Richard Childress reflects on 'tough year' for Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon

It’s no secret 2024 has been a tough season for Richard Childress Racing, as Kyle Busch and Austin Dillon both failed to qualify for the playoffs.

Busch came close to a win a number of times, like in Atlanta and Daytona, even while struggling immensely throughout the campaign. Meanwhile, Dillon famously won at Richmond, but his playoff eligibility was revoked after he wrecked Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin to get to Victory Lane.

As the two wheelmen look to finish the season strong, their team owner joined Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour this week to reflect on the year that was, as Richard Childress put it all into perspective regarding his team’s performance.

“It’s been one of those years,” Childress told Harvick, speaking on the team’s performance in 2024. “Crashes, we’ve been involved in so many crashes. I think Austin was involved in one in the first six races this year, so that put him so far behind.

“Kyle, he’s been involved in several crashes. I talked to him this morning, he said, ‘Maybe I should’ve been a little bit more patient,’ but you know, when you’ve got someone breathing down your back, you’re leading the race with 20, 25 to go, you just make the move that you think is right. I told him, ‘Man, don’t worry, we’re going to win some races.’ It’s been a tough year, but everybody has fought hard.”

Moving forward, it doesn’t seem as if driver changes are imminent for RCR, but the organization is going to look in the mirror and try to figure out what they’ve been doing wrong, as Childress revealed the team will come back stronger in 2025, learning from 2024’s mistakes.

“We see that we’ve got to make some changes,” Childress added. “We’ve got more changes coming that you’re going to hear about in the next month, probably, and we’re excited about next year. You know, you can’t dwell on the past, you’ve got to learn from the past.

“History teaches you, and that’s what we’ll learn from this year, and take it into next year with a positive attitude.”

Richard Childress Racing was injected with some new life when Kyle Busch joined the team, and everything went great at first. However, it hasn’t been smooth sailing since halfway through 2023, but a few wins might’ve changed that perspective.

We’ll see if the team can get to Victory Lane again before the end of 2024, and give themselves some positive momentum for 2025.