"Certainly a missed opportunity" - NASCAR Insider points to "bigger issue" for Kyle Busch in Next Gen era

Kyle Busch failed to break his winless streak once again at Kansas on Sunday. The 2x NASCAR Cup champion hasn't won in the Cup Series since Gateway in June 2023. But at Kansas, Busch was leading the race and defending against Chastain as the race entered its final stretch.

However, as he was trying to lap Chase Briscoe, Busch ended up spinning and what looked like a 1st-place result turned out to be a 19th-place finish.

The trajectory of Busch's race at Kansas was a subject of discussion on the Teardown podcast as Jordan Bianchi shared his thoughts on the RCR driver's most recent race. Along with the race at Kansas, Bianchi shared his take on what he saw as the overarching issue with Kyle Busch and his recent struggles.

"He's really had a year where he hasn't been in contention for many wins. Obviously, Darlington and Atlanta come to mind as exceptions, but this really felt like, 'Okay here it is. Here's the opportunity.' Ross Chastain was there, now whether he could've held off Chastain or not, we don't know. But certainly a missed opportunity, absolutely.

"Speaks to a bigger issue that's been an issue for Kyle Busch since this new car, which is, I don't think his skillset is adapting well to this," [2:35].

He claimed that racing with the Next Gen car has been a struggle for Kyle Busch, as when he doesn't have a great car, he "pushes too much."

But even on occasions when he does have a capable race car, Busch tries to do 'a little too much' and gets himself in trouble, as per Bianchi.

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Kyle Busch to blame for incident with Chase Briscoe, says Jordan Bianchi

Speaking on the Kyle Busch-Chase Briscoe incident late in the race at Kansas, Jordan Bianchi said he has "zero issues" with it. He claimed that there was a lane for Kyle Busch, though the margin for error there was small.

Bianchi further pointed towards the stakes for Chase Briscoe, which are higher than those for Kyle Busch. Bianchi said,

"That situation... with what Chase Briscoe is racing for, he's racing in the playoffs, needs every point he can get, falling a lap down is not a good thing[...] If you're Chase Briscoe in that scenario, you have to be aggressive and fight to stay on the lead lap because you don't know when that caution would come. And if you stay on the lead lap, you have an opportunity to gain more points" [5:05].

He added that for him, the fault for the incident should lie with Kyle Busch if anything, because with Ross Chastain closing in, the #8 driver had to be more patient. Bianchi added that Busch should've been "smarter than that" and trusted himself to pass Chastain again if the latter passed him. In fact, he had already done so and thus shouldn't have tried to force the move.

This, in Bianchi's opinion, was indicative of where Kyle Busch's relationship with the Next Gen car is at, claiming that the former JGR driver sometimes forces the issue at hand "a little too much."