39-yo Kyle Busch skeptical about continuing 'B' name streak in unusual 2025 NASCAR trend
Two-time NASCAR Cup champion Kyle Busch revealed his doubt about winning this weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The first five Cup Series races have all been won by drivers with last names starting with "B."
Hendrick Motorsports' William Byron won the season-opening Daytona 500 and Christopher Bell claimed wins at the following three races in Joe Gibbs Racing's No. 20 Toyota. While Wood Brothers Racing's Josh Berry continued that trend by winning the fifth race of the 2025 NASCAR Cup season last week in Las Vegas. But Busch does not think he will be next.
When asked about the same in a recent interview by NBC Sports' Dustin Long, the 39-year-old Richard Childress Racing (RCR) driver shared his skepticism and said:
"No, not this weekend. You know, we struggle here a little bit. It's just not quite my place, I guess with RCR but, you know, the car was better today than what I recall it being here in the years past. But, we didn't get a chance to show that, really, in qualifying."
"We unloaded with just being too tight, and came in to make a change, and then obviously went too loose, so over stepped that," he added.
Kyle Busch's last NASCAR Cup win came in June 2023 at the World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Illinois. He has not won a race in his past 62 starts and broke a 19-year streak of winning at least one race per season last year.
"The grandstands should do the talking" - Kyle Busch on spring race at Homestead-Miami
Since joining RCR in 2023, Kyle Busch has not finished in the top 10 in two starts at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. His last win at the 1.5-mile oval was in 2019 when he claimed his second Cup Series championship. However, NASCAR moved the title race to Phoenix in 2020. This year, the race was added in spring instead of during the playoffs. When asked if he preferred Homestead as a spring or championship race, he responded, saying (via Frontstretch):
"It doesn't matter to me. I go wherever the schedule says, so it doesn't much matter to me. I would say, you know, July, August, September, probably down here wouldn't be very fun. So, you're kind of minimized to your time of year to be down here, to have, you know, decent weather for people that sit in the grandstands. But I think the grandstands should do the talking." (01:06 onwards)
Kyle Busch missed the playoffs for the first time in over a decade in 2024. So far this season, Busch has finished in the top 10 three times, with an eighth-place finish at Phoenix and fifth at Circuit of the Americas. He is 17th in the Cup Series standings ahead of the Straight Talk Wireless 400.
NASCAR also penalized the No. 8 team after last week’s race in Las Vegas when a wheel came off his RCR Chevrolet and caused a caution. Two crew members, jackman Joseph Moser and tire changer Shiloh Windsor, have been suspended for the next two races.