The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series campaign has been anything but smooth for Richard Childress Racing. Despite carrying championship expectations, both their flagship entries, Kyle Busch in the #8 and Austin Dillon in the #3, have consistently fallen short of making the winner’s circle. But the team has failed to secure a win since Dillon’s controversial Richmond victory in 2024, and Busch remains in a winless streak stretching past 70 races. He currently sits 15th in the standings, outside the playoff bubble, while Dillon occupies a distant 28th, casting a shadow across a team that simply isn’t delivering.

The frustration of the past few results boiled over following a middling performance at Dover, where Busch finished 11th and Dillon slipped to 15th despite early pace. On-air radio remarks from Richard Childree revealed his no-holds-barred displeasure. Acknowledging his team’s lack of speed and competitive edge, Childress said, “We gotta get some damn race cars. I’ve seen enough out of our drivers and teams, we’ve got to work on this sh–. Period.” While things were looking up for Busch and the #8 team at the Brickyard, a chaotic restart derailed their entire weekend.

Early mayhem engulfs RCR at the Brickyard

Just 6 laps into Stage 2, a multi-car pileup unfolded near the middle of the pack during a restart. Kyle Busch, who had shown impressive pace in Stage 1 with a sixth-place finish, became collateral damage in a stack-up triggered by traffic compression in the short chute. The onboard footage from Kaulig Racing’s cars, which had “nowhere to go,” as their official X post stated, shows the moment of chaos: Austin Dillon plowed through oil smeared across the windshield, a result of the tangled wreck involving multiple entries. He was out of the race and sat silently in the hauler, as captured on the pit lane. Busch’s crew, scrambling on the radio, attempted to form a revised strategy to salvage what was left, but hopes for a rebound faded rapidly.

Among those trapped in the initial shuffle was Tyler Reddick, whose #45 Toyota visibly scraped the outside wall in replay footage. Side panel damage flecked with rubber marks, telling tales of a high-speed collision under restart duress. Nearby, John Hunter Nemechek lost forward momentum as he was clipped from behind, causing him to spin slowly before facing the infield entrance. Both drivers radioed in frustration immediately after caution flags flew, noting his compressed lanes and misaligned timing amplified what should have been a controlled maneuver.

On X, motorsports reporter Chris Knight summarized what many saw on the visuals: “Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had an issue on the restart and has some damage.” Indeed, stitch-by-stitch slow-motion replay shows debris impacting the driver’s side mirror and quarter panel of Stenhouse‘s Ford, forcing him to limp back to the garage for assessment. It was a tough break for a lot of drivers who were just trying to make gains on the restart.

By the time the dust settled, Austin Dillon’s car was finished for the day, with technicians surveying mural-like oil stains and structural damage. Kyle Busch, meanwhile, fought on before a separate incident later in Stage 2 forced him out entirely when Kyle Larson clipped him during an overtaking attempt, delivering what effectively became the full stop on RCR’s Indy aspirations. Crew radio chatter grew tense: plan B turned into plan C, but nobody sounded confident. Across PRN radio, commentators noted how this Brickyard 400 looked tailor-made to break more than just spirits; it threatened to shatter reputations.

Analysts noted that Indy‘s narrow chute, used for restart launch, has long been a flashpoint for chaos. Unlike superspeedway, where tire stacking allows split-lane launches, the oval configuration leaves little lateral wiggle room. The 2025 incident recreated past scenes from even bigger crashes like those at Atlanta and Daytona, where compressed packs led to multiple carnage in a heartbeat.

Kyle Busch’s blunt reality check for Richard Childress Racing

After a promising 2023 with three wins and a renewed contract in 202, expectations were high for Kyle Busch. But through 21 races this year, the #8 car has yet to see Victory Lane. His best runs came at road courses like COTA, where he led 42 laps before settling for 5th. But overall consistency has vanished. Busch now sits around 15th in points with two DNFs and an average finish in the high teens. “Yeah. Plethora of issues,” he summed up.

Tensions boiled over after Dover. Team owner Richard Childress followed up his radio rant with a fiery speed at the RCR shop, and newly appointed team president Mike Verlander has since led deep-dive sessions with engineers to find solutions. “Verlander and Richard, I’m sure, had plenty of meetings with our engineering team… What can we do? Where are we at? What’s next?” Busch revealed.

Busch admitted he hasn’t been involved in every step, but the cracks are showing. “I’m not there every day, and I was actually traveling every day this week, so I didn’t have a whole lot of time to be at the race shop,” he admitted. And while he is being honest about what is broken behind the scenes, the weight of expectations lingers. A bad break like they suffered at Brickyard could be detrimental to Busch’s hopes of making it to the playoffs.