LINCOLN, Ala. — It has not been an easy start to the year for two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch and his team, Richard Childress Racing.
Amid the first nine races of 2026, neither of RCR’s two full-time cars nor its part-time No. 33 entry has earned a top-10 result.
That is, until Talladega Superspeedway.
After a long stage one that shuffled the field through numerous strategies, a giant crash that collected nearly the entire field and another wreck on the final lap of the 500-mile race, Busch survived to finish 10th. It may be a superspeedway result, but Sunday’s performance (April 26) is a welcome one nonetheless.
“I mean, it should be something, but speedway racing, man, it’s so hit or miss,” Busch said post-race on pit road. “It’s hard to always take full confidence out of coming out of these races that you’re going to be able to do that week in, week out.”
It certainly was not an easy task, either. Busch started in the rear of the field after qualifying was rained out in 34th. The No. 8 struggled for track position most of the day and missed out on getting stage points, even though the car seemed to work well inside the draft.
“We had a good car, and we did everything perfect in that first stage, and we were second in line of all the guys that did the pit stops and the cycles and everything (for Chevrolet),” Busch said. “So, we executed really, really well.”
But perhaps the biggest highlight of the Las Vegas native’s day was what happened right in front of him on lap 115 in stage two. The No. 8 Chevrolet was riding in the middle of the pack when Bubba Wallace received a hard push from Ross Chastain, sending the No. 23 into the outside wall and collecting nearly the entire field.
Busch included.
“When we got caught up in that wreck down the backstretch, I think I was right behind [Ricky Stenhouse Jr.] or [Stenhouse] was right behind me,” Busch recalled. “He made it through it and we didn’t, you know what I mean?
“That kind of changed our trajectory for our day.”
Changed the trajectory, it did. It looked like Busch was simply looking to survive the rest of the race while Stenhouse and others marched on to contend for victory.
But despite the hail of sheet metal and smoke in front of him, the RCR driver kept going through the melee. The team took a few stops to work on the car and the Next Gen chassis proved resilient. By the final few laps of the race, Busch was among the few still on the lead lap, in the lead draft and riding around near the outside of the top 10.
In most drafting races, that would give Busch an outside shot to win. But on the final restart with three laps to go, the field was stuck in place, two-by-two. With little ability to create a third lane and challenge for the lead, the No. 8 was left to settle for 10th.
“There was a few guys in the back that were trying to [form a third lane],” Busch said. “They didn’t have numbers, but it always is too far around, and it ends up going back(wards). … Very frustrating. I guess it is what it is, but what do you do?”
Thankfully for Busch, however, a number of cars ahead of him were caught in one last crash as the field came to the line. The 40-year-old veteran drove underneath and scraped his way into that top-10 finish.
It may not be the type of finish the 63-time Cup Series race winner is used to, but after a chaotic Talladega Sunday, it’s one his RCR team can try and build on.
“We wanted more,” Busch admitted. “I felt like we were capable of more, but we got to take the top-10 result right now and be happy about that.”
Dalton Hopkins began writing for Frontstretch in April 2021. Currently, he is the lead writer for the weekly Thinkin' Out Loud column, co-host of the Frontstretch Happy Hour podcast, and one of our lead reporters. Beforehand, he wrote for IMSA shortly after graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2019. Simultaneously, he also serves as a Captain in the US Army.
Follow Dalton on Twitter @PitLaneCPT
Meh. It’s Talladega. Get lucky and miss the wrecks, and you have a chance for a good finish. Hence, first time winners in Cup, O’Reilly, and ARCA this week, and a YouTube reality TV star finishing second in the ARCA race.
I don’t really mind any of this, as it’s fun to have a few times a year where the results are mostly random, so unexpected names can get lucky and pull a good result. I do wish it was still four races a year though. Six seems a bit much.
Great finish considering the piles of crap he drives. RCR has bottom tier cars and ridiculously bad decisions made by their “war room “. Kyle and Austin have nearly zero chance of winning except Daytona and Talladega. I don’t understand why Richard doesn’t care at all about the Cup program, or his other grandson for that matter.
How many cars who usually finish ahead of him didn’t? It was Talladega! How many in the top ten need Talladega or Daytona or Atlanta to do it? Next event they return to normal results.
Exactly the only reason he got a top 10. I think Kyle realizes RCR is finished, so he just plays along, collects millions and concentrates everything on giving his son the best chance he can. Why not, he’s always going to be mentioned as one of the best ever. Enjoy the family life on Richard’s money. I love it.