TALLADEGA, Ala. — Two-time Cup champion Kyle Busch says he needs to “fix” his driving style with the Next Gen car, calling his litany of crashes and spins this season “stupid.”
He enters Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway last among the playoff drivers after a crash last weekend at Texas. Busch, who won the spring Talladega race, is 17 points from the cutline.
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Busch said he’s trying to shake the mindset that he can race his way from the back to the front with this car as easily as about five years ago when he was dominant.
“That, I guess, has kind of been a bit of my demise — which I don’t feel like I can do as much as I want to be able to do so,” he said Saturday. “Me over-trying has sort of hurt my racecraft, if you will, where I haven’t been finishing, frankly.
“With me and this Next Gen car, look at how many times I’ve spun out and crashed. It’s just stupid compared to what it has been over time. I still got some work to do on figuring that out.
“I’m a very non-patient person. You’ve got to show some patience in these races, they’re long races. Last week in the first stage, pushing and literally then just telling myself, ‘Forget it, back up, let’s finish this stage,’ and then swapping ends. I just finished telling myself to make it to the end of the stage and I’m backwards. I don’t know exactly. We got to fix it. I’ve got to fix it.”
Busch has had a major spin or crash in 12 races this season. He has failed to finish six races this season — five times due to an accident.
The last nine races provides a snapshot to Busch’s woes.
At New Hampshire in July, Busch hit the wall in practice, qualifying and the race before finishing 36th.
At Michigan in August, Busch spun into the wall while running 11th and finished 37th.
At the Indianapolis road course in August, he missed Turn 12 and flat-spotted his tires while running eighth. He finished 36th.
Last weekend at Texas, he finished 34th after his crash, marking the fourth time in the last nine races he’s placed 30th or worse.
The result of Texas leaves him outside a transfer spot to the Round of 8.
“I think you come in here (and) the stress meeter is pegged regardless of whether you’re 30 to the good or 30 behind,” said Busch, who has three wins this season. “We obviously know in our situation we’re further behind. You have to race. … With these cars and the way the race plays out, it’s so hard to make moves and make passes and get yourself track position whenever you want it. You can’t.”
