"l had to learn to care less about losing" - When Kyle Busch reflected on his hard-earned NASCAR lessons

NASCAR: Cup Qualifying - Source: Imagn
NASCAR Cup Series driver Kyle Busch - Source: Imagn

Back in 2021, Kyle Busch touched upon an important lesson he received during his time in NASCAR. The Richard Childress Racing driver, in his conversation with Graham Bensinger, revealed that he learned how to "care less" about losing in a race, as well as in life, and termed it as the "biggest" thing he learned.

Busch, a current NASCAR driver, is all set to compete in his 22nd Cup Series season in 2025. So far, he has racked up 713 races in over 21 years, where he picked up 63 wins, 34 poles, and 382 Top 10s.

A two-time Cup Series season, two-time regular-season champion, and driver with the highest wins in the Xfinity and Craftsman Truck Series, Kyle Busch is one of NASCAR's Greatest 75 Drivers. Interestingly, the Las Vegas-born star is also the driver to win at every race track he competed.

With such an illustrious career, Busch rarely looked behind in his early days. However, as time passed, he stopped winning races at regular intervals, and in 2024, he finished the season without a win. However, three years before it happened, Kyle Busch had already made peace with it.

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"I think the biggest thing is, I've had to learn how to, and this is crazy and this is probably a bad thing, but honestly, I've had to learn how to care less," Busch said. "Like it's not about learning how to lose better, to me it's about how to care less about losing."
"There's a fine line there because it can bleed over to caring less about racing in general. Honestly, I feel like I'm to a point now where if I go any further then I might just as well be done," he added. (3:25-4:05)

After the 39-year-old ended his season without a win, he broke his record of having the longest winning streak—19 years. His last victory arrived in June last year at the Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway.


Kyle Busch shared his thoughts on a winless 2024 Cup Series season

NASCAR Cup Series driver Kyle Busch (8) during the NASCAR Cup Series Championship race at Phoenix Raceway. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
NASCAR Cup Series driver Kyle Busch (8) during the NASCAR Cup Series Championship race at Phoenix Raceway. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

After Kyle Busch ended his winless season in 2024, he opened up about the rarest moment of his career. Speaking about it after the season-ending Championship race at Phoenix, he termed it as "certainly frustrating."

“Just not at all what we had hoped it to be after some success last year, especially early in the year, and 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."
"I mean, even having a shot to win late in the day and being close at Daytona and maybe even closer at Kansas and just not being able to pull through," he added.

Kyle Busch finished the season in 20th place with 766 points. He claimed five Top 5s, 10 Top 10s, a stage win, and faced five DNFs. He led a total of 229 laps and had an average start position of 16.917 and an average finish position of 18.306.

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Edited by Tushhita Barua
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