Kyle Busch is moving from one storied racing team to another.
The multi-time NASCAR Cup Series champion will join Richard Childress Racing in 2023, according to a report from Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic. The move ends a successful 15-year tenure with Joe Gibbs Racing.
An official announcement is expected Tuesday, per the report.
The news punctuates an eventful and “stressful” regular season for Busch, whose free agency dominated headlines and clouded a playoff-caliber season in 2022. It did so because his looming free agency revealed a strange reality in NASCAR economics — that one of the sport’s biggest stars would have to struggle to find a home (even with taking a pay cut) because of something outside of his control.
That “something” outside of his control, in this case, was the result of the Mars Inc. decision to exit NASCAR at the end of the year, leaving Joe Gibbs Racing (Busch’s current team) without a primary sponsor for Busch’s No. 18 team.
Busch confirmed to reporters earlier this month that he had “more than one” team extend official contract offers to him. RCR was among those companies, per reports at the time.
He also said that his uncertain future had been weighing on him.
“It weighs on you every time, every day of the week,” Busch said at NASCAR’s playoff media day before the race at Darlington. “But I think that the best thing that I have for me is to be experienced and being able to go race on Sundays. I’m a racer, that’s all I know, so when I get to the racetrack every weekend, I put my helmet on, that’s what I focus on. Being by myself is when I do my best work inside that car, when I just gotta worry about making that car go fast.”
JGR is expected to make 19-year-old Ty Gibbs, Joe Gibbs’ grandson, Busch’s replacement. Gibbs is having a great Xfinity Series season and has been filling in for Kurt Busch in the No. 45 and No. 23 cars as Busch tries to return from a brain injury.
Kyle Busch will ultimately join an RCR team that features Austin Dillon and Tyler Reddick, who are each under contract for next season. Reddick will join 23XI Racing in 2024.
