'You’ve got to win, right?': Kyle Busch aims to snap winless streak, find RCR groove

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — At this point three years ago, Kyle Busch didn’t have a firm deal with Joe Gibbs Racing for the following year, but few could truly envision him leaving his home of 15 seasons where he won two Cup titles.

But as negotiations deteriorated and sponsorship talks cooled, Busch found himself talking to other teams — including unlikely ones such as Richard Childress Racing.

Busch and Richard Childress put their old beefs aside and Busch signed a base three-year deal. As he enters the third year, the uncertainty of a few years ago is an underlying theme as he enters 2025.

After a three-win 2023, Busch carries a 57-race winless streak into 2025. Whether he remains at RCR for the long term could be determined this year.

"You’ve got to win, right?" Busch said. "And unfortunately, we weren't able to win last year. So being able to get back to victory lane, being able to build on some consistency, getting those top five, top 10s, getting that number higher than what it was this year is definitely paramount.

"We had a rough summer last year, had a lot of DNFs in that stretch that kind of brought us outside the playoff and being able to get ourselves in contention."

If Busch is to have confidence in RCR, getting in contention probably needs to come sooner than later. There would be no better time than winning the Daytona 500, the race that has eluded Busch in 19 starts.

"Earlier in the year would be better, but it's always a long year, and you got to fight it out every week," Busch said.

The wild thing about talking with Busch regarding his 2024 season is that he lost two races by inches. A few inches better would have delivered two victories for him, and questions about his future might not even arise.

"It's