That's not true. Busch was very much this fast. He just pushed the car trying to get top 3 finishes and crashed a lot, while Truex hasn't pushed the car and settles for a lot of 6th to 10th place finishes. And that mentality difference is why Kurt Busch has 26 career wins to Truex's 2. Truex has always had trouble taking a great car and getting great finishes. It's why only 33% of Truex's top 10s are top 5s, whereas 53% of Kurt Busch's top 10s are top 5s. Truex isn't some guy with horrible luck at the end of races -- he just doesn't finish them off.

I mean, in terms of percentage of top 10 finishes that are top 5s, you have: Kyle Busch at 66%, Jeff Gordon at 70%, Carl Edwards at 58%, Greg Biffle at 52%, Dale Earnhardt Jr at 58%, Matt Kenseth at 56%, Ryan Newman at 49%, Keselowski at 61%, Denny Hamlin at 59%, Kevin Harvick at 51%, Kurt Busch at 53%, Kasey Kahne at 56%, Joey Logano at 54%, Paul Menard at 35%, Austin Dillon at 20%, Aric Almirola at 26%, Jamie McMurray at 43%, Clint Bowyer at 36%, Tony Stewart at 61%, Casey Mears at 25%, Kyle Larson at 40%, AJ Allmendinger at 19%, Ricky Stenhouse Jr at 33%, David Ragan at 42%, and Jimmie Johnson at 67%.

Notice how Truex's 33% sticks out as considerable worse than everyone on that list that consistently wins races? It's because anyone in a Cup car should be able to get it to finish in the top 10 if it's a top 10 car. The difference is great drivers can make it go towards the front. Truex doesn't do that. He doesn't take top 10 cars and make them top 5 cars. He takes top 5 cars and makes them top 10 cars. And unlike a guy like Kyle Busch, he won't wreck the car trying to make a top 5 car into the winning car.

Truex is unlikely to win this year because he doesn't have the driving style or mentality towards winning that is required. It has nothing to do with bad luck.