HAMPTON, Ga. -- Kyle Busch is certainly not happy that he missed the playoffs for the first time in the elimination format era, but he's not overtly showing it as he moves forward.
He is staying relatively upbeat while looking at ways to get back to victory lane before the season's end.
"That was Kyle 8.0," Busch said about his new attitude. "Is that where we are at now? Are we on 20 versions of myself? I don't know, getting a little older, I guess, and just trying to work through some of that stuff.
"You can't change it. You can work harder at trying to develop better things to not be in that same position. But ultimately, again, you can't change what's happened."
The early stretches of the regular season were difficult for Busch and Richard Childress Racing. The No. 8 team did not have the pace to contend for wins in the spring and then DNFs began wreaking havoc on Busch's playoff chances once the calendar turned to June.
The team turned its season around -- partially -- after the two-week Olympic break. Busch finished 12th at Richmond Raceway while teammate Austin Dillon won the race. The two-time champion then finished fourth at Michigan.
Busch was in a position to win his way into the playoffs during the final two races of the regular season. However, he finished second at Daytona as Harrison Burton won from well below the cutline. He then finished second at Darlington while Chase Briscoe won from below the cutline.
Busch was in too much of a points deficit to get into the playoffs without a win.
"We just didn't execute well enough and have the pace that we needed to through the summer," Busch said. "Crashed a lot and that just kind of self-eliminated us."
Busch's season is now at a crossroads. He is not eligible to pursue his third Cup Series championship after failing to make the playoff field.
That doesn't mean Busch doesn't have things to fight for. After all, he still seeks the win that will extend his streak of consecutive seasons with at least one win to 20.
Putting the No. 8 back in victory lane will also show Busch and Richard Childress Racing that they were on the right path after some midseason "experiments" failed to produce results.
"I've lost a substantial amount of money, let's say, in the last few weeks of not making playoffs, not getting wins, things like that," Busch said. "So that's a big hit as well too.
"But again, it is what it is. I mean, we just move on. We go through it and try to play spoiler now."