“Where has Kyle Busch gone?”: NASCAR legend questions Richard Childress Racing driver’s performances

Kyle Busch's performance decline has been quite evident since last year and is now being questioned by former NASCAR star Kyle Petty as well. Petty indicated that Busch might have made a wrong decision by switching to Richard Childress Racing, comparing his performance to Kyle Larson's when Larson was with Chip Ganassi.

The 39-year-old switched to Richard Childress Racing allegedly due to sponsorship struggles at his previous team, Joe Gibbs Racing, after the 2022 season. 2023 was his first season with RCR. Although the partnership seemed promising after Busch won three races in the regular season last year, his performance has dipped since the 2023 playoffs.

Busch has not been able to win a single race so far this season, and his struggles have been quite visible. Speaking about Kyle Busch's recent performances, Kyle Petty said on nascar.com:

"Where has Kyle Busch gone? I have no idea. He started the last season pretty strong and I thought. And this is pretty good. You go from Gibbs to Childress- you make that organization a winner. And then they disappear. Crickets from he and Austin Dillon- which points fingers back at the organization- Richard Childers Racing, RCR." [0:26-0:45]

Parallel to this, Petty also compared Busch's performance to that of Kyle Larson when he was driving for Chip Ganassi. Kyle Larson had won only 6 races over a span of 6 years. However, as soon as he joined Hendrick Motorsports in 2021, Larson has won 20 races in 4 seasons so far.

Kyle Petty opined that Richard Childress Racing as an organization, was not working well for Kyle Busch, and this has led to a dip in his performance.

"The organization has taken Kyle Busch from being a competitive winning driver to just being a guy racing for eight, nine, and ten. He's only had five top tens, two top fives this year." [1:05-1:16]

Notably, in his entire career, Busch has only had five seasons out of 20 in which he did not win a race in the first 11 races, most of which were in the early seasons of his career.

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Kyle Busch has not denied the prospect of returning to Joe Gibbs Racing

Fans have been quite vocal about their dissatisfaction with the overall performance of the RCR team, including the pit crew and the cars. They have taken to social media urging Busch to move back to JGR.

In order to see where he stood, when asked about the possibility of his return, Busch said:

"I would say there's anything's possible always you know. Certainly, if I was welcomed I would go back. If Hendrick welcomed me back I would go back but right now I'm at RCR with my group of guys and um in in the deal that I have right now in place," via FrontStretch [5:55-6:21]

Kyle Busch is currently ranked 16th in the 2024 Cup Series Standings, with only two Top-5 finishes to his name so far. The 39-year-old hasn't had a single Top-10 finish since May 5, 2024.