NASCAR: Richard Childress Racing tease major driver announcement

The Richard Childress Racing NASCAR team teased a potentially major announcement regarding their driver lineup, with that announcement set to take place next week.

Richard Childress Racing have been in the NASCAR headlines a lot since the month of July began. First of all, the team made the obvious decision to pick up the option in Tyler Reddick’s contract for the 2023 Cup Series season, keeping him behind the wheel of the #8 Chevrolet for another year.

Reddick responded by earning his first career Cup Series win at Road America.

But one thing Richard Childress Racing did not do when they announced that they had picked up Reddick’s option was extend his contract.

Things took a crazy turn after that, as Reddick announced that he had signed a deal with 23XI Racing, a multi-year deal, to begin driving for the Toyota organization in 2024.

Richard Childress Racing were caught off guard by the announcement and responded by saying that the timing of the announcement could not have been worse. Reddick responded by saying that they shouldn’t have been all that shocked by it.

Of course, with Reddick set to leave the team, the focus quickly turned to not only who he might replace (if anybody) at 23XI Racing, but who will replace Reddick behind the wheel of the #8 Chevrolet.

The timing of this announcement gave Richard Childress Racing plenty of time to assess their options. But is it possible that we could already have an answer?

The team tweeted a picture of the silhouette of a driver on Wednesday afternoon, accompanied by the NASCAR Cup Series logo and the organization’s logo, and the caption included nothing but “08.02.22”, implying that a massive driver announcement is set to take place on Tuesday, August 2.

Many fans have speculated that either Austin Hill or Sheldon Creed, who both compete for the organization’s Xfinity Series program as rookies this year, could be called upon to replace Reddick in 2024, and the silhouette looks a lot like Hill.

Hill has also had a stronger rookie season than Creed, as he sits in sixth place in the Xfinity Series point standings with two wins and six other top five finishes through 19 races this year. Creed sits in 13th with two top five finishes.

There are still some fans who speculate that Reddick may be out at Richard Childress Racing before the end of the 2023 season, especially with 23XI Racing’s Kurt Busch now dealing with health issues that could make him think twice about returning next year, so it will be very interesting to see how this announcement plays out, including both what is and isn’t said.