Richard Childress was not happy after Dover.
Richard Childress’ Frustration Boils Over, Sends Dire Warning: ‘We Are in Trouble’ originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
Kyle Busch finished 11th on Sunday in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Dover Motor Speedway. Austin Dillon finished 15th.
Through 21 races, the No. 8 driver has recorded 14 top 20s and seven top 10s, including a pair of top 5s. The most recent was his fifth-place effort in the streets of Chicago two weeks ago. In the same time frame, Dillon, the No. 3 driver, has earned 11 top 20s, three top 10s and no top fives.
Translation: The Richard Childress Racing cars haven’t been running near the front all season.
Moments after the end of the race at the Monster Mile, Childress' frustrations unexpectedly boiled over. The 79-year-old team owner didn’t sugarcoat his feelings about the two-car organization's performance.
”Gotta get some race cars,” the NASCAR Hall of Famer said over the No. 8 team radio. "We are in trouble. Period.”
While Childress has been known to share his feelings over the team radio, there wasn’t anything notable during the race that might have precipitated such a dire warning. More interestingly, the two-car team’s 2025 statistics are on pace to be better than the 2024 numbers.
Moments after @kylebusch took the checkered flag for an 11th-place finish at @MonsterMile, Richard Childress' frustrations boiled over on the No. 8 team radio. pic.twitter.com/4wgTtSSegb
— Kyle Dalton (@kdsportswriter) July 21, 2025
For the entire 36-race schedule last year, Busch had 16 top 20s (five more than through this season's 21 races so far), 10 top 10s (three more) and five top fives (three more). Both his average starting and finishing positions are better this year.
Dillon, Childress’ grandson, has performed similarly. He scored 13 top 20s (two more than current season), five top 10s (two more) and a single top five (one more). That top five was his controversial win at Richmond, where he took out Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin on the final lap. He has also improved his average starting and finishing position numbers in the 2025 campaign.
Another interesting layer to the story is while Childress was clearly unhappy with his two-car organization, his other grandson, Ty, was in a celebratory mood and being congratulated by the garage for pulling off the improbable once again. He beat John Hunter Nemechek and advanced to the final of the in-season tournament challenge. He will face off next week at Indianapolis against Ty Gibbs, another well-known grandson of a team owner.
Related: Kyle Busch Fires Back After Shane van Gisbergen Calls Him ‘Old and Scared’
Related: Kyle Busch Clears the Air After Dale Jr. ‘Shade’ Sparks Fan Backlash
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 21, 2025, where it first appeared.
Category: General Sports
