Just as Kyle Busch started to gain some momentum for a late NASCAR Cup Series playoff push, it swung in the other direction in practice on Saturday afternoon at Iowa Speedway.
The two-time Cup Series champion was second fastest in his practice group when he crashed hard in Turn 1. The impact will result in Richard Childress Racing needing to pull out a backup car for the No. 8 team.
“Felt really good in (Turns) 3 and 4 there, I throttled up,” Busch said in an NBC Sports report. “Car stuck well and I’m like ‘okay, the right rear is good, let’s go,’ and drove it off into 1 with a little bit more trust factor in it and obviously it wasn’t there. Got a little bit loose, overcorrected and just smacked the fence.”
There’s big trouble in practice for @KyleBusch.
Kyle climbed from the No. 8 under his own power. pic.twitter.com/VreIpf8qJe
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) August 2, 2025
Due to needing a backup car, and missing qualifying, Busch will have to start at the rear of the field. He had finished 11th or better in each of the past four races.
Busch spoke of a lack of trust in his cars in his post-race TV interview.
“Came out of Turn 4 really hot and heavy and hard on it. And you know, went off into Turn 1 with too much trust, and chattered the right rear and then overcorrected it and smacked the fence,” Busch said. “So, yeah, just not real sure how to find more trust or when you feel something good in one corner, it’s not there in the next.”
It’s a continuing theme of his season and the past two years for Busch at RCR. Team owner Richard Childress came over the radio after the race at Dover and told his teams ‘We are in trouble, we have got to get some race cars, period.’
Busch addressed his team in his TV interview too.
“Obviously, it’s tough for the guys. Hate it for the guys,” Busch said. “Everybody at RCR, especially the 8 crew here. I’m sure we’ll rely on some of the 3 guys to try to help us get the backup car prepared overnight and get us into the race tomorrow.
“I mean, obviously we had decent speed, you know, just trying to work on up to it and consistently just get better and better with laps. So, that’ll be about the same thing we got to do tomorrow. Just kind of, you know, I was probably built up to about 75-80 percent trust. Now I’m back to zero again, you know. So, just trying to figure all that out. Lap by lap.”
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