Last season, Carson Hocevar clinched a win at the Texas Truck Race after a buzzer-beater bump with Nick Sanchez. This year, though, Hocevar won’t be back to defend his title, leaving room for a slew of drivers itching for a victory in Texas. Among those eyeing the top spot is Kyle Busch, who breezed into P4 during qualifiers. Kyle Busch, alongside Stewart Friesen, really turned up the heat during qualifying, pushing the pace against the rookies. Toss Grant Enfinger into the mix, and you’ve got three of the top five fastest trucks being helmed by seasoned pros.

At 38, Kyle Busch is the spryest of this veteran trio. After qualifying top-5, Kyle also shared some thoughts on the Texas track, noting that he’s got to keep his head in the game, especially with the Cup race just around the corner.

Kyle Busch dubbed the Texas Motor Speedway track ‘slippery’

In a turn of speed, Nick Sanchez snagged his first pole of the season and his sixth career pole in the NASCAR Truck Series. He’s set to head the pack at tonight’s SpeedyCash.com 250 in Texas. This marks back-to-back pole wins at Texas for Sanchez. The spotlight was nearly on Stewart Friesen, who was poised to take the pole before Sanchez edged him out. This season’s earlier dust-up between Sanchez and Friesen added some extra tension. By the end of qualifying, Friesen had slipped to third place, with Christian Eckes nabbing the spot next to Sanchez at the front.

Kyle Busch also showed some serious pace, holding the second spot for a while until Sanchez and Eckes outpaced Friesen. With five Truck Series wins under his belt at Texas, Busch’s truck is speedy and a solid bet for tonight. Yet, Busch himself pointed out the track’s tricky conditions, suggesting that it might throw a wrench into even the best-laid plans.

Kyle Busch shared his thoughts on the Texas track after his post-qualifying run, saying, “The start of the day it was really slick, and then it kind of got better with the more track time everybody got and the rubber going down. But outside of that groove, it was still pretty slippery. I tried to pass the slower vehicle around the outside and about lost it myself, so um qualifying run I felt like was okay. I baby did a little bit in one and two, just wanting to put in a solid lap and not make any more work for these guys on the real tree, Silverado. So, um, happy with the feel, I think we’ll be okay for tonight. Keep this thing turning right around the bottom, and, um, you know, we’ll be fast.”

Despite his solid performance with the trucks on the same tracks, Kyle Busch’s season in the Cup races has been rough. Other than a close finish in Atlanta, he hasn’t been seen much at the front of the pack in other races, and he seems to understand why he’s been struggling this season.

#8 Cup driver recently dished on what’s been tripping up his team at RCR this year

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Last season kicked off with a bang for Busch, almost nabbing a win at the Daytona 500 and snagging three victories during the regular season. But this year? It’s like everything flipped upside down, with each race seeming tougher than the last.

Busch pointed to heavy reliance on simulation as one big issue. “Everybody nowadays relies so much on simulation and all that sort of stuff, but the sim stuff is kind of thrown at us the wrong way and has led us down the wrong path a couple of times, like we tried. […] I think some of it is setup stuff,” he mentioned. He shared a story about last year’s Richmond spring race, where the sim suggested setups that totally flopped on the actual track, landing them in 18th place. Even trying to mimic Hendrick Motorsports’ setups that worked previously didn’t pay off this year, as they found themselves lagging even further behind.

With simulations becoming a crucial part of race prep, RCR must sort out these kinks. If the sim isn’t on point, it can throw off their whole game, week after week. So, for Busch and his team, probably getting the sim tech right is key to turning their season around.