RCR’s Kyle Busch opens up about the WEIRD feeling while using his former team HMS’s simulators

Kyle Busch made his Cup series debut with HMS and spent three years with them before making the HMS move.

RCR’s Kyle Busch opens up about the WEIRD feeling while using his former team HMS’s simulators

Kyle Busch (Credits: @rowdyenergy/ Twitter)

Two times NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch ended his 15 years long career with Joe Gibbs Racing at the end of the 2022 season to return to the Chevy garage with Richard Childress Racing. He made his Cup debut as a Chevy driver with Hendrick Motorsports before moving to Toyota team JGR and creating history.

Most Chevy Cup racing operations are done at the HMS facility, and the Rick Hendrick team shares its resources with other top Chevy teams. One of the significant sets in the simulators, which in the modern days is one of the most essential a team/driver needs to have to perfect the race craft and get the optimum performance out of the car.

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To use the sim, Busch has to drive to the campus of his former team with him. He debuted in 2003 and full-time in 2005 in the No:8 car. He scored four wins in the three seasons he spent with HMS. When asked about the existence of a weird feeling when seeing the HMS team shop most days, Busch revealed that he does feel a little bit of weirdness, but it isn’t much. He added that he hadn’t visited the HMS race shop yet.

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“A little bit. Not really. I see the gate and turn left, I have not stepped foot in that building, but I’ve got a lot of friends over there, so it’s cool to be able to throw stones,” Busch told Fox Sports Bob Pockrass.

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Kyle Busch hasn’t used the race simulator enough this season

Kyle Busch
Kyle Busch (@rcr/Twitter)

One of the disadvantages of racing with an RCR is the limited simulator time the team can afford, as Richard Chilldres’s race shop is a pretty long haul from HMS’. So, Kyle Busch and Austin Dillon haven’t been able to use the system as often as they want it. This has deprived Busch of getting more data and ideas about how the track might behave ahead of the race.

“Not often enough, I’ll admit to that. I want to go up there and see the guys…But I’ve been up there a handful of times this year for sure. So, we’ll call it six months into the season and I’ve been up there at least five. So, I might have missed a month,” the KBM owner said when asked about it.

This hasn’t stopped Busch from producing dominant performances throughout the season. He has won three races so far and is currently the most informed driver in the series with seven back-to-back top-10 finishes. He is one driver to look up to in New Hampshire this Sunday.

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