“I’m numb. I don’t know what to do.” Kyle Busch said these words exactly a year ago at Kansas Speedway. He was in the lead in that race, looking to snap a 50-race winless streak. However, he spun at the exit of Turn 2 when he was put in an awkward aero spot behind a defensive Chase Briscoe. He finished in 19th place in that race. A year has passed by, and nothing has changed – literally.

The two-time Cup Series champion is riding a long and weary 88-race winless streak. Gone are the days when Rowdy’s name would fire up fans in roaring enthusiasm. Now, fans are tickled instead by a desperate radio comment made by Busch’s crew member.

Everyone is exasperated about Kyle Busch 

Throughout the 2025 season, Kyle Busch has been little more than an afterthought. The 63-time Cup Series race winner has only 8 top tens and 2 top fives to boast about, and he failed to crack the playoffs for the second year in a row. Add the endless number of unfortunate circumstances, and you have a real recipe for exasperation. Diehard fans and his colleagues still hope for the day Busch will break this slumber, but the wait is taking too long. And things boiled over into a statement of ultimatum by Busch’s spotter, Derek Kneeland.

Just like his 2024 playoff race in Kansas Speedway, Kyle Busch ran into problems during the 2025 playoff race as well. He rolled off from a 29th-place starting spot. Although he could not crack the top ten at any time, Busch climbed up positions and maintained a fairly good pace. However, with 15 laps to go, Busch hit the outside wall and also had a tire go down. To make things worse, his tire came apart as the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevy was entering pit road. This situation left his spotter at his wits’ end, as Kneeland said, “If we finish 35th today im jumping off the fucking spotter stand.”

Well, Kyle Busch did not finish 35th, so Derek Kneeland’s ultimatum thankfully did not materialize. However, the veteran driver washed up in 19th place – the same exact result he had fetched a year earlier. Even during qualifying, the No. 8 Chevrolet could only manage a 29th-place start with a lap time of 30.667 seconds and a speed of 176.085 mph. For a legend once known for his astonishing pace, the result was another low point in a campaign that’s gone from bad to worse. What is more, Busch once clinched two trophies at Kansas Speedway – in 2016 and 2021.

This saddening state of affairs left the NASCAR community in pieces. Yet they managed to keep it lighthearted by poking fun at Kneeland’s comments.

Fans try to tone down the situation

Well, at least RCR is trying to uplift the morale in some way. There have been many attempts to improve Kyle Busch’s performance. From rampant crew shuffles to roping in new sponsors, RCR left no stone unturned. Yet Derek Kneeland’s vow to jump off his stand is something new, as a fan poked fun at his words. They wrote, “Well they finished 19th, so he can take the elevator!” Another fan threw the spotlight on the pressing concerns. Given Kneeland’s state of desperation, no wonder what misery the entire 8 team must be reeling under. So RCR needs to step up, as the fan wrote, “so everyone has had enough… You would think this would be enough to idk, do something different?”

Others began drawing inferences from Kyle Busch’s dire state of affairs. Somebody pointed fingers at Randall Burnett, the No. 8 crew chief. He previously won three Cup Series races with Tyler Reddick. Despite his talents, the fan fears that the future crew chief of Connor Zilisch, Xfinity prodigy, is the reason for Busch’s struggles. “Really hope Kyle’s lack of speed is due to RCR being bad as opposed to Burnett. Because, if it is because of Burnett, then I’m definitely not going to be optimistic about Zilisch’s speed next year.”

Another fan envisioned an alternate universe where Busch raced for Kaulig Racing. Given AJ Allmendinger’s fantastic pace under the Chevy team, maybe Busch would have fared better. They wrote, “My intrusive thought is maybe KFB would have been better off going to Kaulig. AJ has been regularly outrunning both RCR cars for most of the year. I don’t actually believe this but I really want to.”

Somebody else was simply crestfallen. Kyle Busch moved from Joe Gibbs Racing to RCR in 2023, following which he clinched only three Cup wins. After his 2023 Enjoy Illinois 300 victory, it’s been a spiraling fall for Busch. Clearly, his venture with RCR is not working out, as the fan wrote, “I knew the move to RCR was gonna be a downgrade…but holy f— this is depressing.”

The Rowdy story has been upsetting both fans and team members for ages now. Let’s wait and hope for a breakthrough for the winningest NASCAR driver in the near future.