New sponsor or not, Kyle Busch isn't looking beyond JGR

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | April 23, 2022 1:10 PM ET

Kyle Busch isn’t antsy about Joe Gibbs Racing signing a new sponsor for his team but would have liked to have had something solidified “yesterday.”

Last summer, Mars, Inc. informed the Gibbs organization that it would end its sponsorship of the No. 18 Toyota team — and leave NASCAR altogether — at the end of the 2022 season. The company has been involved in the sport for three decades and has been a partner with Gibbs since 2008. That was the same year that Busch joined the team.

One Mars brand, M&M’s, has been a recognizable scheme in the Cup Series with drivers like Busch, Ken Schrader and Ernie Irvan. It has also been the primary on Busch’s Toyota in over 20 races for the past few years.

“If it happens, it happens,” Busch said of signing a new sponsor. “If it don’t, it don’t. Goodbye.”

Is goodbye an option?

“Ask Joe Gibbs,” said Busch.

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Busch signed a multi-year contract extension with Gibbs in 2019. When it was made public about the impending departure of Mars, team officials said Busch’s future with the team was secure.

“Got to sell (the car),” Busch said. “If you don’t sell it, then there’s nothing to have.”

Busch said “ask Joe Gibbs” about whether the organization would let him or find a place for him. The two-time Cup Series champion, who scored his 60th career win last weekend at Bristol, doesn’t believe there would be another landing spot for him should a new sponsor deal not materialize with Gibbs.

“Probably not,” Busch said.

However, Busch has no plans to retire or look at competing in another series.

“No, I’ll probably be Brexton Busch’s truck driver,” Busch said.

 

TRD's Wilson on Kyle Busch negotiations: 'It's not good enough...to be the best driver. You better have some cash to pay the team owner, or the guy who does gets your ride.'

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | August 27, 2022 9:05 PM ET

Toyota’s David Wilson had no Kyle Busch contract update for the media at Daytona International Speedway, but the manufacturer remains committed to trying to keep Busch in the fold.

“We are still in the mix, we are still working with Kyle, and our intent is still the same,” said Wilson, the president of Toyota Racing Development. “Kyle Busch is our 60-home-run hitter, and we’d be foolish not to put everything in play to keep him in the family, and that’s what we continue to do.”

With primary sponsor Mars leaving at the end of 2022, the difficulty in finding a new partner for Busch has a few branches. Among those are the sponsor dollar amount wanted by the race team and Busch’s reputation.

“We say every week: It’s not good enough in this sport at the highest level to be the best driver,” Wilson continued. “Kyle Busch is in the conversation for the greatest of all time. Again, he’s our 60-home-run hitter, and he’s in the process of breaking every record the sport has ever seen. That’s not good enough in this sport. You need corporate America; you need sponsorship to drive the ship, and whether that’s a good thing or not…that’s not for me to say, but that’s a fact.

“It has been a challenging environment. Some of that is just organic to the current economy and the inflation, recession, whatever you want to call it. Some of that is absolutely, again, the polarizing nature of some drivers, and they don’t fit every sponsor.”

Wilson acknowledged that Toyota, as a manufacturer, has a role in Busch’s contract negotiations. However, Wilson made clear Toyota does not own drivers or teams and respects their place in the garage.

“So within the reasonable bounds of a manufacturer in the sport, we are doing what we can to try and keep Kyle in our family,” said Wilson. “This is not just an offensive consideration – I don’t want to race against [an angry] Kyle Busch. And wherever he lands, he’s going to do some damage. But as I’ve said before, it’s been a lot of heavy lifting and that hasn’t changed.”

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Toyota is not going to cut a check to cover Busch’s salary. While the manufacturer is one of the most involved with its support of race teams and developing drivers through Kyle Busch Motorsports in the Camping World Truck Series, it is not their responsibility to pay for a driver — not even one of Busch’s caliber.

“I see [those comments] all the time, and this comes back to my comment [about how] we have a role to play in this sport,” Wilson said. “From the time we came in here and started racing here…in 2007 in the Cup Series, we have respected this sport, and we’ve respected the position and the responsibility that we have in the sport, and it is not a responsibility wherein we are puppeteers and again, own drivers or racing teams.

“Race teams — Joe Gibbs Racing — has a contract with the drivers. We do have relationships with every one of our drivers — it’s called a personal services agreement — and that is because they are all ambassadors for us. But it is not our role as a manufacturer to backstop. That’s just not what we do. It’s not what we do.”

