Season struggles continue for Kyle Busch at Iowa Speedway after mechanical failure

Kyle Busch’s day at Iowa Speedway went from looking like a much-needed top-10 finish to ending prematurely and frustratingly in the garage after a tough hit into the wall on Lap 269.

Reflecting on the abrupt end to his race, the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing driver lamented, “Parts and pieces broke. Something in the left-rear suspension. I don‘t know if it was a toe link or what it was, but it changed the skew of the back of the car and it was just undrivable doing that. We came in and fixed it. Rolling back out, we broke the belt. I have no idea, but frustrating, for sure.”

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Throughout the race, Busch battled challenges, especially in corner entry, despite showing promise while running solidly in 10th place before his incident.

“Not what we wanted for all of our No. 8 Zone Chevy guys; everybody from Kwik Star. We were having a pretty decent day,” Busch expressed. “I thought we had a top-10 run going. We had an opportunity there to score some points, but it wasn‘t meant to be,”

The setback adds to Busch‘s challenging 2024 campaign, where he‘s struggled to find consistent runs week in and week out, with only two top fives and five top 10s across 17 races.

Busch‘s winless streak now extends to 38 races — the longest in his career — and is in jeopardy of not scoring a win in the regular season for the first time since 2004.

Currently, Busch finds himself 31 points behind the playoff cutline, a daunting 25 points behind Joey Logano.

With only nine races left in the regular season, pressure is building for Busch, who now finds himself in what could be a must-win situation to make the playoffs.