Kyle Busch said he didn’t come here to finish anywhere but in victory lane. He nearly did so too. However, despite his best efforts, Busch brought his No. 8 Chevrolet home third in Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400.

Busch’s aim was to go for the win and punt on stage points. Despite starting 5th, he pit on Lap 20. He’d still finish 8th in Stage 1. He pit again on Lap 42, 8 laps shy of the end of the second stage. He finished 10th in Stage 2. With everyone in front pitting, he inherited the lead. Unfortunately, AJ Allmendinger was just that much better.

“That’s what we set out to do,” Busch said of his plan. “That’s what we felt like our road course program had in it anyways was for sure a top 3, definitely a win.”

Busch lined up on the final restart with 10 to go on the front row, but he was a little too aggressive and spun his tires allowing AJ Allmendinger to pull away. William Byron got by him for second which dropped Busch down to third and would later be the spot that he came home in the Round of 12 elimination race.

“The guys gave me a great piece today,” Busch said. “The Lenovo Camaro was pretty fast, just lacked a little bit on the long run, just didn’t quite have the feel of the tire that I was really looking for to be able to turn into the corners and to be able to drive out of the corners and keep pace with the front two there at the end.

“I felt like I was holding up the group behind me, but the 54 cut me some breaks there, so that was nice.

“But overall this ride is on me anyways. The first two weeks of this round was obviously not very good, and we didn’t score any points. That’s where it’s at. That’s where it lies. Texas, Talladega, just not being able to execute and do a good job when points were on the line.

“It sucks to be out this early, but let us do Texas over again, and I feel like we’re right there. We’re ready.”

As a result, Busch’s championship hopes are over. He was eliminated. It was the third time in the last four years that his title hopes were over in the second round as last year he was outed in Round 1.

Prior to that, Busch made the Championship 4 in five straight years. While one could say he’s regressing, I say not so fast.

I don’t think anyone expected Busch to make a run like he did. In his first season with Richard Childress Racing, he won three times including just the second race that they had together.

RCR has long been one of the marquee teams in the NASCAR Cup Series. RCR has accounted for six championships at NASCAR’s highest level, all of them fashioned by driver Dale Earnhardt Sr.

The organization, however, hasn’t reached the pinnacle of the sport since Earnhardt won his final title in 1994. 

“It would be phenomenal—it would be awesome,” Busch said entering the postseason. “That’s what we all strive for. I don’t care what team I’m at, I’m going to go try to win a championship, right?

“But to have the history and the legacy of RCR and everything that they’ve done over the years—with Earnhardt and with the other drivers that have been there… yeah, it’s been a little quiet lately, but that would be nice to shake that up.

“I feel like when you’re in the final four, that is a championship season. You’ve just got to go out and execute in that last race, and there are so many things that can go against you in that last race to not let you win a championship, but that’s a title season.”

How many more is on the table?

Sky could be the limit here.

2022 was the most wins (4) in a single season for RCR since Kevin Harvick won 4 times for them in 2013. It’s a long way from being winless in 2021 and having 1 win in 2020. In fact, from 2014 through 2021, they were winless in 6 of those 8 seasons. They had 1 win in the other 2 years each. Last year, they had 4 trips to victory lane and 3 of the 4 were at iconic tracks in Indianapolis, Daytona and Talladega.

While all 4 wins were on “wild card” type tracks, with a pair of road course wins and two on superspeedways, it was still signaling that RCR is trending up.

This year, Busch has taken them to wins in Fontana, Talladega and Gateway.

“Well, he’s helped us all around,” Childress said of Busch. “Number one, he’s winning races, showing we can win races. He’s helped Austin a whole lot. Austin has had some really good runs.

“But you know, Kyle has been really — he’s such a pleasure to work with. Everybody says, man, how y’all going to get along. Same question they asked me about you and Dale won’t last six months. We lasted 20 years. I want to keep Kyle there, and hopefully we can end his career when he gets ready to.”

Harvick’s car from 2001 through 2013 was the flagship entry at RCR. That has since moved over to Austin Dillon’s ride from 2014 on. From 2014 through 2017, RCR was a three-car operation. Paul Menard drove the 27 and Ryan Newman in the 31. In 144 starts, that duo combined one win, and just 28 top five finishes.

In 2018, they scaled back to a two-car outfit. Newman was in it the first year but had no wins nor any top five finishes. He led just 57 laps. Daniel Hemric replaced him in 2019. He had no wins, one top five and just two top 10’s including only 22 laps led. In 2020 it was Tyler Reddick’s turn. Between 2020 and 2021, Reddick had no wins, six top five finishes and 73 laps led.

Last year was that breakout year for Reddick but he left. Still, three wins, 10 top five finishes and 15 top 10’s later. He also led 503 laps.

Busch in only 32 races has already equaled the amount of wins (3) has eight top five finishes, 15 top 10’s and has led 241 laps.

He had just four wins in his final 108 starts with Joe Gibbs Racing and is one shy of reaching that mark just 32 starts into his RCR tenure.

Childress feels that pressure now. It’s a welcomed pressure, but pressure is pressure and he knows now that he has to produce good cars and get out of Busch’s way.

 “You know, anytime he gets in the car, I think he drives a really great race,” Childress said. “Anytime we can give him a car capable of winning, he’s going to win with it.”

Which is also why Busch didn’t get by the second round. The cars were far too unstable for Busch to drive at times. When he tried to push, carnage happened.

In the playoffs, he was only 20th (-2) at Bristol. He was 34th after an early crash in Texas and 25th in Talladega.

He also had too much inconsistency during the regular season too. After a stretch of finishes of 7th, 6th, 1st, 2nd, 9th, 5th, 5th, he went 36th, 21st, 3rd, 37th, 36th, 14th.

With having some speed back, he’s hopeful to still end the season with at least another victory.

“Well, that’s what we want to do, go out on a high and win a few more races,” he said. “That would definitely be good. You know, look forward to Vegas. Vegas is my home track so I want to go out there and run good.

“Then we’ve got Homestead, which has always been a pretty good track for me, and of course Phoenix, as well. I would love to be the spoiler on that Sunday. That would be fun. We’ve got our work cut out for us, but we’ll keep building, and first year at RCR means a lot to me for Richard having me and for the Chevy guys having me, everybody, to get this far.

“Again, rides on me to get to the next round, so I’ve just got to do a better job.”