Kyle Busch Wants To Catch Dale Earnhardt In Cup Series Wins Before He Retires – But It’s Probably Not Going To Happen

Yeah, that’s gonna be a tough one.

There’s no denying that Kyle Busch is one of the greatest NASCAR drivers of all time. Over the course of his career he’s managed to win 232 races in NASCAR’s top three series, including 63 wins and two championships in the NASCAR Cup Series.

But over the past year or so, it’s been a struggle.

In 2023, Busch left Joe Gibbs Racing after 15 years as the driver of the #18 car to join Richard Childress Racing as the driver of the #8. And when he first joined his new team he picked up right where he left off, winning 3 races and making the playoffs before being eliminated in the round of 12.

But the team struggled in 2024, with Busch going winless for the first season in 19 years and tying his worst ever finish of 20th in the final points standings. And this year’s not going much better: Although the team has shown some speed at times, Busch is still winless this season and sitting at 17th in the points standings, outside the playoff bubble.

Now, I think Kyle Busch does get a win this year, because it seems like his team is running better than they did last year, and Kyle’s a hell of a driver who can manage to steal wins even if he doesn’t have the best car in the field. But with the way his team’s running, it seems like Kyle’s going to have a hard time reaching one of his ultimate goals: Catching Dale Earnhardt in total Cup Series wins.

Earnhardt had 76 wins during his legendary Cup Series career, which of course was brought to an untimely end during the 2001 Daytona 500. But Busch is still 13 short of tying the Intimidator – and at 40 years old, he’s a lot closer to the end of his NASCAR career than he is the beginning.

Busch spoke about his remaining goals in NASCAR during an appearance on the Actions Detrimental podcast with Denny Hamlin, where he mentioned not only catching Earnhardt but also winning one trophy in particular that’s eluded him over his two-decade career:

“The Daytona 500 obviously. That would sort of just solidify…I don’t know that it would even solidify everything, if I were to retire yesterday I don’t know that that means anything. But that to me, would love to have that trophy and accolade and checkbox.”

He also pointed out how cool it would be to catch Earnhardt’s win total while driving for RCR, which is the team Earnhardt drove for during his legendary career. But even Busch admits that it’s a longshot at this point in his career to catch the Intimidator:

“That’ll be tough… If I could get above 70, for me, that would be perfect.”

Busch also gave some insight into the timeline for when he’ll start thinking about hanging up the helmet, revealing that he would like to hang around for five more years because by then his son Brexton Busch, a racer himself, will be ready to move up into NASCAR.

Kyle Busch has somehow had one of the biggest turnarounds in the sport when it comes to fan perception over the years. For years, you couldn’t go to a NASCAR race without hearing Busch showered with boos. But these days he’s almost a fan favorite, whether that’s because he left JGR and now drives for Earnhardt’s former team or because he’s not winning as much or simply because he’s a veteran of the sport and folks can’t help but respect and appreciate his talent and passion.

Of course it’s rare to see drivers hang around past their mid-40s, and even more rare to see them have any measurable success after that, so we know that Busch is nearing the end of his competitive NASCAR career.

But if he has it his way, he’ll still be around for a few more years – and hopefully be able to inch closer to Earnhardt’s win total.