COREY LAJOIE MAY HAVE CRACKED THE CODE WITH HIS THEORY ON KYLE BUSCH STRUGGLES

Kyle Busch is in the midst of a miserable stretch, arguably the worst of his near two-decade NASCAR Cup Series career.

Busch, after winning three races in his first 15 starts last season, is riding a 40-race losing streak, the longest of his career. He’s in serious jeopardy of failing to score a regular season win for the first time since 2004 and perhaps more importantly, is 104 points back of Alex Bowman for the 16th and final playoff spot.

Corey LaJoie has a theory for why Busch and the No. 8 team simply don’t have it this year and spoiler, it has to do with the simulator.

Corey LaJoie unveils theory for Kyle Busch’s struggles

“There’s been a lot of chatter about the 8 not running near what we expect from Kyle Busch, a two-time champion, to run,” LaJoie said this week on his “Stacking Pennies” podcast. “Almost to the point where it’s like yeesh. There is a commodity with this car that shows much more than the previous car. And I believe it is confidence. It’s confidence in your people, it’s confidence in your car. It’s confidence in yourself and you can see when that nosedive starts. And the 8 car is in the middle of a confidence landslide at the moment.

“I have a theory, though. This is my theory, and I don’t air my theories out very much. But we all know how important the simulator is. We talk about it every week. You do 95% of your testing because the geometry you bring to the racetrack. And the fore springs you bring to the racetrack are what you are married to for the race. And all of that is done on the simulation and the driver in the loop simulation. Kyle Busch [won three races] in his first season at RCR, was a perennial contender in the mix every week. They were using the previous year’s historical notes from Tyler Reddick and the tires they built on the GM simulator.

“So, as Kyle Busch gets in there. And starts building his own version of what they think the tire is, they get further away from what they were setting up on previously. … I don’t think it’s coincidence that RCR is going down a road with developing a sim tire off one person’s input and as soon as you start backing it up, as soon as you start kind of losing what your homing beacon is of where you think the balance of the car should be, it’s starts to snowball. You go to the racetrack, and you have no clue where you’re at. … My theory is that I believe they are chasing a tire model based off of Kyle Busch’s input in the simulator.”

Kyle Busch suffers another setback at Nashville

Whatever the case, 2024 has been a year to forget for Busch. That continued during this past Sunday’s race at Nashville when he was running P4 late before being in the wrong place at the wrong time. On the third overtime restart, Kyle Larson, running P2, ran out of fuel. Busch had nowhere to go behind him, crashing and finishing 27th.

“Just the feel is not there for me,” Busch said before the race at Nashville. “The more comfortable you are, the more positions you can put yourself in and take chances. I feel like I’m having a hard enough time making laps on my own to ever think about trying to make a pass on someone.”

The post Corey LaJoie may have cracked the code with his theory on Kyle Busch struggles appeared first on On3.

2024-07-05T15:08:33Z dg43tfdfdgfd