NASCAR changed some rules for short-track races for the second year in a row. They made the diffuser simpler and shortened the spoiler by 3 inches.
In the two races where they used these rules so far—Phoenix and Richmond—the racing didn’t get better. This was especially true for Kyle Busch and his team at Richard Childress Racing.
“I didn’t think we could make it worse, but by golly we did … for me anyways,” Busch, 39, said Saturday at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. “Maybe it’s just because we don’t have it quite figured out like others do, but I cannot follow anybody in front of me whatsoever.
“It doesn’t matter if I’m in the bottom lane, the middle lane, the top lane – if there is a car in front of me, I am terrible, really bad.”
Busch didn’t do well in these races. He started 31st in Phoenix and finished 22nd. In Richmond, he started 15th and finished 20th.
RCR, the team Busch races for, has been struggling on short tracks since they introduced the Next Gen car in 2022.
“The short track stuff though has, you know, been very miss. We’ve had like two hits I think, so you know it’d be nice to get more on the on the hit side and to where we have good cars that we’re able to go out there and contend and compete,” Busch said.
“So, I think a lot of it is just the reliance on the simulation and what we’re being told in that, and making decisions based off of that – what makes you faster or better in the sim.
“That is not transferring to the race track, so we’ve got to go about it a different way.”
Last year, Busch joined RCR and won three races. But apart from a third-place finish in Richmond, he struggled on short tracks.
Busch will start 11th in Sunday’s race – his best start at Martinsville since 2022, which he hopes may be a positive sign. Busch is still looking for his first win of the season and is 13th in the series standings.
“I think anytime you have good runs, you kind of know that the points will take care of themselves. Anytime you aren’t having good runs, you probably know that you are not in the good point standing,” he said.
“But more importantly, just trying to get our program right and upfront, and in a position to where we can win a race or two and not worry about points.”
