[media-credit name=”David Yeazell” align=”alignright” width=”313″]
[/media-credit]“I’m more excited about this year being over than anything else in my entire life.”
For Kyle Busch, the 2013 season did not go his way at he failed to win a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, a Nationwide Series race and failed to make the Chase in the Sprint Cup Series.
“I think it’s been well documented that this has been the absolute worst year of my career, bar none, whether it was racing ASA cars or late models or Legends cars or even being here in the big three, winning 20-plus races a year,” he said. “It’s a huge disappointment. You don’t — I mean, Cup races, sure, they’re hard to win.”
In the Sprint Cup Series, Busch had one win, 13 top fives and 19 top 10s, finishing 13th in points. For Busch, it’s not enough as he says he could’ve won the last few races of the season, if not for circumstance.
“The last three weeks I should have won Martinsville, I could have moved Jimmie out of the way, I could have dive bombed the two of them at Texas and probably won that one, and then Phoenix I gave away because I chose the wrong lane on a restart,” he said after the Nationwide season finale. “I can’t seem to put it all together when it matters, and you have to in this sport, otherwise you’ll be kind of shown the door.”
In 22 Nationwide Series starts, he had nine top fives and 14 top 10s – yet no wins. It marks the first time in eight years that Busch hasn’t won a single race in the series.
He ran three truck races this season for his team, scoring top fives in each while leading laps. Though once again, no win was there – ending a streak of a win in each of the last seven years.
“Should have won last night,” he said, referencing the finale for the trucks at Homestead-Miami. “I had a shot to win Atlanta, had a shot to win Texas, just nothing ever materialized, and why it’s not materializing I can’t tell you.”
When asked for what needs to change, Busch didn’t have a clear answer.
“I’ve got to start living different, I guess,” he said. “I don’t know what it is. I mean, I’ve had plenty of second place and third place finishes in my career. You know, this year I’ve had plenty of those, as well, too. I even have a sixth place from Kansas where I should have won coming out of Turn 4, ran out of gas.”
For a driver that is used to success and winning, it does play heavily on his mind, despite the positives seen in this season with the team that he owns and their venture in both the Nationwide and Truck Series.
“I don’t know if you can keep a job in this sport by finishing second and third every single week or not, but hopefully I can because I seem not to be able to get to victory lane,” he said.
