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Kyle Busch responds to concern that Denny Hamlin will pass him in NASCAR win count

Meby: Nick Geddes03/22/26NickGeddesNews

The careers of Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin are heading in opposite directions. Hamlin, at 45 years old, is one week removed from winning race No. 61 of his NASCAR Cup Series career. Busch, meanwhile, is riding a career-long 98-race winless streak.

Busch, 40, hasn’t had a period of struggle like this in his Hall of Fame career. Hamlin continues to perform and is now just two wins away from tying him for ninth on the all-time wins list. Busch has seen the chatter of Hamlin closing in on him on the all-time wins list. If Busch had to bet, Hamlin will top him this season.

“I’ve seen the publications for all that, and if I had any way of being able to rebuttal it I certainly would, but I don’t. So, he’ll top it this year, I bet,” Busch said, via Dalton Hopkins of Frontstretch. “And hopefully I get some more opportunities in the future to do something with that but otherwise, I’m at 63, and he’ll soon eclipse it.”

Kyle Busch in danger of being passed by Denny Hamlin on all-time wins list

Busch is a highly competitive driver. You know it’s killing him inside to not be racing among the best in NASCAR. As for potentially being passed up by Hamlin, his former Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, that doesn’t bother him. What does is being “stalled out” at 63 career victories.

“No. I mean, as a driver, you want to continue to add to your total and just keep rising and rising and rising, right? And I don’t feel like I’ve been able to rise as high as I wanted to,” Busch said. “I was hoping to get into the 70, 75 range, and that was sort of my goal that I had set, and we’ve stalled out at 63.”

“So that’s my own problem, not that Denny shouldn’t be successful in overachieving. He’s obviously a great race car driver and has many opportunities to be able to get to where he’s at. So when he does get there, then he takes that spot.”

You would think that Busch will one day get back to Victory Lane. His tenure at Richard Childress Racing started with three wins in his first 15 starts back in 2023. It’s been 0-for-98 since, something nobody saw coming for Rowdy.