'It's just too far around,' Kyle Busch frustrated with the lack of three-wide racing in Talladega

The No. 8 team finally has a reason to exhale. After enduring a frankly miserable start to the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series campaign, Kyle Busch navigated the inevitable madness of Talladega Superspeedway to secure his first top-10 finish of the year.

Why does a 10th-place run matter for a two-time champion? Because before the engines fired in Alabama, Busch was languishing at 27th in the point standings with a grand total of zero top-10s and just 19 laps led all season.

For a driver of his pedigree, that isn’t just a slump; it’s a full-blown crisis. Richard Childress Racing has been searching for answers, and surviving Talladega provides a massive, desperate morale boost for a team that has been squarely in the crosshairs of critics over the past few months.

This P10 finish marks the very first top-10 result for the entire RCR organization this season. It’s a breakthrough that didn’t come easy, requiring the veteran driver to thread the needle through a chaotic Sunday afternoon that claimed more than half the field.

1. Surviving “The Big One”

The race itself was a classic Talladega demolition derby. A massive 25-car pileup in Stage 2, triggered when Bubba Wallace threw a block on Ross Chastain, wiped out heavyweights like Kyle Larson, Joey Logano, and Denny Hamlin. Busch and his Cheddar’s Kitchen Chevrolet were caught up in the fringes of the backstretch carnage, which completely derailed their initial strategy. Still, the veteran kept his composure and kept his car rolling. “We had a good car. We did everything perfect in that first stage,” Busch noted after the race, praising his crew’s execution on pit road. Despite expressing some frustration about the inability to open up a third lane of racing at full throttle, he knew the value of the result. “And we were second in line in terms of all the guys that did the pit stops and the cycles. So we executed really well. Then, when we got caught up in that wreck down in backstretch. I think I was right behind the 47 or 47 was right behind me. He made it through, and we didn’t. So that changed the trajectory for the day.” Busch admits that he needed a better result. “Definitely good to get a good finish. We wanted more, and I felt that we were capable of more, but we gotta take the top 10 result right now and be happy about that.” Then came the biggest question about the race. He lamented the lack of three-wide racing. “There were a few in the back, they were trying it. They didn’t have numbers, but it’s just too far around, and it ends up going back.”

2. Silencing the Garage Area Noise

The finish also serves as a quiet rebuttal to some of the outside noise that has plagued the No. 8 garage. Just a few weeks ago, Denny Hamlin used his “Actions Detrimental” podcast to speculate about internal friction on Busch’s team after the spotter and crew chief traded barbs over the radio during a dismal 25th-place run at Bristol. Busch fired back at Kansas, bluntly stating that Hamlin didn’t know what he was talking about. With rumors swirling that NASCAR had forced RCR to change parts of their car to find speed, closing out Talladega with an intact race car and a decent points day is the best way to quiet the chatter. While Busch was busy salvaging his season, Carson Hocevar stole the ultimate spotlight. In his 91st career start, Hocevar captured his first NASCAR Cup Series victory, hanging out the window of his Spire Motorsports machine in a wild front-stretch celebration after edging out Chris Buescher by a razor-thin 0.114 seconds.

3. Looking Ahead to the Lone Star State

So, where does the No. 8 team go from here? Next up on the schedule is Texas Motor Speedway. Historically, it’s a track where Busch has been dominant, boasting four career wins in the Lone Star State. However, the Next Gen era has not been particularly kind to him there. Speedway racing is, as Busch himself admitted, “hit or miss,” meaning RCR can’t simply assume their problems are cured. “Speedway racing is a hit or miss. So its always to take full confidence after coming out of these races that you are going to do that week in week out.” But if they want to turn this grueling 2026 season around, the momentum from surviving Talladega is exactly the spark they need to bring to Texas.

• Tags:
• Kyle Busch