Kyle Busch breaks down disastrous early wreck with Brad Keselowski, Ryan Blaney at Talladega

During Stage 1 green flag pit stops at Talladega, Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, and Ryan Blaney got all tangled up. A miscommunication on entering pit road caused one of just two cautions for cause, both happening in the opening stage of the NASCAR race.

Toyota pushed the pace in Stage 1, and it may have forced two errors early at Talladega. I think you could, in part, blame the Kyle Busch wreck on the pressure that Toyota put on everybody else.

The Ford group that Busch was pitting with knew they had to be perfect. Well, they weren’t. Busch explained how things got so messy so quickly on Door Bumper Clear this week.

“We were pitting and so I was, as I’m going down the backstretch, I’m looking, I’m looking in front of me – I’ve got Brad in front of me and then behind me was the 21 [Josh Berry],” Busch explained. “So, I’m just automatically thinking, okay, Ford, Ford, we’re pitting here. And as we’re coming out of 4, they all started to slow down and check up, and we weren’t really straight yet. My old adage is, okay, as soon as you get straight, brake. So, we weren’t really straight yet, and they were checking up.

“So I started to kind of like, hedge right a little bit to get to the right side of Brad because he pitted, he pitted two boxes before me, so I’m like, okay, I’m safe to be on his right side coming in to be on his side. And I got touched just barely, ever so slightly.

“The 21 went right of me, touched me barely on the right rear taillight, which kinda turned me into Brad, which turned us both sideways. So it just kind of like culminated right there in that moment.”

Kyle Busch has had a rough season. Even when he gets it right, something gets in the way. It doesn’t help that his pit crew is lagging behind many of the top teams in the Cup Series. With how much track position matters in the Next Gen car, that’s a big deal.

Richard Childress Racing went through a lot of crew members in 2025. Something about this organization and pit crews. For whatever reason, they can’t get a top-tier group together. So, even when Busch isn’t speeding on pit road, the crew gives him slow stops, and he loses positions.

In the Next Gen car, having a slow pit crew can really hurt. Until that gets figured out, I’m not sure we’re going to know how good this No. 8 team can be.