Busch’s tone has gone from deflecting questions to Joe Gibbs while saying he wants to stay with his team, to acknowledging he’s talking to other organizations, and then saying last month that he’ll take concessions on his next deal. The situation frequently changes as it drags on, and Wilson admitted it’s very dynamic.

“Each week, each couple of days brings a new twist, a potential new opportunity and we run these down to the ground,” he said. “Hopefully one of these irons will catch, and hopefully one of these opportunities will manifest themselves. I have no doubt that Kyle Busch will be driving a Cup car in the sport next year. The question is where and for whom?” If we can't work out a deal,
then we both get screwed. Kyle wants to win, and wants a good ride and we have that. We want to be able to afford him, but if some other hot shot comes up with some cash then hot shot gets the ride instead.

Wilson said there is no set date on when something needs to be finalized with Busch.

“I think that will kind of self-determine, ultimately, because wherever Kyle ends up, with whomever Kyle ends up, that entity will need the time to cement that,” he said. “So, I think it’s going to happen organically. I can’t see going deep into the playoffs.”

In the end, said Wilson, “I just want to see Kyle in a good place. I hope it’s with Toyota, but what’s most important is he lands on his feet and he and his family are in a good place.” and if some other two bit race team with no money offers him a ride,
Kyle has to decide: Is it better not to race or is it better to go with a losing team who can't afford a winning car?

 

Kyle Busch's dismal September continues at Texas

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | September 25, 2022 5:28 PM ET

Kyle Busch’s miserable September continued Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway with an exit from the NASCAR Cup Series race after 48 laps.

Busch spun in Turn 4 and hit the wall in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Running in the resin, the car got away from him and backed into the outside wall. He was running in the fourth position before the crash.

“I didn’t know as a race car driver you could push too hard, but certainly, it was a resin issue,” Busch said. “I guess you would think being a hundred-and-something degree track temp, it would be activated and ready to go, but I tried to get in it earlier than everybody else. I was behind the No. 11 [Denny Hamlin], catching the No. 11. If I tracked the No. 11 in the lower groove, I was going to lose time to him, so I just decided to go high and try to keep time or make time on him and it just snapped.

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“Once these cars snap, they are gone. They are not like the old one where you have a little bit of time to react and catch it. But yeah, just trying hard trying to go and conditions are not ready. Banana peels out there, it seems. When that stuff is not activated, it is just ice.”

Busch will finish last in the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500. It is the fourth straight week Busch has experienced misfortune.

The two-time series champion was eliminated from the Cup Series playoffs – and a chance at winning a championship on his way out of Joe Gibbs Racing – after Bristol when he suffered a second engine failure in three races. Busch also had an engine failure at Darlington Raceway. He spun at Kansas Speedway, the middle race in the first round.

Busch will have finished no better than 26th (in Kansas) in September. Texas is his third DNF in the last four races.

Busch laughed when asked what would flip the script and said, “2023.” I don't mean the year I mean 2023 million dollars!

 

Busch out of the AMSP frame for Indy 500; Kanaan in contention.
There is more than winning a race. There is also cash and teenage women.

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emailBy Chris Medland and Marshall Pruett | October 5, 2022 12:37 PM ET

Arrow McLaren SP will not run Kyle Busch in next year’s Indianapolis 500 but is still planning on a fourth entry.Take THAT hot shot!

Busch emerged as a surprise candidate to make his Indy 500 debut for the team in 2023 following the NASCAR star’s move to Richard Childress Racing to drive the Chevrolet-powered No.8 entry next year. That link-up opened the door for discussions regarding an IndyCar run at the Brickyard next May, but RACER now understands that an agreement has not been reached.

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As McLaren is expanding to a three-car effort on a full-time basis in IndyCar next season, the team’s priority at Indianapolis is to provide a fourth entry for the 500 that will deliver further value to the team’s hopes of victory. While Busch would bring obvious media and commercial interest, the desire to have a more experienced driver has outweighed those aspects – a scenario that McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown reinforced in a media briefing on Wednesday.

“We want to make sure that if we run a fourth car, we’re in the mindset that we want someone that’s experienced around the 500,” said Brown. Yeah, it's a piece of asphalt with four corners like every other oval, so who cares? Tony Stewart had never driven it untill the first time and neither had anyone else. It's our car and if you want to drive it,you better be ready to grease things a bit with some cold American cash. We also think that if you have M&M's on your uniform that you should be willing to pass them out to underage chicks and entice a few of them to spend time with our executive planning board in the team's motor home.

