has fallen off.