“Free him”; “RCR cars are junk”: Fans react as Kyle Busch suffers mishap at Iowa amid underwhelming NASCAR season

Richard Childress Racing's (RCR) #8 driver Kyle Busch had an unfortunate end to his race at the Iowa Corn 350 on Sunday. It was the inaugural Cup Series race held at Iowa Speedway.

Two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Busch started the race 8 points below the playoff cut line. After securing tenth place in stage one, Busch was in the running to end the race with a handful of playoff points until he hit the wall on lap 269, eventually leading to his premature retirement at Iowa.

The #8 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 was taken into the garage and after inspecting the damages, it was ruled that his retirement from the race was due to two separate mechanical issues.

Kyle Busch's fans did not take kindly to this incident and expressed their disappointment with his underwhelming performances racing for RCR this season. One fan wrote on X (formerly Twitter):

"Free him"

"RCR cars are junk," another fan wrote.

"I'm a Kyle Busch fan, but as long as he stays at RCR, I'm done with him," another fan expressed.

"It's rough out here for rowdy nation," a fan exclaimed.

"Every single f**king week," another fan commented.

Busch's winless streak now reaches a concerning 38 races, the longest in his NASCAR career. He is currently 31 points behind the cut line for the playoffs, 25 points behind Joey Logano.

The disappointment at Iowa has pushed Kyle Busch into a must-win situation for the remainder of the regular season. With 9 Cup Series races left, RCR cannot afford to make more mistakes

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Race results at the inaugural Iowa Corn 350

In his most dominant Cup performance thus far, Ryan Blaney led 201/350 laps and held off William Byron to win the inaugural Iowa Corn 350 at Iowa Speedway. The reigning Cup champion's victory marked his first of the 2024 season and the 11th of his Cup career.

Blaney spent most of the first two stages trading the top spot with Kyle Larson. However, he capitalized on an incident in the 221st lap where Larson was nudged in the rear by Trackhouse Racing driver Daniel Suarez.

After taking two tires on his final pit stop, Blaney navigated through lapped traffic in the final laps, allowing him to fend off William Byron and Chase Elliott who were on his tail and finished in P2 and P3 respectively. Christopher Bell and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. rounded out the top 5, finishing in fourth and fifth respectively.