Kyle Busch has ended his 15-year career with Joe Gibbs Racing, moving to Richard Childress Racing in 2023. The change was a big blow for Toyota as well as Joe Gibbs Racing. The reason for Busch’s departure was reportedly a lack of sponsorship for his races with JGR. Busch joined Joe Gibbs Racing in 2008, replacing J.J. Yelie in the No. 18 Toyota Camry.
Since then, he has won 60 NASCAR Cup Series races, including 56 with Joe Gibbs Racing. In addition, Busch is currently the winningest driver in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series. His former team, Kyle Busch Motorsports, played an undeniable role in Toyota’s dominance in the lower-tier NASCAR series.
But Busch was left without a sponsor when his main partner, Mars, lost its sponsorship. And M&M’s ended its involvement in the sport in 2022. Nonetheless, some fans felt Busch’s departure from Joe Gibbs Racing was a conspiracy. However, Toyota Racing Development president David Wilson suggested that wasn’t the case. “To the fans who are actually ignorant enough to claim that this is some kind of mastermind plot to get rid of Kyle Busch early, I just say: Keep trying to find the edge of the flat Earth.
That’s ridiculous,” Wilson said (via NBC Sports). “Losing Kyle in the championship race is obviously a big setback for Toyota,” Wilson continued. “Kyle Busch is worth a lot of money in the playoffs…Losing him is a big blow to us. There’s no upside. There’s no upside. It’s a devastating blow to our organization.” Still, there was one company that could have saved Busch’s race at the time: Joe Gibbs Racing. So why did Toyota have to let him go?
Kyle Busch revealed Joe Gibbs Racing did not try hard enough.
Oracle, known as a sponsor of the famous F1 team Red Bull, was one of the companies Joe Gibbs Racing wanted to work with. To make this happen, Oracle would need to spend more money on top of its $500 million investment in F1.
But according to Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing didn’t try hard enough to sell him out. The two-time Cup Series champion told The Athletic: “Did JGR try hard enough to sell me out? My answer to that is no,” Busch said. “So I thought, ‘There’s no way they’re going to get a deal with NASCAR.
There’s no chance.’ So I told the guys, ‘Look, you’d better find somewhere else.'” Joe Gibbs Racing offered Busch to drive their car without a sponsor, but Busch didn’t think it was fair for JGR to put money into their car. “I didn’t want Joe to put his own money into the program,” Busch added. Busch is in his second full season with Richard Childress Racing and is currently 18th in the Cup Series standings with 440 points. His next race is on Aug. 11 at Richmond Raceway.
