Kyle Busch will be moving to Richard Childress Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2023, Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic reported Saturday (Sept. 10). The deal will reportedly be announced on Tuesday.
The two-time Cup champion has spent the last 15 seasons with Joe Gibbs Racing, but after M&M’s/Mars revealed that this would be its last season as a sponsor in NASCAR, the search was on for a new sponsor. No sponsor has been secured as of yet, leaving the door open for Busch to go to some other teams.
According to the report, Busch will likely join as a third member of RCR as the team presumably expands to three cars next year. Tyler Reddick is slated to join 23XI Racing in 2024.
FOX Sports NASCAR writer Bob Pockrass reported that RCR began informing its sponsors of the news on Friday.
Busch told reporters at Kansas Speedway, “I do not have any new news to share. If I did, I guarantee you there would be some sort of big announcement. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been one of those yet, Bob [Pockrass], we’re still working on it behind the scenes trying to put it all together, it’s not done.”
It will mark Busch’s first time in a Chevrolet in Cup since 2007 when he drove for Hendrick Motorsports.
Over his Cup career, Busch has amassed 60 victories, 234 top fives and 351 top 10s. He also earned championships in 2015 and 2019.
The Athletic also reported that JGR will tab Ty Gibbs to replace Busch in the No. 18 Toyota in 2023. Gibbs is the grandson of team owner Joe Gibbs. Ty Gibbs currently drives for his grandfather full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Gibbs won the 2020 ARCA Menards Series championship and already has nine Xfinity victories on his resume, including a series-high five in 2022.
Joy joined Frontstretch in 2019 as a NASCAR DraftKings writer, expanding to news and iRacing coverage in 2020. She's currently an assistant editor and involved with photos, social media and news editing. A California native, Joy was raised watching motorsports and started watching NASCAR extensively in 2001. She earned her B.A. degree in Liberal Studies at California State University Bakersfield in 2010.