The first domino for Kyle Busch has officially fallen.
The NASCAR Cup Series driver and future Hall of Famer announced at a news conference on Tuesday morning that he was ending his 15-year run with Joe Gibbs Racing and was moving on with Richard Childress Racing for the 2023 season. He will be driving the No. 8 car.
“It’s been 15 years since I’ve had to make a decision quite like this, but 15 years ago, it was just me,” Busch told media on Tuesday afternoon, in the lobby of the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Uptown Charlotte. “You know, I didn’t have a family. I didn’t have a wife and a son and a daughter and a race team around me that I had to worry about. It was just what I needed to do. So this process took a lot longer than I expected it to.
“But this is one of the most important decisions of my life. And I definitely couldn’t rush through it.”
The only active driver with multiple Cup Series championships said that he ultimately chose Richard Childress Racing for the chance the team gives him to “hit reset,” to be “welcomed just as I am,” and to win immediately.
That winning part, Busch later told reporters, was evident earlier this year, when RCR Cup driver Tyler Reddick “blew his doors off” in the first few races of the 2022 season.
“I certainly knew right then and there, at the beginning of the season, that those guys definitely had some speed,” Busch said. “And just seeing their overall culture — being around Richard, talking with Austin (Dillon) and having that chance to look at the whole picture — I felt like it was a no-brainer.”
It didn’t take much to get Richard Childress excited about the endeavor, either, the team owner said.
“We talked about winning races, and I looked at him in his eye, and I’d seen that same look in Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s eye,” said Childress, who once upon a time took a big risk on the high school dropout that was Earnhardt, who ended up becoming one of the sport’s greatest drivers (and most important figures) of all time. “He’s hungry. And we’re going to win. I’ve seen that look before.
“Watching Kyle, I’ve watched him for many years, ever since he started. ... Just seeing how he handles a car, the car control, the way he drives a car and his take-no-prisoner attitude — that’s the Dale Earnhardt style that I was accustomed to racing with. And I think Kyle has that modern-day style of racing that Dale Earnhardt had.”
The move, which Busch clarified as a “multi-year” deal, marks the conclusion of a saga that has dragged on for months — one that comes as a result of the Mars Inc. decision to exit NASCAR at the end of the year, leaving JGR without a primary sponsor for Busch’s No. 18 team.
Among the biggest questions facing Busch, 37, and his future boss involve what the No. 8 car’s sponsorship situation will look like. According to a report from Adam Stern of Sports Business Journal, RCR would likely need “at least $15 million” in sponsorship annually to break even on Busch, between the cost it would take to run his car and pay his salary. That would require maintaining support from current major sponsors — like Bass Pro Shops, Coca-Cola and Lenovo — and adding other sponsors, too.
Said Richard Childress on the team’s future sponsorships: “We’re going to have a great lineup. We’re going to be announcing those very soon, so can’t wait for you to hear some of the sponsors that we’re gonna have. It’s going to be an exciting announcement that’ll come a little later.”
Another question: What will happen with Reddick, who currently drives the No. 8 Cup Series car?
Reddick is still under contract with RCR through 2023, Childress reiterated on Tuesday. That means that RCR will have three Cup teams in 2023, with drivers Austin Dillon, Busch and Reddick.
Busch will take over for the No. 8 car — meaning that he’ll begin working with Reddick’s current crew chief, Randall Burnett, and other crew members there — and Reddick will lead the team’s third charter in 2023. (Reddick is committed to joining 23XI Racing in 2024, per a deal Reddick inked earlier this year.)
When asked, Childress wouldn’t say where he is getting his third charter.
“While I’m still in this sport,” Childress said, “I’m still wanting to win that next Cup championship, and I know that I got a driver here (who can do that). Not that I haven’t had drivers who can do it, and not that Austin can’t do it — he’s won two other championships — but I think it increases our odds with Kyle in there to win a championship for RCR.”
History between Richard Childress Racing, Kyle Busch
When Busch and Childress met on the makeshift stage on Tuesday, the first thing Childress did was crack a smile and hand him a green box.
“Hold my watch,” Childress said. Those on-hand chuckled.
Busch remembers hearing Childress say that line about a decade ago, at Kansas Speedway in 2011, right before Childress and Busch got into a physical altercation that helped bolster the take-no-crap personas of the famously fiery owner and polarizing driver.
