The 37-year-old will drive the #eight Chevrolet for staff proprietor Richard Childress starting within the 2023 season, bringing to an finish a fruitful partnership with the JGR Toyota staff that started in 2008.
“That is most likely one of many largest selections of my life, my profession,” Busch mentioned.
“I’m grateful to Joe [Gibbs] for permitting me to be a child and develop into a person. Most days, more often than not…
“Coach, you had my again once I wanted it essentially the most. Thanks.”
In a gesture of fine will, Childress additionally provided Busch’s son Brexton a future contract choice with RCR.
“The addition of Kyle Busch to the Richard Childress Racing lineup is critical, not just for our organisation, however for the game as a complete,” mentioned Childress.
“Kyle is a confirmed contender on the highest ranges of the game, and I imagine that his expertise and dedication to motorsports will elevate our race program throughout the board.
“I’ve at all times admired Kyle’s driving type and his capacity to win and race for championships ever since he entered the game. Who wouldn’t desire a confirmed NASCAR Cup Collection Champion driving their automotive?”
Tyler Reddick, Richard Childress Racing, 3CHI Chevrolet Camaro
Picture by: Jasen Vinlove / NKP / Motorsport Images
RCR mentioned Tyler Reddick, who presently drives the #eight Chevrolet, will proceed to serve out the remaining yr of his contract in 2023.
“We’d prefer to welcome Kyle again to Staff Chevy, the place he began his NASCAR profession,” mentioned Jim Campbell, Chevrolet U.S. Vice President, Efficiency and Motorsports.
“As a 60 Cup race winner and two-time champion, he will probably be a invaluable addition to Richard Childress Racing and the Chevrolet line-up. We sit up for working with Kyle beginning in 2023.”
Busch’s resolution ends a really protracted, public and initially unplanned free company involving certainly one of NASCAR’s high stars.
Busch – and by extension his Kyle Busch Motorsports staff that competes within the third-tier Truck Collection – has been the anchor of Toyota’s success in all three NASCAR nationwide sequence.
Of his 520 profession begins within the Cup sequence, all however 114 have come whereas driving for JGR and Toyota. As well as, 56 of his 60 profession wins – and each sequence championships – in addition to 30 of his 32 profession poles have come driving for JGR and Toyota.
Busch additionally has 102 wins within the second-tier Xfinity Collection and 62 within the Truck Collection. He’s the all-time chief in wins in each sequence.
Busch entered the 2022 Cup season with out a contract extension with JGR largely as a result of resolution by longtime sponsor Mars Inc. – introduced in December 2021 – that it will finish its NASCAR sponsorship on the conclusion of the 2022 season.
He has been sponsored by M&M Mars since 2008 and Mars Inc. has been concerned in NASCAR sponsorships for greater than 25 years.
Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing, M&M’s Toyota Camry
Picture by: David Rosenblum / NKP / Motorsport Images
JGR has been unable to safe a main sponsor for Busch’s #18 Toyota which might be akin to the scale of the monetary funding from Mars Inc., though staff officers have mentioned they’ve come “shut” on different prospects.
That has led Busch to exploring choices, together with these from different producers.
In current weeks, it was believed Busch was engaged on two viable choices. One was transferring to fellow Toyota staff 23XI Racing, which is co-owned by Busch’s JGR team-mate Denny Hamlin and NBA legend Michael Jordan. That choice was anticipated to trigger the least situation with Busch’s KBM organisation.
The opposite was becoming a member of RCR, which was on the lookout for a brand new infusion of high expertise after present driver Reddick knowledgeable the staff in mid-July that he wouldn’t return to the organisation as soon as his present contract expired on the finish of the 2023 season. Reddick will join 23XI in 2024.
Nonetheless, Busch has had a frosty relationship with RCR proprietor Richard Childress throughout his profession. In 2011, Childress received into an altercation with Busch within the storage at Kansas Speedway that resulted in NASCAR fining Childress $150,000 and inserting him on probation for the remainder of the season.
Requested at Kansas this previous weekend how he may contemplate driving for Childress contemplating their historical past, Busch mentioned: “The primary time I sat down with him every part was OK and the most important factor about it was simply having the chance to place that behind us.”
The shortcoming of JGR to safe a main sponsor and the prolonged negotiations resulting in a brand new dwelling for Busch within the Cup Collection had taken a visual toll on the Las Vegas native in current weeks.
In an interview final month at Watkins Glen, Busch mentioned no matter he determined “there’s an enormous change coming”.
“Is it price it to go run round and never have a possibility to win immediately versus constructing one thing versus leaping in one thing that may win? All these questions are definitely being weighed out,” he mentioned then.
“Once more, that’s additionally why it’s not so easy and really easy. So, fortunately there are alternatives on the market, listed here are Cup jobs out there. However once more, it won’t look the identical as what it has for the final 15 years.”
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