'It’s eating him alive,' Denny Hamlin shows concern about Kyle Busch's struggles with Richard Childress Racing

Kyle Busch’s NASCAR win drought has reached 100 races, with Denny Hamlin calling it eating him alive.

Fahad Hamid
April 14, 2026
4 min read

'It’s eating him alive,' Denny Hamlin shows concern about Kyle Busch's struggles with Richard Childress Racing — © Scott Kinser-Imagn Images

There was a time, not too long ago, when betting against Kyle Busch on a Sunday afternoon was like betting against gravity.

But right now, the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion is stuck in a gravitational anomaly. The man affectionately known as “Rowdy” has officially hit a grim milestone: 100 consecutive races without a trip to Victory Lane.

For a guy who made winning look like a bodily function, this drought isn’t just a slump. It is a full-blown existential crisis on four wheels. The last time Busch took the checkered flag was way back on June 4, 2023, at Gateway, where he casually led 121 laps and looked like the dominant force we’ve all come to expect.

Since then, a whole lot of heartbreak, a bunch of runner-up finishes, and a mounting pile of frustration that you can practically see radiating through his helmet.

1. The Agony of the 100-Race Mark

Let’s put this into perspective. From 2005 to 2023, Busch won at least one race every single year. It was the ultimate streak in modern NASCAR, a testament to his raw, unapologetic talent. Hitting 100 races without a win is uncharted territory for a driver of his caliber with 63 career Cup wins to his name. It’s not like he has forgotten how to drive. Over the past couple of seasons, Busch has flirted with disaster and victory in equal measure, logging seven finishes in the second or third spot. We’ve seen him suffer absolute heartbreak at tracks like Atlanta, Daytona, Darlington, Kansas, and COTA. But close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, and right now, the No. 8 Chevrolet is coming up agonizingly short when the white flag waves. The start of the 2026 season has been particularly brutal, with Busch failing to register a single top-10 finish in the first seven races.

2. What Denny Hamlin Thinks About the Slump

If you want to know how bad it hurts to lose this much, just ask the guys racing against him. Longtime rival, occasional friend, and fellow veteran Denny Hamlin didn’t mince words when discussing Busch’s current predicament. Hamlin openly admitted that the winless streak is absolutely “eating him alive.” “Clearly, RCR is not good right now. It’s time to be honest about what’s going on. I think that he doesn’t know how to get the speed out of the NextGen car on a consistent basis. There’s been flashes of it, and when yes, he won three races his first season at RCR. Everyone’s so close now, it’s a tough time right now, and that just man, I hate seeing it. Kyle is a f**king competitor who hates losing. I know it’s eating at him alive.” Hamlin said.

3. The Richard Childress Racing Dilemma

Of course, the driver is only as good as the machine underneath him. And right now, the Richard Childress Racing (RCR) equipment is facing some intense scrutiny. Analysts across the sport are pointing fingers at RCR’s struggles with the updated Chevrolet ZL1 body. Simply put, they just aren’t keeping pace with the powerhouse teams in the garage. The Next Gen car era has been the great equalizer in NASCAR, but it has also brutally exposed teams that can’t nail the weekly engineering puzzle. The gap between mid-tier teams and the sport’s elite is widening, and Busch is caught right in the messy middle of it. If RCR cannot give him a car capable of running up front late in the race, Busch’s playoff hopes for this season are completely toast. So, what happens next? The NASCAR circus rolls into Bristol, a concrete coliseum where Kyle Busch has historically been an absolute menace. He has eight career Cup wins at the track. If there was ever a place for Rowdy to smash a guitar and end a 100-race nightmare, it’s under the lights in Tennessee. Other veterans have climbed out of these massive holes before. Brad Keselowski recently snapped a 110-race drought, and the legendary Bill Elliott once went 226 races without tasting victory before finding his way back. Busch has the talent to do it, but he needs the racing gods to finally cut him some slack. Until then, the clock keeps ticking, and the drought keeps growing.