On that day in 2011, Chidress, who was 65 at the time, was fined $150,000 for approaching Busch after the Trucks race, placing him in a headlock and punching him several times after Busch bumped into an RCR car on the cool-down lap after the race.
“I believe passionately in defending my race teams and my sponsor partners,” Childress said in a statement at the time, according to a report from The Associated Press. “In this instance, I let that passion and my emotions get the best of me.”
The driver and the owner both smiled and told reporters on Tuesday that the altercation was in the past. Busch even said that it was a positive to have an owner so passionate and protective of his drivers, quipping, “Fortunately, I get to hold the watch now.”
Childress’ checkered history with Busch is another parallel he could draw between Busch and Earnhardt.
“When Dale first came to me, the media came and told us, ‘This won’t last a year,’” Childress said. “We lasted 20 years. And this one here, I know it’ll go that far, too. I hope I’m around here (to see it). I’ll be an old man by then.”
For Busch, joining RCR represents a “fun” opportunity.
“I mean, Austin and I, we’ve talked a few times, he actually flew home with me this weekend,” Busch said. “You know, I’m excited about it. I’m ready to get going. ... But we still have seven more races to focus on before we can turn our attention to being able to go up to RCR and really get in the weeds of everything they got going on up there. And we need to be respectful of their playoff chances, and that 8 team, and letting them do their business.”
Dillon, Busch’s future Cup teammate and longtime friend (who was the first person to reach out to Busch to kick start his negotiations with RCR), called Tuesday’s deal “a natural fit.”
“I’ve always felt like we’ve got this aura about RCR that we’re ‘the bad boys’ a little bit,” said Dillon, who drives the No. 3 car and is the grandson of Richard Childress. “So Kyle brings that back, in a way. We handle our jobs on and off the track, and that stuff that my grandfather talked about, it’s obvious to see.
“He has qualities of a race car driver that Senior had, and to have him come and help continue the legacy of RCR, it’s huge.”
What’s the future of Kyle Busch Motorsports’ Truck Series team?
Busch indicated a few weeks ago that his Truck Series team with Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) has probably “made this situation 80-85% harder than if it was just me.”
In other words, it is part of what complicated and elongated the process of Busch finding a new home.
Busch addressed the status of KBM’s Truck Series enterprise on Tuesday.
“Obviously, there was an announcement today with RCR and Kyle Busch,” he said. “And KBM hasn’t been a part of that yet, although we are still working on all that sort of stuff with Joe Motors and Chevrolet. Kyle Busch Motorsports intends to compete in the Truck Series as a Chevrolet-branded team next year — whether that’s two, three, four entries, we’re not quite certain on that yet, and we’re working to kind of clear up those details as we can right now.
“Hopefully we can have an announcement on here shortly.”
Future of Joe Gibbs Racing without Busch
Busch confirmed on Tuesday that the prospect of him making a return to JGR lost its momentum more than a few weeks ago. The driver indicated as much in interviews in August, even though publicly he stuck with the refrain: “Yes, JGR is still an option.”
Busch won 56 of his 60 NASCAR Cup Series wins and both of his Cup championships (2015 and 2019) with JGR.
Said Joe Gibbs in a statement on Busch’s announcement: “Kyle has been a major part of our history and success here at Joe Gibbs Racing. We are thankful for all his contributions to our organization over the years. When you look at all that he has accomplished already, it is truly remarkable, and we know someday we will be celebrating his Hall of Fame induction. We also know he still has many more achievements in our sport ahead of him, including competing for the championship this season.”
It’s expected that Busch will be replaced at JGR by Ty Gibbs. The 19-year-old driver is the grandson of team owner Joe Gibbs, and he has made a name for himself both in the Xfinity Series and in his part-time role in the Cup Series.
Toyota calls racing with Busch a ‘privilege’
Richard Childress Racing runs Chevrolets, and that means that Busch will be hopping out of a Toyota when he competes for a Cup championship for RCR in 2023 and beyond.
David Wilson, president of Toyota Racing Development, said in a statement that TRD has been “privileged” to race with “one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history.”
“While we certainly wish Kyle the best of luck in the future and congratulate him on his announcement to join Richard Childress Racing, we’re disappointed and saddened that his future won’t continue to be with Team Toyota,” Wilson wrote. “Kyle has been an ambassador for Toyota since joining the program in 2008. ... He will undoubtedly hold the record for the most wins in a Toyota across all three Championship Series for decades to come.”
