Kyle Busch's career-worst season continues at Charlotte Roval

NASCAR Cup Series driver Kyle Busch. Joe Puetz-Imagn Images

Kyle Busch's career-worst season continues with Lap 1 crash at Charlotte Roval

By Samuel Stubbs | Last updated Oct 5, 2025 4:06 PM ET

Kyle Busch was already on pace for the worst season of his NASCAR Cup Series career going into Sunday's Bank of America Roval 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. His year only got worse in the first corner.

Contact from Carson Hocevar going into turn 1 on Lap 1 of Sunday's race sent Busch into the wall, incurring significant damage on the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

Busch was able to rejoin the race, though he was several laps down.

2025 has not been kind to Busch

Barring an unprecedented comeback from 10 laps down, Busch will leave Charlotte with only eight top-10 finishes through the first 32 races of 2025. With four races remaining in the season following Sunday, he'd be on pace for a career-low in top-10 finishes. In 2024, Busch finished with only 10 top-10 finishes in 36 races.

Cup race at the Roval begins with Kyle Busch in the wall in the opening corner.

"You've got to get through there safely, which everybody does...except Kyle Busch!"

Unintentional comedy by the USA broadcast. A comic outcome, already, in what has been the worst year of Busch's… pic.twitter.com/IeYsc8dnNm
— Steven Taranto (@STaranto92) October 5, 2025

Busch is also on pace to earn the second-lowest average finish of his Cup Series career. He entered Sunday's race with an average finish of 18.3 (the same mark he earned in 2024), which is likely to significantly drop after Sunday. He likely won't drop below his 21st-place average finish from his rookie season in 2005.

On the whole, 2025 has been a horrendous year for Busch and the No. 8 team, and it could go down in the history books as the worst season of a Hall of Fame career.

Samuel Stubbs

Hailing from the same neck of the woods as NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin, Samuel has been covering NASCAR for Yardbarker since February 2024. He has been a member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) since October of 2024. When he’s not writing about racing, Samuel covers Arkansas Razorback basketball for Yardbarker

More must-reads: