Is this the end of Kyle Busch?
While Rowdy Nation will answer that question with a resounding no, his stats are pointing to the answer being yes, In fact, he seems to be suffering from what can only be described as a sort of veteran slump.
Maybe that has to do with the younger talent rising to the occasion, or it could just be the fact that Ford is now the dominant car in the sport, but it’s becoming pretty evident that Kyle Busch isn’t the rockstar that he was previously. Furthermore, it is increasingly becoming clear that his past injuries and age are catching up with him and hurting his ability to remain competitive.
Think about it. Although Busch didn’t always have the dominant car at the beginning of the race, he was always able to work on it and make it better throughout the race. Now, it seems like he is struggling to find that sweet spot with his car set up during a race and is instead just floating in the pack as a sort of backmarker team.
Sure, Busch has had flashes of brilliance this season, amassing a second-place finish at Fontana, another second-place finish at Darlington, and a fourth-place finish at Bristol, but his other subpar finishes have far overshadowed those. Another big problem with these stats is that he remains winless, which means he isn’t even a virtual lock for the playoffs this season.
Keep in mind that at this time last year Kyle Busch was second in points, had four wins and even racked up 17 top-ten finishes. This a huge departure from the Kyle Busch that won five races and the championship last season.
Although some people might not see a winless season as a slump, especially since 40 cars are participating in each race, this is a guy who has won four or more races in the last five years. He is also the guy that won his first Cup Series title with two broken legs.
Interestingly enough, however, his slump seems to match that of several key veteran drivers before. For example, Tony Stewart, who was a three-time Cup Series champion started his career decline in 2014 when he failed to win a race for the first time in his career. He would only compete for two more seasons before retiring from the sport.
Then there was Dale Earnhardt Jr, who suffered a nasty concussion during a race at Talladega Super Speedway and later announced that 2017 would be his final season. Keep in mind that this came after two winless seasons.
Finally, there’s Jimmie Johnson, who is set to retire at the end of 2020 season and is now suffering from a two-and-a-half-year winless streak. The craziest part of all this is the fact that Johnson is a seven-time Cup Series champion who has 83 career wins, which puts him in the top five on the all-time winners list and is one of the most popular drivers in the sport.
If nothing else, there are so many parallels between all three of these drivers and Kyle Busch that it’s becoming scary to watch. It’s almost like watching a career screech to a halt right before your very eyes, and you can’t look away. Unfortunately, it also comes at a time where Kyle Busch was taking over the sport and becoming its most popular driver.
