Kyle Busch continues to struggle for NASCAR Cup Series relevance in 2025, and that struggle is very real for everybody associated with the No. 8 Chevrolet.
It is now six years since the last of Kyle’s two championships, and two long years since the last time he tasted victory in a Cup Series race.
As he moves deeper into his 41st year, the fall of Busch is one of the biggest storylines in the sport - how do you fix a problem like Kyle?
On Sunday at Kansas we got a pretty brutal illustration of what the frustration feels like for all concerned - this time from Busch’s spotter Derek Kneeland.
Kneeland was captured on radio making an impassioned plea to the Richard Childress Racing crew to somehow stay positive as Busch struggled along in 25th position at the Hollywood Casino 400.
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Kyle Busch spotter loses it at Kansas
“I know you guys are trying your asses off and I know we’re struggling but we’ve gotta try to keep him and everybody upbeat. We are not going home 35th tonight. If we do I’m gonna jump of this f****** spotter’s stand.“
“I get it, we’ve got to try to keep everybody upbeat, including him. I know we’re bleeding spots right now, but we’ve got to finish. We finish, we don’t have damage, we’re gonna be fine.”
The 'good news' for Kneeland is that Busch would eventually ‘improve’ to finish 19th on the day behind shock winner Chase Elliott.
But the numbers do not lie, things are still brutally bleak for Kyle and the No. 8 car right now. He is way down in 21st place in the overall standings and of course missed out on a playoffs spot after another disappointing regular season.
Just to put things into further context, Busch was trading at odds of +6000 to claim a shock win on Sunday before the start - in simple terms, a huge 60-1 underdog.
How the mighty are fallen…
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