Kyle Busch opened the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season on pace to win a ridiculous amount of races. And while he ultimately fell off that pace, he still finished last year with five checkered flags and his second championship.
2020, however, has been a totally different story, and his most recent win was last year’s title race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Through the first 20 regular-season races, including Sunday’s event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Busch remains winless, which is still one of the biggest surprises of the NASCAR season. In July, he called it a “frustrating” year, and he’s not sure why the team’s cars are lacking speed.
His Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Martin Truex Jr., even said he’s been “a little bit grumpy at times.”
The No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driver is unquestionably one of the most talented competitors in the field, but as far as wins go, this isn’t his best season. So here are four things to keep in mind about Busch’s current winless streak and how it could impact the rest of his season.
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1. The bad luck continues
.@KyleBusch will have to wait another week for another chance to win in 2020.
He's out after crashing hard into the Turn 3 wall at @NHMS. @NASCAR is live on NBCSN: https://t.co/wKDI0aNMYn pic.twitter.com/WiGLgR7f6y
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) August 2, 2020
Luck often plays a huge role in NASCAR, and it certainly wasn’t working in Busch’s favor at New Hampshire on Sunday. He made it through just 15 of the 301 total laps before blowing a tire and slamming into the wall.
It was only the third race so far this season Busch didn’t finish after barely making it to the halfway point at Pocono Raceway in June and losing his engine while leading the Daytona 500 in February.
As the first driver to exit Sunday’s race early, Busch ended up dead last in 38th.
2. It’s statistically one of his worst starts to a season
Busch is in his 16th full-time NASCAR Cup Series season, and previously only twice in his career has his first victory of the year come after the 20th race.
In 2017, Busch’s first of five wins was at the 21st race of the season, which was at Pocono. And before that, we have to go back to his rookie year when his first win of the season (and his career) was in the 25th race on the schedule at Auto Club Speedway in California.
3. Winning is obviously the point, but Busch is still having a solid year beyond that
OK, so he doesn’t have any checkered flags yet. We’ve made that clear. But he’s still racing relatively well.
Through 20 races, Busch still has eight top-5 finishes, which puts him in a tie for third-most in the series with Brad Keselowski, who ended up winning at New Hampshire for his third checkered flag of the year. Busch also has 10 top-10 finishes, putting him in a tie for seventh-most with Chase Elliott.
But he’s only led 202 of 5,489 total laps this season, or less than 4 percent.
4. He’s in position to make the playoffs… for now
Just six races remain before the @NASCAR Playoffs field is determined!
Here's a look at the standings after Sunday's #Foxwoods301 at @NHMS. pic.twitter.com/yUiQlkdcBa
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) August 2, 2020
The 16-driver, 10-race playoffs begin in September, and even without a win, Busch is still 13th in the projected playoff standings. However, he still needs a victory to guarantee his spot in the postseason and a chance to defend his title.
If he doesn’t win one of the next six races to close the regular season, he needs to hope there aren’t 16 different race winners and that he remains in the top-16 in the standings.
The NASCAR Cup Series has a doubleheader this weekend at Michigan International Speedway with the FireKeepers Casino 400 on Saturday and the Consumers Energy 400 on Sunday. The regular season ends August 29 with the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway.
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