“It’s such an important race from a championship point of view. We’ve got three drivers that we want to finish as strong as possible, so if we ran a fourth car we’d want that to be additive. Not only to the fourth car itself, but to the other three cars. So bringing in someone who’s not done it before potentially doesn’t add that value from an experience point of view.

“[Busch] is an awesome talent and would be huge, huge news for the Speedway. Everyone’s under consideration if we decide to do it, but experience is right at the top of the list as far as what’s going to be most important to us.” No cash and no chicks?
Why are you in racing anyway?

Tony Kanaan has emerged as the favorite for the ride after finishing third in his first IndyCar outing at the 500 this year, while the team has previously run Juan Pablo Montoya at Indianapolis and could turn to the Colombian again if required.

There is also understood to have been interest in Kyle Larson but that is similarly unlikely to be pursued for 2023 for the same reasons as the Busch discussions coming to an end.

For reasons largely centered on available cars and funding, Busch’s best chances for making his first Indy 500 start rested with the McLaren-owned AMSP team. Due to his upcoming NASCAR Cup manufacturer switch from Toyota to Chevrolet, Busch’s options are limited to IndyCar programs linked to the Bowtie. All would need approximately $1.5 million to be provided to cover the adventure, which only suited the sponsor-rich AMSP team’s capabilities.

Among the other options within the Chevy-powered IndyCar paddock, few would present one of the best NASCAR drivers of his generation with a strong chance of finding success at the Indy 500 or hold a desire to expand their Speedway programs.

Outside of AMSP, the A.J. Foyt Racing team won its last Indy 500 23 years ago in 1999. The Indy-only Dreyer & Reinbold Racing outfit impressed in May but continues to seek its first victory; Ed Carpenter Racing is always fast but had an abundance of preexisting entries and relationships to manage next May.

Juncos Hollinger Racing is expanding to two cars and will limit itself to two entries, and after downsizing to three cars in 2022 and reaping championship success, Team Penske remains committed to staying at three cars while trying to find its missing pace at the most recent Indy 500.

With AMSP out of the frame for 2023, Busch, whose brother Kurt finished sixth at his Indy 500 debut in 2014, will likely need to shift his search to the 2024 edition of The Greatest Spectacle In Racing.

Now that I have dropped all the names who I know, this article is over!

 

Loyalty...why not?

 

In only third start with RCR, Kyle Busch cruises to Fontana victory

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | February 26, 2023 7:51 PM ET

Kyle Busch is off to a one-and-one start in his career at Richard Childress Racing with a win Sunday at Auto Club Speedway.

Busch came on strong in the final stage of the Pala Casino 400. The two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion hunted down Ross Chastain with 34 laps to go and took the lead off Turn 2 before both drives dove to pit road for the final round of pit stops.

Busch’s No. 8 team kept him in the lead, and he drove away from Chastain in the final stint, cycling back to the top spot with 21 laps to go, driving around Michael McDowell, who was on a different pit strategy.
Y'all … that was awesome. What a battle. pic.twitter.com/gCwrWgxFmF

— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX)

“Coulda, woulda, shoulda last week, right?” said Busch. “I think it’s just phenomenal. I can’t thank Richard and Judy (Childress) enough. I can’t thank Austin (Dillon) for calling me and getting me talking and getting me this opportunity to come over here to RCR and be a part of Chevrolet, and be able to race this Lucas Oil Camaro today and be able to put it up front like that.

“The guys did a great job. Randall (Burnett, crew chief), everybody that has worked so hard during the offseason. We’ve done a lot of sim stuff. We’ve done a lot of testing in general, just trying to get up to speed. Man, there is nothing more rewarding than being able to go to victory lane.

“I need some 3CHI for my hands; I death-gripped that wheel throughout the second half of that race. But we held on. We got it today.”

Busch and his new team missed an opportunity to win the Daytona 500 when he and teammate Austin Dillon, who lined up on the front row, were overtaken on the first overtime restart.

He led 27 laps en route to the win. The day also included overcoming a speeding penalty on lap 43 in the first stage. Busch quickly charged back through the field and finished 11th in the stage.

The victory is his fifth at Auto Club Speedway and the 61st of his Cup Series career. It is his first with Childress in only their second points race together.

Chase Elliott finished second after getting around Chastain in the closing laps. Chastain swept the first two stages and led a race-high 91 laps before finishing third.

Daniel Suarez finished fourth and Kevin Harvick finished fifth. Harvick made his 750th consecutive start Sunday.

Denny Hamlin finished sixth and Brad Keselowski finished seventh. Keselowski overcame a spin on lap 42 after contact with Corey LaJoie and had to go through the grass to avoid a multi-car crash on a lap 86 restart.

