Kyle Busch has four NASCAR wins as the first half of the season speeds toward its conclusion.
On Sunday, Busch won for the third time in the NASCAR Cup Series with Richard Childress Racing. It was a dominating performance from the pole, the No. 8 Chevrolet not only faster in a straight line but also stronger through the corners at World Wide Technology Raceway. Outside of Cup, he also won in Las Vegas in early March when he made his first Craftsman Truck Series start of the season.
There are a lot of drivers who would gladly take four wins. But if it were up to Busch, that would only be the tip of the iceberg if he were still allowed to race as much as he wanted to.
“Yeah, (I) definitely miss being able to run as much as I want to a lot,” Busch said recently.
It’s been seven years since NASCAR instituted limitations on Cup Series drivers running in the other two national series. Those with more than five years of full-time experience were limited to 10 races in the Xfinity Series and seven races in the Craftsman Truck Series going into the 2017 season. They were also not permitted to run in the playoff races.
NASCAR said the guidelines were to “elevate the stature of future stars” while still competing against the sport’s best from the Cup Series. Some – like Busch – would argue it was ‘the Kyle Busch rule’ to limit the wins being taken away from series regulars.
A year later after its introduction, the rule was tightened further to seven Xfinity Series events and five Truck Series races. And in addition to not being allowed to enter a playoff race, a Cup Series driver could not run the regular season finale, either.
Busch ran his 10 allowed Xfinity Series races in 2017, winning five times. He won once in his seven starts in 2018, and four times in his seven starts in 2019. It was more of the same in the Truck Series, with three wins in seven starts in 2017, two wins out of five starts in 2018, and then going an incredible five-for-five in 2019.
In 2020, the rule got even tighter. Cup Series drivers with three – down from five – years of experience are limited to five races in both the Xfinity Series sand Craftsman Truck Series. In addition to the regular season finale and playoff races, they are also not allowed to run in specialty events: the Dash 4 Cash (Xfinity) and the Triple Truck Challenge (Truck).
“I would love to have way more Truck races, especially,” Busch continued. “I thought we started out strong and we were going to have a good year with winning at Las Vegas with the KBM Chevrolets, but unfortunately, we’ve been terrible since. We’re missing something somewhere, and we’re trying to figure out why and what. We have an idea, but we haven’t necessarily conquered it yet.
“That would be one that I would really like; to get back into would be the Truck Series and running my own stuff a little bit more; having some more races to build the program and make sure that we are where we need to be with our younger drivers (who are) not necessarily having that experience to be able to dictate and tell exactly what’s wrong with our vehicle dynamic and stuff like that.”
Busch has already made four of his five allowed starts in the Craftsman Truck Series, where he has 63 career wins. Busch is splitting time in the No. 51 with Jack Wood, who is winless with two top-five finishes in five starts. Chase Purdy, who drives the No. 4 full-time, is also winless with six top-10 finishes through the first 12 races.