A disappointing Chase has left Kyle Busch more than frustrated and wondering what went wrong. After winning eight races before the Chase, Busch's season imploded within the first few laps at Loudon.

In seven Chase races, Busch has four finishes of 28th or worse. Those kinds of results will not win a championship under any system, and Busch's attitude is beginning to show that he is well aware of that fact.

"I mean, no we're not running well at all," Busch said this weekend in Atlanta. "We can't get through a race without having a problem. So, I wish we would have seen this is the beginning of the year and had growing pains instead of running so well and having the issues that we're having now. If we would have flip-flopped I would have expected that. But, you don't expect this after running so well."

Despite problems with all three of his teams, team president J.D. Gibbs has kept a positive outlook on things.

"If we were struggling and had poor equipment or guys weren't getting the job done, that's one thing. The reality is we're still a good race team," Gibbs told HardcoreRaceFans.com. "You're over it, you're frustrated, you didn't come out of the box like you wanted to - some of it our fault, some of it not our fault - but that's just part of life."

Dealing with a personality as unpredictable and fluctuating as Kyle Busch, Gibbs has put faith in his newest driver and the No. 18 crew to settle the issue and move on from there.

"You know Kyle's matured a lot, just in the short time we've known him," Gibbs went on to say. "I think he's got a group of guys there at the race team that think the world of him and really count on him and I think that helps. Its frustrating for him, he wants to win everything. To to have that happen not just once, but twice and almost three times that was discouraging. To his credit and his guys' credit they bounced back up and [at Lowe's] he was great in just saying, 'Hey, look I messed up and I'll take the blame for this one.'"

As for team owner Joe Gibbs, now that the driver's championship is clearly out of reach, it is time to refocus and look at the bigger picture.

"We have a lot to race for right now. We've got manufacturers championships and a lot of things wrapped up in this," Gibbs explained. "I think we have a lot to race for and we'll see where we wind up. You don't know what's going to happen, there can still be some miracles in there."

Yet, Busch seems to have a different, less optimistic point of view. The 23-year-old said last week he feels he is not entirely mentally prepared to come to the race track each week, "but I've still got a job to do and I'm here to do it."

With frustration setting in, the last seven races have overshadowed what has been a record setting year for him. In all, Busch has twenty wins in all three series, but not winning the Cup Series title has left him looking forward to the off-season.

"It's over and done with and a good time to move on to next year here after Homestead," Busch said in Atlanta. "I've got concerns about next year, but I'm just looking forward to a fresh start of a new year again. Hopefully, we can bypass all of this bad luck because that's kind of what it's been."

When asked about the specific concerns Busch had heading into next season, he in no way minced words, "We suck right now. We got work to do. We're falling behind. The 48 is whipping our ass."

His goal to show up his former Hendrick Motorsports teammates, and make sure they know releasing him was the wrong decision, has completely gone out the window as of now.  Johnson has a hold on the points lead with just three races remaining, while Busch is mired in the back with little room to improve.

If things don't work out for Busch and he can't find his way back to Victory Lane before the year is out it will be a crushing blow to this kid's confidence, but don't expect that to keep Busch from trying. And of course, there's always next year.