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NASCAR Cup Series careers of Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin to ‘resume’ at Texas

By Asher Fair

AVONDALE, AZ - MARCH 11: Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 Skittles Sweet Heat Toyota, leads Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 FedEx Freight Toyota, during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series TicketGuardian 500 at ISM Raceway on March 11, 2018 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images)
AVONDALE, AZ - MARCH 11: Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 Skittles Sweet Heat Toyota, leads Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 FedEx Freight Toyota, during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series TicketGuardian 500 at ISM Raceway on March 11, 2018 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images) /
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No, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin are not retiring. They are set to be back in action with the rest of the NASCAR Cup Series field at Texas.

April Fools’ Day of 2018 is officially in the books. As “speculated” at the end of our April Fools’ Day article yesterday regarding the retirement of Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin, two of Joe Gibbs Racing’s NASCAR Cup Series drivers, Busch and Hamlin have “come out of retirement”, effectively meaning they have resumed their roles as the most hated drivers in the Cup Series.

Well, sort of — you can’t really “come out of retirement” when you never retired in the first place. But that was the whole idea.

Nevertheless, Busch and Hamlin are slated to continue their Cup Series careers this Sunday, April 8th in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway along with the rest of the Cup Series field in their #18 Toyota and #11 Toyota, respectively.

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So far this season, Busch, 32, sits atop the championship standings with four podium finishes in the last four races, including three runner-up finishes, despite the fact that he has not yet won a race in 2018. Meanwhile, Hamlin, 37, has finished outside of the top 6 just twice in six races and sits in 6th place in the championship standings.

This does, unfortunately, mean that Matt Kenseth, 46, will not be returning to the Cup Series as the driver of the #20 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. Erik Jones, 21, is set to continue driving that car. It also means that Christopher Bell, 23, will have to continue to drive the #20 Toyota for the team in the Xfinity Series before potentially moving up to the Cup Series as one of the team’s four drivers. He will, however, likely end up replacing Hamlin, Busch or potentially 26-year-old Daniel Suarez — it just hasn’t happened yet.

Note that the reference made in yesterday’s article to Hamlin being tied with President Donald Trump for 33rd on the all-time NASCAR Cup Series championships list is not an April Fools’ Day joke; it is, indeed, true.

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In all seriousness, we here at Beyond the Flag hope that each and every one of you had a very happy Easter, and we hope that you are looking forward to what the rest of the racing season holds in NASCAR, IndyCar, Formula 1, Formula E among other series.

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