Kyle Busch's winless drought is closing in on three years, and NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr. has a blunt warning: swapping crew chiefs won't fix what's broken.
Despite a 10th-place finish at Talladega this past week, the two-time Cup Series champion hasn't visited Victory Lane since early 2023. His team at Richard Childress Racing made a mid-season change at crew chief, but Earnhardt isn't buying that as a cure-all.
On the latest episode of The Dale Jr. Download, Earnhardt cautioned that Busch's current struggles are different from past slumps. He pointed to publicized radio chatter as a sign of deeper issues, not just a bad stretch.
“There’s been a lot of radio chatter that’s become public … That’s not uncommon,” Earnhardt said. “It’s just highlighted because it’s Kyle Busch, and he’s struggling unlike Kyle Busch.”
Earnhardt knows the feeling. He's been through mid-season changes himself and warned that the mental toll can be just as tough as any mechanical problem.
“I’ve been in this situation, when you make a change mid-season,” he added. “It is really hard to find positivity and try to figure out how to be hopeful that things are going to improve.”
Busch's 2025 season has been a grind. He finished outside the top 10 in his first nine races and endured a five-race stretch where his best finish was 21st. That top-10 drought was his longest since 2015, when a broken leg sidelined him for the first 11 races.
The Talladega result ended that skid, but it didn't erase the bigger question: can Busch still win at an elite level?
With 63 Cup Series wins, 35 poles, and 393 top-10 finishes, Busch's résumé is undeniable. But as Earnhardt sees it, the clock is ticking. A crew chief change might spark something, but it won't magically fix a drought that's approaching three years.
For now, the NASCAR world is watching to see if Busch can turn it around — or if the warning from Earnhardt proves prophetic.