Alex Bowman finished eighth, Austin Dillon ninth and Joey Logano 10th.

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There were 28 lead changes among 13 drivers in the final race of the two-mile oval configuration of Auto Club. There were eight cautions.

With Sunday’s win, Busch has earned at least one victory in 19 consecutive seasons, breaking a tie with Richard Petty (1 for most all-time.

Busch has won for the three organizations he’s driven for the Cup Series: Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing and Richard Childress Racing.

“I think it ranks high just because it (speaks) to the fact of, ‘I can do it,’” Busch said. “I never doubted myself, but sometimes you do. You get down, and you wonder what’s going on and what’s happening, and you put yourself in a different situation and you’re able to come out here and reward your guys. It’s not about me always winning, but it’s always the guys.

“I’ve been with a lot of great people who have given me a lot of great opportunities in my career, so it’s awesome to be able to reward them. We got to enjoy it and hopefully, there’s many more to come.”

 

Same philosophy, same desire for Busch and Burnett

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | March 25, 2023 3:41 PM ET

Changing teams comes with changing scenery, but it’s also come with changing radio communication for Kyle Busch.

“He’s been calling me pal and homie,” Busch said of crew chief Randall Burnett, who oversees the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing team.

They’re classic Burnett nicknames — more fitting for Busch, whereas “little buddy” was frequently used with former driver Tyler Reddick.

“I’m a homie,” Busch said. “I can be as good a homie as anybody. All good.”

The Las Vegas native spent 15 years at Joe Gibbs Racing working around the same people day in, day out, including crew chiefs. Busch and Burnett have started 2023 strong at RCR as the new duo develops chemistry together.

Burnett is a no-nonsense NASCAR veteran who has always gotten the best from his drivers, but Busch is the first champion Burnett has been a crew chief for and doesn’t need the same type of leadership as a younger driver. Even still, Busch discovered his new crew chief has many leadership qualities that he admires and responds to.

“Adam (Stevens) would probably be my best crew chief that I’ve ever worked with, and it’s probably just a little too early to give Randall that title because I haven’t been around him long enough,” Busch said. “And (Adam and I) also won two championships together, so he gets that accolade.

“But the things Adam would do and the intensity that he would have on a lot of stuff was something I really enjoyed and really liked and Randall has that as well. Randall gets frustrated with some of…our system and things like that, so we see the same things. We have similar philosophies, and we have similar desires. It’s just a matter of being able to go out there and achieve that.

“He’s been super great to work with. I really enjoy working with my two engineers as well. Andrew (Dickeson) and Nate (Troupe) have been super helpful and super receptive to a lot of my thinking and my ways, and we’re putting a lot of that together.”

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Busch said everyone talks openly and freely about bettering their equipment. A month into the season, through five points-paying races, Busch hasn’t found anything surprising one way or the other with the team’s performance.

“I think what’s been positive…is we do have top-10 speed,” said Busch. “What’s been frustrating is that we have top-10 speed, so the positive of it is sometimes you expect to go somewhere and it takes a little bit of time, and you might run (top) 15 to 20s to get your footing and then get into the top 10.

“But we’ve already been into the top 10, so now it’s a matter of finding our footing and getting into the top five. Once you’re there each and every week contending, then you’re going to be out there contending for wins.”

After earning a podium in the Busch Light Clash — their first race weekend together — Busch led the season-opening Daytona 500 at the 200-mile mark before coming up short in overtime. In week three, the second points race, Busch, Burnett and the No. 8 team had a dominant second half in Fontana en route to scoring the win.

Entering Sunday’s race at Circuit of The Americas (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX), Busch is seventh in the championship standings with three top-10 finishes. Settled in with a new team, he’s pleased with how things have gone but sees Sunday as an opportunity to contend as they need to.

“I don’t think you’re ever happy unless you’re winning every week, but relatively speaking I feel like we’ve done a good job,” he said of the season-to-date. “There have definitely been some things that we’ve done in (the simulator) that haven’t correlated to the racetrack and that’s been frustrating, so it’s all about fixing that tool and continuing to work and evolve on that.

“We’ve done a lot of work on that – especially with COTA. It’s almost like with as much work as we’ve put into this race, if we don’t win then I don’t know what else you can do. That’s kind of where we’re going to stack up and see how we are against the competition Sunday.”

 

Homestead - JGR's tale of two races after Hamlin, Truex DNFs

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | October 22, 2023 8:42 PM ET

Joe Gibbs Racing heads into the final elimination race of the NASCAR Cup Series postseason with two of its main players sitting on the outside looking in.

Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin are both 17 points below the cutline. The duo had non-related issues at seemingly the same time Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, both resulting in retirements from the race.

Truex finished 29th with what is suspected to be an engine issue. Under the lap 236 caution, Truex’s No. 19 Toyota began smoking out of the right side and after bringing it to the attention of his crew he was pushed behind the wall. He should have kept his mouth shut and he would have got more money to stay in the race.

It had been a rough afternoon for Truex, who started from the pole. He had speed but again seemed to fight the handling of his car, particularly while in dirty air. The team was also bit by an untimely caution on lap 213 when the yellow flew after Truex had already made a pit stop.

The No. 19 was forced to take the wave around, which mired him deep in the field. Fortunately, a quick caution on the restart allowed him to rejoin the leaders. He was running 21st when the mechanical issue struck.

Coincidentally, the caution where Truex exited the race was brought out by his teammate. Hamlin hit the wall in Turn 1 while running third. It was unclear in the immediate aftermath what caused the issue.

“We tried and it just didn’t work out,” Hamlin said of his day. “Unfortunate for this Sport Clips Toyota team. We really battled back well today – just a tough break.”

Hamlin led 31 laps. He had been battling Ryan Blaney for the lead on the lap 230 restart before falling to third when teammate Christopher Bell passed them both in a three-wide move in Turns 3 and 4.

Truex did not address the media. He took his helmet and got out of there.

“I think it shows you how hard our sport is,” Joe Gibbs said. “We had such a disappointment with the No. 11, Denny, cutting a tire down. I felt like he was fast. Martin qualified on the pole. I thought we had a chance with that car. But just a series of circumstances, then lose the motor. It shows you how hard our sport is because those were two cars that, for a while, for us, were up front.”

Bell was the only Joe Gibbs Racing driver who made the Championship 4 last season. Truex did not make the playoffs but rebounded and won the regular season championship this year. Hamlin was eliminated at Martinsville Speedway, where the series visits next.

 

Kyle Busch eager to move on from ‘character building’ 2024

David Rosenblum/Motorsport Images The only place where my name is is on the underwear. It says "Fruit of the loom"
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emailBy Kelly Crandall | December 5, 2024 10:34 AM ET

Kyle Busch was one NASCAR Cup Series driver who was ready for the 2024 season to end.

The two-time series champion did not have many highlights to look back upon. For the first time since 2005, his rookie season, Busch finished outside the top 15 in the championship standings (20th). He failed to earn a berth in the postseason for the first time since 2012, and just the fourth time in his career.

To hear Busch call the season “character building” and “certainly frustrating” came as no surprise. Statistically, it was one of the worst seasons of his career with top-10 finishes and five top-fives.

“[It was] just not at all what we had hoped it to be after some success last year, especially early in the year having those three wins and then struggling a little bit on and off,” Busch said. “But then this year, just seemingly not being able to get the monkey off our back. Even having a shot to win late in the day; being close at Daytona, and maybe even closer at Kansas, and not being able to pull through.

“We probably had a handful of opportunities that slipped out from under us. So can’t say we never had an opportunity to but obviously didn’t get it done.”

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After picking up three wins through the first half of 2023 — his first season driving for Richard Childress Racing — Busch went winless. That was the most disappointing thing for Busch — an added insult to injury.

He was the second loser in the three-wide photo finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway with Daniel Suarez and Ryan Blaney. The margin of victory was 0.003s on Blaney and 0.004s on Busch.
That close was that far away for Busch and the No. 8 in Atlanta in February. Motorsport Images

Busch finished second in the summer Daytona race, passed on the last lap by Harrison Burton. A week later, he was second again, this time at Darlington Raceway. And at Kansas Speedway, Busch from the race lead with 32 laps to go.

Not being able to pick up at least one victory ended what had become of the most impressive and talked about streaks in the Cup Series. Until this year, Busch had won at least one race in each of his 19 full seasons (2005-23).

“I would have much rather it been [that] if I’m going to run six, seven more years that it last 25, 26 years and just make it a mark that will never be achievable,” Busch said. “But unfortunately, those things didn’t happen. Things changed for me a couple of years ago (moving to RCR), and I was grateful to be able to extend the streak last year and make it my own.

“But honestly … it’s hard to put that many good years together in a row. It’s difficult.”

Busch holds the record for having the longest streak of consecutive seasons with a win. He took it from Richard Petty, who went 18 straight years. The closest active driver to competing with Busch’s streak is Joey Logano at 13 consecutive seasons.