'This is a performance based industry' says Busch on NASCAR future

This is now the 21st year of trying for Kyle Busch at the Daytona 500 but there is a lot more at stake for the two-time Cup Series champion than just the elusive Harley J. Earl trophy as it feels like a turning point in his career altogether.

‘Rowdy’ will turn 41-years-old in May and hasn’t won at the highest level since Gateway in June 2023. That’s a 92-race winless streak for those counting. On one hand, it’s hard to find someone that believes Busch was the reason for the Richard Childress Racing No. 8 struggling over the past two years but teammate Austin Dillon does have two Richmond wins during that span.

Regardless, Busch enters a contract year with a new crew chief in Jim Pohlman, and they are both motivated to win for different reasons.

“Working with Jim has been good,” said Busch on Wednesday during Daytona 500 Media Day. “He’s a very determined guy and wants to be a difference maker here at RCR and the 8 car and having a chance to reach victory lane every week.

“It’s all about being able to extract the most out of people at the shop or at the race track. I feel like he has everyone looking up to him and his way and that’s been good.”

Kyle Busch, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet

The Cookout Clash was their first race together and they finished 19th after an event partially contested on a wet track and in sleet.

“It was alright,” Pohlman told Motorsport.com after the race that night. “I thought we executed the weekend to start pretty well but as good as we wanted. We got an average qualifying effort out of it and the start of the race was a little bit of a struggle.

“We got a lot better on the rain tires, was driving towards the front and felt like we would have been a contender but then got caught up in a wreck and broke a tire rod. That part was unfortunate.”

Busch struggled last year to the tune of a 21st place championship finish. Some of their best runs resulted in parts failures or crashes. As a result, Randall Burnett departed with Andy Street taking over on an interim basis until Pohlman finished up a run in the Xfinity Series at JR Motorsports where he claimed nine wins and the 2024 championship with Justin Allgaier.

What all has changed at RCR?

“Pohlman is the number one thing,” Busch said. “Besides that, it’s all the things he implemented behind the scenes that I don’t really know. There’s no new car or new tire stuff, the engine stuff at short tracks is a little different, but it’s still about just making your stuff go.”

And Busch says Pohlman very quickly became the obvious choice out of everyone they interviewed because, and while this sounds cliché, they determined that he wanted it more.

“It was kind of a group effort between some of our competition guys at RCR and Old Man (Mike) Dillon,” Busch said. “Me, obviously, interviewing the crew chiefs too. There were some really good candidates to review.

“None came with as much passion and love for Richard Childress Racing and wanting to turn the 8 car around as Jim Pohlman did. He just had that sense of determination that the others couldn’t match. That’s why we went with him.”

Before working at JRM with Allgaier, Pohlman was a shop hand at RCR. So all told, this is a big year for Busch and Pohlman, but the two-time Cup Series champion says every year is at the highest level.

“We’re in a performance based industry,” Busch said. “We have to go out there and perform and reach victory lane. That’s not just a yearly thing. It’s a weekly thing. It would be nice to get back towards that and put ourselves in contention to win and score points and be up there all season long and fight for a championship at the end of the day.”

When asked about the Daytona 500, Busch kind of dismissed the importance of any one race, because again, he says each of them are important this year.

“Yeah, winning the Daytona 500 is really the last box I have to check in my career and winning that would be really big,” Busch said. “It would be a really big celebration for sure. You want to win that race but we want to win a lot of races. Again, we’re in a performance-based business and we haven’t won in a couple of years and we need to put that behind us.”

His answer was similar when asked about a contract that runs out at the end of the year too.

“Again, I don’t put a lot of thought into it, because it’s a performance-based business and if you win you will find a way to carry on forward,” Busch said. “However that looks and what that looks like when time comes to talk about all that sort of us, we’ll see.”