NASCAR: Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin announce retirement in joint statement
By Asher Fair
April 1st, 2018 will be known forever as the day on which hated NASCAR Cup Series drivers Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin made a joint retirement announcement.
Just like that, the two most hated drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series are hanging up their helmets. Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Kyle Busch, 32, and Denny Hamlin, 37, are calling it a career after 14 and 13 seasons in the Cup Series, respectively.
Busch, the 2015 Cup Series champion, drives the #18 Toyota for the team, while Hamlin, the 10,000-race veteran who retires in a 33rd place tie on the all-time championships list with President Donald Trump among other notable celebrities, drives the team’s #11 Toyota.
Replacing Busch and Hamlin in the #18 and #11 cars likely won’t be a huge challenge for Joe Gibbs Racing. Christopher Bell, the 23-year-old driver of the #20 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Xfinity Series, will likely take over the driving duties of the #11 Toyota in the Cup Series immediately, starting in next week’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas.
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Bell is set to join young Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Erik Jones, the 21-year-old driver of the #20 Toyota, and Daniel Suarez, the 26-year-old driver of the #19 Toyota.
Matt Kenseth, the 46-year-old who won the 2003 Cup Series championship but lost his ride in the #20 Toyota to Jones after last season, is rumored to return to the team’s #20 Toyota, which would effectively shift Jones to the #18 Toyota as Busch’s replacement. With 30 races to go in the 2018 season, Bell and Kenseth have great playoff odds despite the fact that they have not yet driven in the Cup Series in 2018.
But more importantly, the question is which drivers will take over the top of the unofficial “Most Hated Drivers” list with Busch, who has elected to pursue a career in gymnastics in hopes of making the 2020 Olympic team, and Hamlin, who has elected to become an amusement park bumper car operator, now having retired after competing in 468 and 440 career Cup Series races, respectively?
This is a challenging question to answer, but we did our best below.
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Fortunately for the fans but unfortunately for the haters, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin are expected to come out of retirement tomorrow and remain the most hated drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series, but until then, have a happy April Fools’ Day, and more importantly, happy Easter from all of us at Beyond the Flag!