NASCAR: The ideal replacement candidate for Kyle Busch

With Kyle Busch done competing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Bubba Wallace would be a perfect replacement in a part-time role at Joe Gibbs Racing next year.

For quite some time, Kyle Busch had made clear that he would be retiring from NASCAR Xfinity Series competition once he reached 100 career victories.

The 36-year-old Las Vegas, Nevada native reached career win number 100 at Nashville Superspeedway this past June, and he finished out the remainder of his five-race schedule, winning his final two starts at Road America and Atlanta Motor Speedway to reach 102 wins.

So next year, he will not be back behind the wheel of Joe Gibbs Racing’s “star car”, the #54 Toyota, but there is an ideal driver who can take his place and run a few select races.

And that ideal replacement is Bubba Wallace.

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Wallace is set to return to the Xfinity Series for the first time since 2017 in this Saturday’s race at Michigan International Speedway, and he is set to do so with Hattori Racing Enterprises behind the wheel of the #61 Toyota. Could this be a sign of things to come next year?

Wallace is in his first season competing for the 23XI Racing Cup Series team, the team started by Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin and NBA legend Michael Jordan ahead of the 2021 season, and he and the team have struggled, to say the very least.

The driver of the #23 Toyota has scored just one top 10 finish, with that being a fifth place effort in a fuel mileage race at Pocono Raceway, in 24 starts, despite the fact that the team possess a technical alliance with the powerhouse Joe Gibbs Racing organization.

It hasn’t been an ideal situation for the team that expected to win multiple races and score top 10 finishes every week, and they now need to win just to get into the playoffs.

We already know that Hamlin wants the team to expand to two (or possibly even three) cars for 2022, but another way to enhance their performance is obvious, and that is by giving Wallace additional seat time in the Xfinity Series.

Why not take advantage of that Toyota/Joe Gibbs Racing alliance?

Let’s also not forget that Wallace was a Toyota driver several years before his return to the manufacturer this year. In 2013 and 2014, he competed full-time for Kyle Busch Motorsports in the Truck Series and won five races, even managing to finish in third place in the championship standings in the 2014 season. He also competed in a total of six races for the Joe Gibbs Racing Xfinity Series team in 2012 and 2014.

Joe Gibbs Racing have more than what they need to make this happen, and from the sponsorship side, Wallace does as well.

It is quite clear that Ty Gibbs, who is the primary but still part-time driver of the #54 Toyota, is poised to compete full-time for his grandfather’s Xfinity Series team next year, given the success that he has had in 2021 with three wins in his first 11 starts.

If you want to talk about “worst kept secrets”, of which there have been many this silly season, this is by far the top one among those not involving the Cup Series.

But that still gives Joe Gibbs Racing the option to run a “star car”, since Harrison Burton is set to move to the Cup Series with Wood Brothers Racing, thus vacating the #20 Toyota.

So unless the team plan to replace him and bring in another new full-time driver in addition to Gibbs, all the pieces are in place for Wallace to get a few starts in the series next year, effectively replacing Busch.