“I feel like a broken record”: Kyle Busch reflects on his Charlotte race filled with mechanical and pit road woes
Kyle Busch endured another frustrating outing in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in a 2025 season filled with mechanical and pit road issues. The two-time Cup Series champion finished 15th in NASCAR's longest race of the year, marking his ninth finish outside the top 10 in the 13 races so far.
Despite some flashes of pace and a strong mid-race surge, a slow pit stop late in the race derailed Busch's hopes for a turnaround. He summed up the recurring troubles that have defined much of his 2025 campaign talking to NBC post-race:
"I feel like a broken record saying another difficult night for our No. 8 Chevrolet team."
The Memorial Day Weekend echoed season-long struggles that's seen Kyle Busch notch a single top-five finish at Circuit of the Americas and hover near the playoff cutline. The Coca-Cola 600 was marred by similar complications for the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing team. They had earlier faced suspensions in Las Vegas for a loose wheel and were penalized in Bristol as well.
Busch was sent to the rear, alongside Erik Jones and Ross Chastain, due to unapproved adjustments which caused steering issues. As a result, his No. 8 Zone Chevrolet was unable to complete a single lap in practice and Busch began from P38 despite qualifying 24th.
After dropping to the back before the green flag, Busch managed to claw his way into the top 15 by Lap 50, executing steady lap times and benefitting from well-timed cautions. However, the handling of the car continued to be a challenge.
"The weekend started out with a steering issue. We got the pump changed and were able to make a qualifying lap but had to change the rack and go to the rear for the start of the race on Sunday. We were tight in dirty air," Busch added.
He stayed competitive through the first half of the race, running inside the top 15 through most of the opening stages. But it was after the Stage 2 restart that things began to unravel.
Kyle Busch's mid-race setback stalls momentum in tough Charlotte outing
Following the restart in Stage 2 of the Coca-Cola 600, Kyle Busch made light contact with the Turn 2 wall while battling mid-pack on Lap 216. This slowed him and dropped him outside the top 20. He oscillated in the mid-20s for much of the next two stages as handling worsened.
"Crew chief Randall Burnett made some changes and got it running better when I heard a loud pop. Something broke, and we're still not sure what it was. From that point on, we were just out of it. We tried a strategy call late in the race, but we had an issue on pit road so we weren't really able to capitalize on that," Busch recalled via the aforementioned source.
The sound turned out to be a broken lower control‐arm mount, which reduced front-end grip and forced the Richard Childress Racing #8 to drive conservatively the rest of the night.
Busch's late-race strategy nearly paid dividends. Around Lap 356, he pitted from second alongside Joey Logano, eight laps after frontrunners William Byron and Denny Hamlin made their final stops. The overcut approach aimed to flip track position, but a sluggish stop on pit road eliminated the advantage.
However, Kyle Busch managed to bring the car home in a respectable 15th place. But it did little to alleviate the broader concern for the former champion, who recently signed a contract extension with RCR. With just 266 points and sitting 18th in the standings, the winningest NASCAR driver remains outside the playoff bubble heading into the Cracker Barrel 400 in Nashville.