Is Martinsville the Answer to Kyle Busch and RCR’s Worrisome Form?

Published 04/05/2024, 1:05 PM EDT

The last time Kyle Busch swerved into Victory Lane is fast approaching its yearly anniversary. It marked the 63rd victory for the winningest driver and one of the only three wins for Richard Childress Racing last season. Yet the rolling out of the new short-track package has disfigured Rowdy’s dreams this year.

Now that Martinsville is right around the corner, speculation is afoot. Despite Busch’s stunted performance on short tracks this year, he holds two victories on the 0.526-mile oval. Richard Childress’ grandson Austin Dillon has three-top-five finishes. Hence Martinsville could be RCR’s savior this year.

Kyle Busch is hopeful yet cautious about this weekend

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Richard Childress Racing was in its prime at Martinsville Speedway before the 21st century commenced. In 189 starts at the paperclip-shaped oval track, the team owns seven victories. Five of those were scored by Dale Earnhardt in dominating fashion, while Ricky Rudd won in 1985. After those legends, only Kevin Harvick brought in a trophy in the 2011 spring race.

Now that those amazing drivers have bid adieu to the team, Kyle Busch shows good promise. He owns two victories on the short-track oval in 2016 and 2017. In the 2016 spring race, he scored a NASCAR National Series sweep, leading 352 of 500 laps. Overall, he has led 1489 laps on the track, third-best among racers.

But that was before the Next Gen era. In his last three Martinsville races, Kyle Busch has finished outside the top 20. As per speedwaymedia.com, he pointed out that the tire wear was one reason: “I would say Martinsville Speedway has become increasingly challenging with traffic and having a good car that doesn’t burn the tires off. You need to be able to push and go forward and drive past your competitors, but you also can’t blow the tires off.”

Additionally, the aerodynamic package for short-tracks has panned out differently for drivers. Busch complained about Bristol: “The problem starts at the front of the car; the splitter and the way the air is, and everything that we all do on setup stuff for make these things rely on the air as much as they do. That’s a problem. I think they went about it, and that’s a funny way to say it, backwards.”

Kyle Busch had also observed that Chevrolets were lagging behind Toyotas on short tracks, especially in Phoenix. “We were definitely a step behind, all the Chevys (that) were at Phoenix.”

Yet Busch is working hard to take control of the short-track narrative.

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Busch is leaning on off-track homework to score well

NASCAR has been criticized recently for reducing the time for practice. Citing budget issues, the sanctioning body had riled up drivers for not considering the safety factor. Yet racers are making do with the adjusted rules, as Kyle Busch said recently. On being asked what tools the RCR driver uses to improve on the track, Busch detailed his homework.

Ahead of the short track race this weekend, Busch said: “The only tools to use are your notes, film study, and past history of what you know for certain makes you good at a particular track. Going on the simulator is a tool, but as we have found for short tracks, it doesn’t seem to correlate all the way and can lead you in the wrong direction.”

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Richard Childress Racing may be looking at a potential victory this weekend, but Kyle Busch has a lot of challenges to overcome.

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Written by:

Sumedha Mukherjee is a NASCAR Writer at EssentiallySports who is known for her in-depth track analysis as well as her lifestyle coverage of Cup drivers like Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick. Inspired by the Kiwi's journey so far, Sumedha has also written pieces on Shane Van Gisbergen, predicting how the Supercars Champion would do in the new and unfamiliar American setting. Pairing her research skills with her vast experience as a writer, Sumedha creates stories her readers can easily get lost in.

Edited by:

Ranvijay Singh

Is Martinsville the Answer to Kyle Busch and RCR’s Worrisome Form?

Kyle Busch is hopeful yet cautious about this weekend

Busch is leaning on off-track homework to score well

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