Brooklyn, Mich. – Austin Hill will drive the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet for the rest of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, according to team owner Richard Childress. The news came as Childress visited with the media in what was originally meant to be an announcement for Kyle Busch’s return to the organization.
“We were going to announce that he was coming back in ’27 to drive for RCR,” Childress opened with during his media availability at Michigan International Speedway on Saturday, June 6. “We wanted to do it up here at Michigan with our GM friends and Chevrolet and it didn’t happen. This is a different type of media availability instead of a press conference that he was coming back in ’27.”
According to Childress, Busch felt that the team had already turned a corner on race speed. The two talked on the Tuesday night before Busch’s death.
“He said, ‘You give me cars like you gave me the last three weeks, I will make the Chase this year,’” Childress shared. “We were that confident. Both of us had a lot of confidence.”
Now, that No. 8 has been replaced with the No. 33 on Sundays. The decision came as a way to respect the number specifically stylized by Busch.
“He said, ‘Let’s design it different’ and this was Kyle’s design,” said Childress. “At the end of the day, this was his design, so we decided to take it off.”
“In 2001, we didn’t have a number,” he added. “Back then, I just told Bobby Hutchins to call NASCAR and get the lowest number available and it happened to be No. 29 when we put [Kevin] Harvick in it. We’ve got the No. 33 now, so we just figured we’d put it on it.”
Behind the wheel of that No. 33, “we decided Austin Hill is who we needed to put in it at that time,” Childress explained. “Austin is going to drive as far as we’re concerned for the rest of the year. We don’t want to put a burden back on everybody trying to go from one driver to the other one.”
The No. 33 enters Michigan 27th in the owners’ point standings, 92 points below the Chase cut line.
Including his two starts in the No. 33, Hill has 19 career Cup starts with one top 10, ninth at the Chicago street course in 2025.
Hill is full time with RCR in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. He has one win, four top fives, seven top 10s and is sixth in the standings.
As Childress took questions from the media, he shared more about his relationship with Busch and how the Cup champion should be remembered.
“Kyle will go down in history as one of the greatest race drivers that has ever been,” shared Childress. “He’ll definitely be in the Hall of Fame. I’d love to see them put him in it right away.”
“All of us are going to miss him.”
Caleb began sports writing in 2023 with The Liberty Champion, where he officially covered his first NASCAR race at Richmond in the spring. While there, Caleb met some of the guys from Frontstretch, and he joined the video editing team after graduating from Liberty University with degrees in Strategic Communications and Sports Journalism. Caleb currently work full-time as a Multi-Media Journalist with LEX 18 News in Lexington, Kentucky and contributes to Frontstretch with writing and video editing. He's also behind-the-scenes or on camera for the Happy Hour Podcast, live every Tuesday night at 7:30!
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