“It’s a Contract Year!” Kevin Harvick Slams Kyle Busch for Risking His NASCAR Career with Aggressive Moves

The 2026 NASCAR season so far has been frustrating for Richard Childress Racing veteran Kyle Busch. It’s been three years since he has won a race and few weeks ago marked his 100^th winless event. The No:8 team has shown no signs of redemption and the multiple wrecks he has been part of, including last Sunday’s crash involving John Hunter Nemecheck isn’t helping his case as well.

2014 Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick, in the later episode of his SPEED with Harvick and Buxton podcast, shared his thoughts on the veteran whose contract is set to expire this season. He pointed out that the two times Cup winner needs to beware of the fact that he needs to protect his seat with the No:8 team and for that needs to become better at decision in aggressive moments.

It’s a contract year for Kyle Busch. I believe that this is probably realistically maybe the only spot that he has to still have a seat in the sport. And I think he needs to do everything that he can do to try to protect that and I think that this was definitely not the way that it needed to end at the end of this race.

Kevin Harvick said on his podcast.

At the moment Kevin Harvick believes there aren’t any top-tier seat left for Kyle Busch other than the one he is currently at. The front-runners either already have elite driver or youngster with massive potential ready for the promotion in the sideline. So, the ex-JGR needs to get back to performing on a higher level soon.

I would say that the 8 car is the potential only spot for Kyle Busch as you look forward. Now there may be something that I’m overlooking. There’s a lot of things that could shake up down the road. But I believe that the 8 car, if not the only spot, is probably the best spot for Kyle Busch.

Kevin Harvick added via SPEED with Harvick and Buxton.

Kevin Harvick explains how frustrated Kyle Busch over 2026 form

In the same conversation later, the ex-RCR driver pointed out that the Busch is a frustrated figure in the garage at the moment. There hasn’t been any positive for the team in 2026, other than the Dayton 500 pole and the mid-season crew chief change shows they are desperate to find the winning formula.

I think there’s a lot of frustration there. They qualified on the pole at the Daytona 500 and really hadn’t done anything to this point. And they make the crew chief change, find the speed in the car, do all the things that they need to do.

Kevin Harvick said.

At the moment, winning the championship isn’t on the car’s fir the RCR crew and they should be focussed on finding ways to get their cars back in the fight for race wins. It needs to start from them consistently running in the top-10 and taking advantage of them momentum to develop the car.  

Right now, Kyle Busch has no shot to win the championship. Really they’re trying to put themself in a position to get the ship righted, to get the performance of the RCR cars back where they want them to be by making this change and trying to shake things up within the organization to get the speed back in the car, to get the car to just run in the top 10, which they did most of the race. I think if they can do that and try to put themselves in a spot toward the end of the year to win.

Kevin Harvick added.

The comments from the veteran driver are on point regarding the tough times at RCR. It would be interesting to see how many more races would it take for Busch to make a comeback and what RCR would do if the experiment fails for another year.

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