NASCAR Cup Series: Richard Childress explains what’s wrong with RCR in 2026

It’s been a rough start to the NASCAR season for Richard Childress Racing. Neither RCR Cup Series driver is all that close to the playoff cut line in the current points standings.

Both Kyle Busch (sitting in 24th) and Austin Dillon (27th) have had their issues. Worse, the car itself seems to be something the organization hasn’t quite gotten a handle on just yet.

“It hasn’t been the season none of us had planned for sure,” Richard Childress said in a short video interview with Chris Weaver. “We’re working hard at it. John Klausmeier, his whole group, engineering, is working on it. We’re missing something. We’ve got to find — people say ‘what is it?’ If we knew, we’d fix it. But we’re working hard to figure it out and we’re going to get there.”

The season started off promising enough for RCR. Busch won the pole at Daytona, doing so for the first time in 21 attempts. Then Dillon finished third in his Duel there, putting both RCR cars toward the front of the field to start the season.

Busch finished the race in 15th. Dillon flamed out at 37th.

So heading into Bristol this weekend after a bit of a reset, both drivers are looking to get back on track. Neither has even recorded a top-10 finish so far this season.

The goal? Pretty simple for RCR this weekend.

“You’ve got to finish first,” Childress said. “Bristol can be one of them tracks that will take you out. We’ve loaded three of them on the wrecker and we’ve finished 1-2-3 there before. So it’s Bristol.”

The good news for RCR is that at least one of its drivers has some history at Bristol. Busch is the active wins leader there, having won the race eight times, last in 2019.

Can he pull off a surprising turnaround and finish in victory lane? Childress remains optimistic.

“I feel good about going there,” he said. “I felt good. This new car has threw us a little bit of a curve, this new body. But Hendrick seems to have found some success with it, and we’re all going to get it. We’re working hard together to get it up there.”