Although it’s been a while since Kyle Busch seemingly got off the ‘Rowdy’ personality, he can’t seem to completely hide it sometimes. Especially when he is challenged by another driver on the track, which is exactly what happened earlier at Bristol. While his move against the driver was largely understood to be intentional, he very much admitted to it, and unsurprisingly, without an apology.

Kyle Busch on intentionally wrecking others

“Intentionally wrecking somebody is like… that needs to be like a no-no,” Busch said. While the beginning of this statement made it seem like he would eventually go on to apologize to Riley Herbst for his aggressive move on the track, it went the other way around.

“I can’t say that I’ve never done that. I have done that,” he added. “Just this past weekend, for instance, this guy behind me hit me and spun me out in the corner. And so then, I don’t know, 200 laps later, I got back to him, and I’m like, ‘See you buddy!’ An eye for an eye, you know.”

This was quite a heated moment in the race. During the early laps, Herbst had contact with Busch, which spun him around. He lost places but managed to make them up as the race entered the final stage. This was rather impressive, considering how he has performed this season. But as it seemed, it was all to retaliate against Herbst. He spun the 23XI driver around and managed to continue without a scratch. “It’s just bonehead moves,” Busch had said after the race.

Herbst’s 23XI boss Denny Hamlin also commented on the situation on his podcast, sharing which side he was on. “Kyle saw an opportunity, and he took it. Did I have a problem with it? Yes and no, but more no than yes. … I don’t love the just blatant retaliation, but I’m more no than yes.”

Kyle Busch was known for this back in the day. He would intentionally wreck drivers, even while drafting, and manage to win races. His ‘rowdy’ personality and the ‘eye for an eye’ attitude suited him, but that was still the time he was winning. Ever since Busch moved to Richard Childress Racing, his career has been going on a downward slope as he has struggled to even finish in the top 10.

The team’s struggles have remained for the longest time without any improvements. In fact, Busch seems even slower this season, with no top 10s in the first 9 races.

Why any remaining hopes of Busch’s RCR success disappear with the recent admission

Kyle Busch’s stint with RCR didn’t start with disappointment. In fact, his team performed so well that they were thought to win the Cup Series championship in 2023. He managed to win three races right after the season started, and those race wins, even after over three years, carried the only hope for the fans that he would once again climb back to the top. But that doesn’t seem to be happening now, at least with RCR.

In a recent interview, Busch revealed that even though they managed to win those races back in 2023, it was in a way that NASCAR did not like.

“After the third race that we won at Gateway, we got our hands smacked for some of the stuff that we were doing to the race car that NASCAR didn’t like and said ‘don’t bring that back,’” Busch said.

Apparently, Richard Childress Racing was bending NASCAR’s rulebook a little, just a bit, which seemed to give them a massive advantage: “It wasn’t anything, like, against the rules. It was just… you always exploit the gray area. So we exploited a gray area and we found something and we had an advantage.”

It now explains very well why the team and Busch had a sudden downfall in terms of performance and are now struggling.

Although it’s been three years since this happened, this showcases a very crucial aspect of Busch’s future with the team. If they did not carry that advantage, maybe Busch would have never won a race with the team, which has been the case for over two seasons now.

Kyle Busch’s struggles with the team have continued ever since, and it is tough to say if he will find another full-time seat with a team on the Cup Series field. His fellow driver, Denny Hamlin, also had a similar doubt.

While there has been some speculation of Busch moving to the Truck Series in the future, considering his excellent results in the series, there has been no indication from him regarding this. Perhaps Busch might spend some more time racing in the Cup Series, and there would be a higher possibility of him wrecking another driver in retaliation rather than winning a race with the RCR team.