Eight wins, seventeen top-5s, twenty-one top-10s and two poles in thirty-six races are numbers that would make any driver reflect kindly on their season - but not Kyle Busch. For Busch, those numbers mean nothing but another year without a Sprint Cup Series championship. In his first year with Joe Gibbs Racing, Busch was a dominant force for much of the season, only to have it all fall apart at the end.

Following a highly publicized split with Hendrick Motorsports, Kyle Busch joined Joe Gibbs Racing in 2008. Taking over the No. 18 Toyota, Busch joined a team hungry to win and eager to show they have what it takes to win a title.

Starting off the season with an impressive 4th-place run in the Daytona 500, Busch set his sights on victory lane. Earning his first victory for JGR and Toyota in Atlanta in March, Busch was just getting warmed up.

Wins followed like clockwork, with the No. 18 team scoring victories at Talladega, Darlington, Dover, Sonoma, Daytona, Chicago, and Watkins Glen. Busch led the series standings for the first time after the Auto Club 500 in February, gave it up for four weeks after a disappointing 38th-place finish in Martinsville and then regained control leaving Richmond in May. After his runner-up finish at Richmond, Busch went on to hold the top-spot in the standings for the next seventeen weeks.

As if his numbers on the Cup side were not impressive enough, the kid they call 'Rowdy' was getting the job done in both the Nationwide and Craftsman Truck Series as well. An outstanding ten wins, eighteen top-5s, twenty top-10s and four poles in the thirty events in the Nationwide Series and three wins, ten top-5s, sixteen top-10s and one pole in only eighteen starts in the Truck Series added to Busch's success.

The 23-year-old tied Sam Ard's record for most wins in the Nationwide Series in a season and then graciously donated $100,000 to Ard and his family in order to help with the legend's ever-rising medical costs.

For Busch, it appeared little could spoil his run at the top. A serious threat week-in and week-out, Busch entered the Chase with the top-seed and a thirty-point advantage over Carl Edwards in second. Heading into the final ten-race stretch, Busch appeared confident little could deter his quest for his first championship trophy.

"It's a lot better to be at the top than it is down at the bottom," Busch explained prior to the start of the Chase. "That makes it look a lot prettier from our seat. Just to go out there and run consistently in the final ten races and race these other 42 guys that are in the racetrack with us and yet still keep track or try to out race the other 11 that we are trying to beat out for the championship here"

"For me," Busch added, "I've been in the Chase these past two seasons and had to come from behind a little bit. Fortunately this year we start in a better position and hopefully come out of the box strong on the first few tracks and after that regroup and we look and see what we have to improve on in the final seven or eight races and see what we have to work on in order to get a little bit better."

With such an optimistic outlook and momentum on his side, few would have expected what would come next. Starting on the pole - thanks to Mother Nature - in the Chase opener in New Hampshire, Busch appeared to be in the catbird seat. After leading the first three laps, Busch's No. 18 Toyota began to backslide.

Clearly an issue with the car, things went from bad to worse in just a matter of laps. The bolt connecting the sway bar had come loose, making the car nearly impossible to drive. Busch spun the car on his own, was hit by Jamie McMurray and was never the same after. Finishing the day in the 34th position, Busch left New Hampshire eighth in points, seventy-four marks out of first and clearly dejected.

Making his way to Dover the next week, Busch returned to the site of his fourth victory of the year. Looking to make up the ground lost in the disaster the week before, Busch qualified eleventh for Sunday's race and dominated Saturday's Nationwide Series event.

Running fairly well from the drop of the green flag, Busch's day began to go up in smoke prior to the halfway mark. Reporting oil in the cockpit of the car while under caution on Lap 142, Busch finally pulled the No. 18 Toyota behind the wall on Lap 172.

"We're out of the title hunt, that's for sure," Busch clearly stated after exiting his ride early.

Finishing the day in 43rd, Busch had gone from the top of the world to the bottom of the barrel in just two weeks. Twelfth in the standings and a seemingly insurmountable 210 points behind leader Carl Edwards, Busch's confidence was gone from that moment on. The young driver was never really able to rebound from his disastrous start to the Chase.

"If we were struggling and we had poor equipment and guys weren't getting the job done, that's one thing," team president J.D. Gibbs told HardcoreRaceFans.com in Martinsville. "We're still a good race team and there's no reason we can't go win these next five. You're over it, it's frustrating, you didn't come out of the box the way you wanted to, some of it our fault, some of it not our fault, but that's life."

A fourth-place finish at in the Bank of America 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway showed the team had not entirely given up. Clearly out of the title hunt, Busch and his Steve Addington-led crew refocused their efforts on finishing the season in the top-10 in points. Thanks to two top-5s and four top-10s in the final six races - not to mention a bit of bad luck on the part of Matt Kenseth and Dale Earnhardt Jr. - Busch managed to accomplish his goal and finished the year tenth in points.

"It's been a great year and it means a lot to have a year like this and win as many races as we have," Busch reflected briefly in Homestead.

One of the most aggressive and outspoken drivers in the garage, keeping Busch's confidence level up after losing it all was no easy task. Team owners Joe and J.D. Gibbs, along with crew chief Steve Addington were able to calm their young driver and finish out the season fairly strong.

"Kyle has matured a lot in the short time we've known him," J.D. Gibbs said of his driver. "He's got a group of guys there at the race team that believes in him, think the world of him and really count on him. I think that helps, when you have those guys surround him, but it's frustrating for him - he wants to win everything. So to have that not once, but twice and almost three times, that was discouraging. I think to his credit, and the guys' credit, they bounced back up'"

"We had a great season - I can't complain about it," Addington summed up. Addington explained despite the frustrating end to the season, the team did learn a few valuable lessons moving forward. "Not to show your hand too early in the season and let these guys go to work and get better than you," Addington explained. "That's one thing I learned as to how to approach this stuff. We"ve got a good package so let's try some different things and not show our hand."

There is no arguing the fact Kyle Busch had a stellar year in 2008. In all, the 23-year-old from Las Vegas scored 21 wins, 45 top-5s, 57 top-10s and seven poles in all three of NASCAR's top series. Don't expect this season's misfortune on the Cup side overshadow the success Busch had all around. This team will come out of the box strong again in 2009 and should be a legitimate threat for the series title once again - that is if they can keep it together for the entirety of the season.