Kyle Busch issues clear verdict after damning criticism from NASCAR chief

NASCAR Cup Series legend Kyle Busch has issued his verdict on the performance of Richard Childress Racing (RCR) so far in 2025.

Busch's comments come after team chief Richard Childress made his feelings very clear following last Sunday's race at Dover, getting on the team radio post-race and declaring: "Gotta get some race cars. We are in trouble. Period.”

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So far this season, RCR remains winless across all their cars, with Busch's best finishes being two P5s, which he achieved on road courses at COTA and in Chicago.

Elsewhere, there has been a general lack of speed and consistency, with Busch and now scrambling to point his way into the playoffs, with the 40-year-old currently 39 points behind the cut line with just five regular season races to go.

Now, speaking on The Pat McAfee Show, Busch was quizzed on the criticism of his team, but offered a reassuring statement to his and RCR's fans.

“It is not due to lack of effort, that's for damn sure,” Busch explained.

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Kyle Busch says RCR are lacking speed

Busch continued: “Everybody at RCR, back there at the race shop, they’re working as hard as they can,"

"Engineers are trying to figure it out and look at all the notes and figure out where the speed's at.

"[The] balance of the race cars has been pretty good this year, the driveability feels okay, it’s just the lack of speed.”

If there is a positive to take, it's that Busch's form has been improving, with a fifth, 10th and 11th in recent weeks, which was a marked improvement from a previous run that saw the No. 8 finish inside the top 10 just once in 10 outings.

All focus is now on this weekend's action at Indianapolis, and Busch is feeling positive.

"I love Indy, coming to Indy's a lot of fun,” he said. “I’ve really gotten pretty good here over the years, I won the race in ‘15, ‘16, should have won it in ‘17 but we got wrecked out in a late caution restart.

“But I feel pretty good about me here at Indy. And then the Chevy camp has obviously been really fast here over the years as well too; Kyle [Larson] winning the race last year.

“So, I would think that our basis should be pretty close that we can go out there and we can have a good shot.”

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