Kyle Busch reacts to 2024 season: 'Maybe I am a washed-up old dog'

For the second straight week, Kyle Busch came up just one spot short of a season-saving victory in the NASCAR Cup Series.

A second-place finish to Chase Briscoe in Sunday's Southern 500 at Darlington was one of Busch's best runs of the year, but it wasn't enough to put him in the postseason picture.

The call to put on four fresh Goodyear tires before the race's final pit stop proved to be the right call as Busch rocketed from ninth to second in a matter of laps.

Busch's quick move up the leaderboard seemed reminiscent of his tenure with Joe Gibbs Racing, where nearly every week, Busch could be counted on to be in contention for the win.

For the last year, however, that hasn't been the case. A strong start for Busch and Richard Childress Racing in 2023 turned sour as the season passed the halfway point, and in 2024, the No. 8 team never seemed to fully get off the ground.

Over the last three races, Busch put together three straight top-five finishes, but it wasn't enough to make up an insurmountable points gap.

While Busch wasn't quite able to get by Chase Briscoe and clinch a playoff berth, there's a reason for optimism for the No. 8 team as they close 2024 and prepare for 2025.

"We missed a lot in the early part of the year, and the middle part of the year to put ourselves in this spot, on the outside looking in," Busch said to NBC Sports after Sunday's race. "To come in here for a last ditch effort and have a shot... early in the race I wouldn't have thought that we had a shot. I felt like we really overachieved towards the end and got a really good finish for what we had."

Despite 2024 being arguably the worst season of Busch's career, he hasn't given up on his ability to get to victory lane.

"Maybe I am a washed-up old dog, but hopefully I can find a few more trophies. I wanted it last week, I wanted it this week, I wanted it in Atlanta, I wanted it in Vegas. There's been a lot of opportunities, (at the ) Daytona 500 we were up at the front. Maybe I need two hands to count the opportunities that have slipped away."

The aforementioned Atlanta Motor Speedway is the next race on the schedule and is also the site of Busch's heartbreaking third-place finish in February, where he lost to race winner Daniel Suarez by just seven one-thousandths of a second.