Kyle Busch needed the Olympic break as much as any other NASCAR Cup Series driver, mired in one of the worst stretches in his racing career, with six finishes of 25th or worse in his last eight races, including five DNFs. At the July 21 Indianapolis race, the two-time champion appeared to be in line for a top-10 result, battling Denny Hamlin for fifth position with three laps remaining when the No. 8 got loose and slid up the track into the outside wall.
When the 39-year-old driver met with reporters before the August 11 race at Richmond, his left wrist was bandaged and he revealed it was the result of that late-race incident at the Brickyard several weeks earlier.
“These great Next Gen race cars snap the wheel and snap your wrist,” he said.
A reporter then questioned the driver about the injury and his comfort level behind the wheel.
“Without two weeks off, I would have not been able to race,” he admitted.
Kyle Busch Has Been Critical of Next Gen Car Since Its Introduction
Kyle Busch fans realize he was being sarcastic about the greatness of the Next Gen cars. He hasn’t been a fan of the car since it debuted in 2022. One of his first criticisms came after the March 6 Las Vegas race when he was forced to go to his backup car after crashing his primary in practice.
“It was fine. They’re all the same. They’re bought at Walmart,” he responded when asked about the difference between his two cars.
Fast forward to earlier this year and Rowdy didn’t mince words after the April 21 Talladega race where he was involved in a multi-car pileup on the final lap.
“Ride in line=finish where u r,” he wrote on X. “TRY to race for win=finish last. I hate these [angry cussing emoji] cars!!!”
Kyle Busch Has a Good Reason for Not Liking Car
While Busch has been critical of the cars from the start, a race weekend in the middle of the 2022 season provided a legitimate reason for his disdain. It happened in the July 23 qualifying session at Pocono when his older brother Kurt got loose in his 23XI Racing car and violently slammed into the outside wall. He suffered a concussion, was unable to recover, and never raced again.
Alex Bowman also sustained a concussion at Texas that same year and missed five races before returning to action.
Multiple drivers spoke out concerned about their fellow competitors missing races due to concussions suffered from what otherwise would have been considered normal impacts in previous cars, all due to the car being too rigid, particularly on rear impacts.
Fortunately, NASCAR addressed the concerns, made changes to the car, and there haven’t been any additional issues with those types of injuries over the last couple of years.
Despite that remedy, the car is still hurting drivers, at least according to Busch’s latest remarks.
That begs the question — could a win, which would extend his streak of winning one race a year for 20 consecutive seasons and lock him into the playoffs, soften his stance?
Only time will tell.
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