Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch will be in for tough challenge this weekend at Martinsville. The Chevy team hasn’t yet hit the mark so far this season and hasn’t been race win contenders as a team of the calibre should. It’s not just the team, their Buch has also been struggling to execute and considering his recent struggles at Martinsville in the Next-Gen era they will be bracing themselves for disappointment.
Kyle Busch has finished outside top-20 in his last three Martinsville races and has only secured just a single top-10 finish at a track. It’s very odd the veteran is struggling at the track as before the 7th gen era, he has won in all three national series at the 0.526-mile facility. When asked about his struggles, he admitted that traffic and lack of tier wear are the reason for it.
I would say Martinsville Speedway has become increasingly challenging with traffic and having a good car that doesn’t burn the tires off. You need to be able to push and go forward and drive past your competitors, but you also can’t blow the tires off. Kyle Busch said via Speedway Media.
Busch and the No:8 team is working on improving their performance with the help of notes they have collected from past races. If there was more test times and practice like in the past, they wouldn’t have struggled this much. But the team isn’t using much help of the simulator for short-tracks as they are not able to find much correlating performance.
Kyle Busch’s teammate Austin Dillon detailed his plans for the race
More than Kyle Busch, his teammate Austin Dillon has been struggling the most in the Next-Gen era. He ended last year winless scoring finishes outside the top-20 in a top-15 worthy car and the same has bee happening so far this season. Going into Martinsville he is hoping for a good day and securing some stage points.
I’m looking forward to racing at Martinsville Speedway this weekend. Last year, we finished twelfth in the spring race so hopefully we can take our Chevrolet and have a good day and pick up stage points. With the new short track downforce package, the car has changed quite a bit since last year, so the No. 3 team is working hard to make sure we are prepared to take on the challenge. Austin Dillon said.
The RCR duo needs to step up their game and execute well on the track. Their crew, especially the No:8 has to clean up their game as they have let down Buch multiple times this season. They could get their season back on track of they are able to produce a solid day on Sunday.
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