For fans of NASCAR, 2022 has been a phenomenal season for the series. Multiple new winners, great races and the new next-gen car showing it can allow smaller teams to compete for victory. Its also provided an intriguing silly season, as has most of the motorsport world. The biggest player in this has been Kyle Busch, who was remarkably looking for a new home away from Joe Gibbs Racing after M&M announced they would not be sponsoring his #18 Toyota beyond the 2022 season.
Efforts were made to find a new sponsor for Busch, but those talks came to nothing. Now, it has been announced that Busch will move teams after all for 2023, heading to Richard Childress Racing, driving the #8 and teaming up with Chevrolet. Childress and his team is where Dale Earnhardt Sr achieved so much success before his death in the 2001 Daytona 500. It marks the end of an era for Busch after 15 years at JGR, but it also offers a lot of excitement for 2023 to see how Busch will fare in his new surroundings.
How The Busch To RCR Move Came About
The idea of Busch moving to RCR came about after incumbent Tyler Reddick announced he was heading to 23XI racing for 2024. Reddick will still drive for RCR in 2023, but the team needed to look to the future. Current driver Austin Dillon thought that too, and he though Busch might be the guy the team needs. A hugely successful NASCAR driver with two CupSeries titles, Busch looked like the perfect fit to elevate the team from a sometime winner, to a regular winner and championship contender. Dillon thought Busch would be perfect for the team.
This is despite an incident in 2011 where Childress punched Busch in the garage after a Camping World Truck Series race, where the infamous words “hold my watch” were uttered before Childress punched Busch. Childress uttered those words again at the contract announcement, as he gave Busch a watch as a signing bonus. Clearly, the two have long since reconciled over the incident, and the addition of Bush is one of the most exciting developments at the team in years. Heading into next season, the aim will be to transform the team into a title winner.
Elevating RCR To The Next Level
The 2022 season has been pretty good so far though for Childress and his team. Reddick himself has had a breakout season so far, winning his first race of the year at Road America and then winning again at the Indianapolis Road Course despite an overtime restart. Long time RCR driver Austin Dillon has also taken victory, winning the late-season race at Daytona to win his way into the 2022 playoffs. It's been a very successful season so far for the team, and it could well see them win a title come the end of it.
Busch though will add something else to the table. He will add years of experience to help Dillon and Reddick in 2023 before the latter moves on, and of course he has more recent championship success than the RCR team. Remember, Busch was the series champion in both 2015 and 2019. Something else Busch will help with is marketing. He is of course nicknamed “Rowdy”, and is a bit of a controversial figure for some fans, but that will play beautifully into the hands of himself and his new team. Many might even see him as the true RCR successor to Earnhardt Sr.
A Big Change For Busch Himself
The move is a big one for Busch himself. He has spent the best part of 15 years at Joe Gibbs Racing, and won both of his Cup Series titles at that time. It also sees him move away from Toyota, and he will now drive a Chevrolet Camaro when he moves to RCR in 2023. This will have an impact on his own Kyle Busch Motorsports truck team, which will likely also move to Chevrolet trucks from 2023 onwards. But if anyone can make such a move work, it is Kyle Busch.
An Exciting Time For Fans Of NASCAR
The move makes things very exciting for fans of NASCAR. There have certainly been interesting moves in recent years, with The new 23XI team signing Bubba Wallace and Kurt Busch, Brad Keselowski moving from Penske to invest in the RFK Racing team and Austin Cindric taking his place at Penske. It shows that nothing is forever, with drivers finding new homes after many years at teams that fans might have thought they would stay at together. All this adds plenty of excitement to the upcoming season, and the Busch and RCR deal will be one to watch as NASCAR heads into the 2023 season.
Sources: NASCAR, Richard Childress Racing