"I'm not ready to say that": NASCAR veteran disputes Doug Rice's reported claim that ‘Kyle Busch won’t win again’

NASCAR hosts Danielle Trotta and Larry McReynolds recently discussed Doug Rice's prediction that Kyle Busch would not make the victory lane of another Cup Series race. The two-time Cup Series champion Busch failed to continue his streak of winning a race every season since his full-time debut in 2005.

In a recent post on X (formerly Twitter), journalist Kyle Dalton shared an audio note from SiriusXM's On Track show of Trotta speaking about veteran broadcaster Rice's 'hot take' on the 39-year-old Busch.

"I was asked to be a guest on PRN “Fast Talk” with Doug Rice and Brad Gillie the other day," Trotta shared. "And we were — Doug was throwing out a prediction. Doug Rice threw out there he doesn't think Kyle Busch will ever win again."

With this revelation, Trotta continued the conversation by saying:

"I was like, ‘Wow, I am not ready to say that.’ He had three runner-up finishes just this past year. Like, so I don't but a lot of people wonder, Larry. I mean, now that's a hot take, but a lot of people are wondering, can Kyle Busch ever become the Kyle Busch of old again? I certainly hope so."

In the same discussion the co-host of the show McReynolds shared his two cents on the chances of seeing the 'old' Busch again and said:

"I don't think he's going to become the Kyle Busch of old. I think that ship has sailed. But I'm like you, I'm not ready to say we won't see him back in Victory Lane."

The Richard Childress Racing driver Busch managed three closest finishes this year. The first time he got close to winning was in a three-wide photo finish at the spring Atlanta Motor Speedway race, where Daniel Suarez crossed the checkered flag 0.003 seconds ahead of Ryan Blaney and Busch.

The other closest runs were the runner-up finishes at the final two regular-season races in Daytona and Darlington Speedway.

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"Just not at all what we had hoped" - Kyle Busch reflects on his underwhelming 2024 NASCAR season

NASCAR: NASCAR Cup Series Championship - Source: Imagn

In over 700 races in his Cup Series career, Kyle Busch has accumulated 63 wins and is ranked in the top 10 of the all-time win list in NASCAR's premier division. However, the Las Vegas, Nevada native missed out on a complete season to claim his 64th Cup win.

Reflecting on marking this year as the statistically worst season of his career, the #8 Chevy driver said (via Racer.com):

"[It was] just not at all what we had hoped it to be after some success last year, especially early in the year having those three wins and then struggling a little bit on and off."

"But then this year, just seemingly not being able to get the monkey off our back. Even having a shot to win late in the day; being close at Daytona, and maybe even closer at Kansas, and not being able to pull through."

"We probably had a handful of opportunities that slipped out from under us. So [I] can’t say we never had an opportunity to but obviously didn’t get it done," added Busch.

It is worth mentioning that Kyle Busch in his first season (2023) with RCR managed three wins in the first 15 regular season races. Busch will be looking for redemption in the upcoming NASCAR season.