A year after replacing Tyler Reddick with Kyle Busch, where is Richard Childress Racing?
At about the same place.
Busch for Reddick — the biggest move going into this season — was essentially a trade-off. But don’t judge this just on one season. This is a move that should be viewed over the next few years.
While it’s easy to point to an advantage going to Reddick and 23XI Racing because the 27-year-old Reddick is the younger driver, don’t discount what Busch does for RCR.
One of the biggest roles the 38-year-old Busch plays is helping elevate Richard Childress Racing. The last time a driver from RCR made the Championship 4 was in 2014 with Ryan Newman. No Richard Childress Racing driver has made it to the Round of 8 since.
Andy Petree, vice president of competition at RCR, told NBC Sports in March that Busch was “bringing things to the table for us that we haven’t had.”
Busch said at the time that he “still don’t have all of what I want accomplished yet.”
Still, Busch won three races — the most Cup victories he’s had since 2019.
Busch’s three wins and 10 top-five finishes matched what Reddick scored last year at RCR. Busch’s 17 top 10s were two more than Reddick had a year ago with the company.
Comparing how both Busch and Reddick fared this season with their new teams, Busch had one more win, the same number of top fives and two more top 10s, but Reddick finished sixth in points, while Busch was 14th.
“Did we meet expectations?” Busch asked last weekend at Phoenix. “Yes. I would say there were a lot of doubters that I wasn’t going to win at RCR and all that stuff, so for us to go out and win, I feel like, that was really good.
“We’re building on a notebook. We’re building on our program this year to be able to get ready to go back to some of these places for a second time next year. I’d like to think that next year can be even better.”
One of the challenges for Busch and his team was the inconsistency of the No. 8 Chevrolet. He had nine finishes of 25th or worse.
“We had a lot of highs and lows,” Busch said. “The peaks and valleys were very far and spread wide. We’ve got to clean that up and, obviously, raise our bar, get more top 10s, more top fives even though we’re high on those amounts.
“We were very high on DNFs (six) as well. I think there were probably two at least, maybe three other races that we had potential that we could have won. Wish I could have them back.”
Reddick also looks back on this season pondering improvements that can be made.
“I could tell pretty early on that the speed and handling was there,” he said. “I didn’t know where that was going to put us at the end of the year. I just wanted to maximize that all year long and honestly, we didn’t do that. We let races get away.”
Reddick said part of the adjustment was going to a new team, driving for a new manufacturer (Toyota) and having new teammates with the alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing.
“I’m trying to learn as fast as I can,” Reddick said. “For us to run where we did, I’d say was very good. But I’m just the type of person that I look at the days that got away and they just keep me hungry for next time.”
Here’s a look at a few drivers who either had good years or bad seasons and what they had to say.
2. Daniel Suarez: More work to do
Daniel Suarez will cut his time away from the team during the offseason from about six weeks to three because “we have work to do.”
Suarez missed the playoffs this season after making it last year for Trackhouse Racing. He finished 19th in points and failed to win a race. Teammate Ross Chastain made the playoffs, won two races and finished ninth in points. Shane van Gisbergen won the Chicago street race for the organization.
Suarez finished the season by placing 15th or worse in nine of the last 12 races.
“It’s going to be a busy offseason for us,” Suarez said. “I personally canceled part of my vacation just because I know we have work to do. I’m going to spend more time in Charlotte than normal. We just have work to do. We have a lot of things to look at and to be better at.”
He cited last Friday’s practice session at Phoenix as an example of an area the team can improve.
“We have to do many things,” Suarez said. “(Friday) we made some mistakes as well in practice in the way we were approaching things and adjustments. We wasted a lot of time, we wasted a set of tires, we wasted 15 minutes of practice, things like that.
“I want to be a championship contender for our team. We have work to do. We can win a race once in a while the way we’re operating, but that’s not my goal. I don’t work my butt off to win a race once in a while. I want to win a bunch of races and contend for a championship. We have work to do. This is not a secret. We know that. We just have to get to work.”
Team owner Justin Marks said this will be a busy offseason for Suarez and the No. 99 team.
“We owe it to Daniel and to the organization this winter to take a real hard look at that 99 program and make sure we are surrounding him in 2024 with all the tools and things that he needs to be successful,” Marks said after Chastain’s win last weekend at Phoenix.
“I mean, I think in any multi-car organization, there’s one or two that are behind the others for a number of different reasons, whether it’s data or information or process or culture, whatever.
“We just have to take a hard look at that and make sure that we re-rack the deck in 2024 with a tremendous opportunity for him to go out and be successful because we’ve got the people and partners and tools to have both these cars in the playoffs and fighting in every round.”
3. Chris Buescher’s best season new benchmark
After a career-best season, Chris Buescher looks to be better in 2024.
Buescher’s breakthrough season included three wins, nine top-five finishes and 17 top 10s — all career highs.
“It’s a good benchmark for us going forward,” he said. “There’s only one person and one team that is going to say the year went how they wanted it at the end of (last weekend’s race).”
Buescher placed seventh in the season standings, finishing eight points ahead of RFK Racing teammate and boss Brad Keselowski.
“It’s certainly been a great season and we’re keeping our heads up based on what we’ve been able to accomplish, which were our goals at the beginning of the season. This (season) isn’t just something that just happened. It was very deliberate, and we put a ton of effort to get to this point.
“We have proved to ourselves that this is a possibility for us and we’re capable of it. Now it’s time to go into next year, win more races early, be in the hunt to win more and make it even farther through the playoffs.”
4. Bubba Wallace: Looking for a fast start in 2024
After making the Cup playoffs for the first time, Bubba Wallace scored a career-best 10th-place finish in the points. He finished 10 points ahead of regular-season champion Martin Truex Jr.
While Wallace didn’t win a race this season, he had five top-five finishes and 10 top 10s — equaling his career-best totals from last season at 23XI Racing.
Wallace said he saw progress this season.
“Definitely being talked about a lot more for our performances and race results and not so much in the negative headlines,” he said. “That’s good. We just got to continue to build on that and definitely learned a lot about who I am as a driver and just trying to be a better team leader. It’s all starting to click more and more.
“We’ve just got to get the wick lit earlier in the season, get on a hot streak and keep that flame going.”
As for what he learned as a driver this season, Wallace said: “Just figured out where your spot is in the sport and how to be better and things you need to work on. Understanding how these races play out. Never give up. You get super frustrated at the beginning of races when you create this master plan and nothing goes according to plan in the sport.
“I think before you just get dialed out and pissed off, frustrated and (the media) would make that a much bigger headline than the race winner for some reason, but now I think it’s just keeping your head in the game and taking what the finish will give you.”
5. Austin Dillon: Moving past 2023
This past season couldn’t have gone much worse for Kyle Busch’s teammate at Richard Childress Racing.
Austin Dillon failed to finish a series-high 10 races. He placed 29th in the points, his standing impacted by a 60-point penalty for an infraction discovered after the spring Martinsville race.
“We need a reset button,” Dillon said last weekend at Phoenix. “There’s no doubt about it. We need a clean slate, the momentum has to start over. … To have a fresh start next year with the points being even again and go at it.
“We’re capable of running inside the top 10. We’ve proven that. We’re capable of making the playoffs and winning races, and I feel like we should have a pretty big revival next year on our team.
“I think the one momentum killer for us was our penalty at Martinsville. We tried to double down and make up some of those points, and I started getting in some wrecks, some things in my control and some things out of them.
“We just had times we weren’t any good. The good thing with having Kyle, he kind of righted the ship for our whole company this year and did a really good job. I think we can learn something from that.”