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Kyle Busch Still the Chart Topper Among Active Drivers as NASCAR’s Modern Era Stats Come to Light

Published 03/29/2024, 6:07 AM EDT

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USA Today via Reuters

Kyle Busch will go down in history as one of the greatest NASCAR racers of all time and with good reason. Over the years, the Richard Childress Racing driver has enjoyed countless success stories and it turns out that even in his twilight years, he tops the charts among all active drivers for a particular stat. It truly is a testament to the greatness and consistency that he has exuded in his illustrious career as a motorsports athlete.

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Winning back-to-back races in a competition as intense as the Cup Series is considered to be a huge feat and Rowdy has done that 8 times. In the list of drivers with the most consecutive race wins, he sits in a joint 11th place. What’s even more interesting is that the 2-time Cup Series champion is the only one among the current crop of racers in the competition who has made it onto the list. Yes, he might be racing longer than most of them but it’s still an achievement to be proud of.

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However, Kyle Busch’s greatness is sometimes lost on fans in the present times. A lot of the newer fans don’t believe that Rowdy is as good as people say and no one can blame them really. It has been not the best of starts for the driver of the #8 car with Richard Childress Racing, despite winning three races last year. This season, he has yet to win a race so far and pit road issues have ruined his chances of doing so in the last couple of races at least.

However, those who have been close to the 2-time Cup Series champion know just how good he is and that includes his former teammate Denny Hamlin. Recently, the Joe Gibbs Racing star spoke about his relationship with Kyle Busch and heaped praise on his consistency.

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Denny Hamlin reveals his high respect for his former teammate

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Hamlin and Busch were quite competitive during their time at Joe Gibbs Racing, but there always was a sense of mutual respect between the two. The driver of the #11 car also revealed that he and Rowdy became better friends when they weren’t teammates anymore, which is similar to his relationship with Tony Stewart.

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“My respect for Kyle is pretty high. I really have a ton of respect for Kyle and I almost envision our relationship very similar to mine and Tony Stewart’s where we actually became better friends when we were not teammates. I think when we were teammates, there was too much of competition.

Talking about an incident when the duo was engaged in a heated battle on track, the #11 driver further revealed, “I’ll never forget the very first test where Kyle came over and we were at Atlanta, we kept one-upping each other. Every time we would go out we were making each other go faster and Kyle was like, ‘You know that I’m the man here now’, and I’m like, ‘Oh, really?’ So it was always friendly competition but also a fierce competition between us. But I just respect the hell out of his talent,” he had said on a recent episode of the Happy Hour podcast.

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Kyle Busch has cemented his legacy in the annals of stock car racing folklore already, but one can’t help but feel that Rowdy still has that big championship push left. Will he be able to win the Cup Series for a third time? Well, we still have time to find out!

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Written by:

Nilavro Ghosh

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One take at a time

Nilavro Ghosh is a NASCAR Writer at EssentiallySports, where he is known for his creative yet easy-to-read writing style. Before taking up his role as a sports journalist at ES, Nilavro has written for some of the top publishing houses, like The Telegraph. While most journalists stop at covering live events and taking the news to the readers, Nilavro goes the extra mile to give fans a platform for them to express their thoughts through his 'race reaction' pieces.
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Edited by:

Ariva Debnath