In a bid to improve competition at the highest level, NASCAR has made it mandatory that teams purchase most of the parts of their cars from the same manufacturer. This was not the case back in the day, as being in a strong car was integral for a driver to be competitive and even successful in a competition like the Cup Series. Over the years, this parity has grown, and now, it is at a level that is alarming to two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Busch.

Everyone having equal cars sounds like a good idea, but it has its disadvantages. Teams often face issues building their cars in a way that the parts purchased from the NASCAR-approved manufacturer fit. There is also very little room for creativity for the teams, which can be frustrating for a team owner.

Kyle Busch reveals frustrations during Hendrick Motorsports stint

In a recent interview after the Wednesday qualifying session at the Daytona International Speedway, Rowdy spoke about the time when he came into the Cup Series during the 2000s – a time when parity was nowhere near what it is today and revealed that it was the frustrating part of that era.

However, it was not that Busch was in a bad car. The 2-time Cup Series champion joined the Cup Series as a full-time driver in 2005 with Hendrick Motorsports. By that time, Rick Hendrick’s team had already won several championships thanks to Jeff Gordon. But it just wasn’t happening for Kyle Busch. While expressing his concern for rising parity in NASCAR today, Rowdy shared those frustrations.

“Way more now than it was. Way more. I mean, back in 2005, early 2000, 2005 when I was here, you had to be in good stuff and that was one of the most frustrating things that I had to do. I knew I was in good stuff at Hendrick and Jeff Gordon’s winning around me, Jimmie Johnson’s winning around me, they’re racking up championships or top threes in points and I’m sitting here spinning out, crashing, and tearing up, and only winning one or two races a year so it got frustrating really quick,” the driver of the #8 car said.

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The Richard Childress Racing star also expressed how it is very different to run the races in the present, compared to back in the day, concerning the competition on the track.

Rowdy outlines the difference in terms of competition from the 2000s

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The 2-time Cup Series champion believes that back during the 2000s when he first joined NASCAR’s biggest competition, drivers used to compete against five to six racers for the win on normal tracks. Now, that number has gone up to 15. When it comes to restrictor plates, Rowdy believes that there can be up to 30 competitors racing for the win at a time.

“Over the years at Gibbs, found my way, and now again, just with the car and everything, it just feels like it’s so tough. Parity is so tight, you can go to races back in the mid-2000s and probably race against 5, 6, maybe 8 guys. Now you go to races and you’re racing against 12 or 15 of them to win and here at restrictor plate races I think it’s 30. You can literally look down the list and be like, yeah, there’s no reason why any of these guys wouldn’t win,” he added.

Parity in NASCAR is something that was brought in to make the racing as competitive as possible. Some people like the measures the organizers have taken and some don’t. However, for a neutral fan, it certainly is fun to watch the close-quarter racing action every single weekend.

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