NASCAR: Kyle Busch to Team Penske for 2023?

With Kyle Busch not yet having a contract to compete in the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season, is Team Penske even a remotely possible option?

Short answer, absolutely not. But it’s not a surprise that Kyle Busch, who hasn’t ruled out anything at this point in regard to his racing career beyond the conclusion of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season, has been mentioned as a possibility at literally all of the sport’s top teams at some point during this long and drawn-out process.

Before the season began, longtime partner M&M’s announced that they would be stepping away from the Joe Gibbs Racing #18 team after the season, leaving the sport’s most successful active driver without primary sponsorship for 2023.

Busch entered the 2022 season without a contract to compete in 2023, and this announcement made things even more challenging.

While some believed that the two-time champion’s cryptic comments at Talladega Superspeedway were simply another example of Kyle Busch being Kyle Busch, we are now more than four months beyond those comments.

Still, no deal has been finalized.

In fact, a once promising development was recently revealed to have fallen through, and both Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota have acknowledged that it is an uphill battle and they will need to work harder than ever if they want a chance to retain Rowdy for what would be a 16th season.

Roger Penske, otherwise known as the Captain, shot down the idea of the 60-time Cup Series race winner joining his organization for 2023 — at least on the Cup Series side.

His three-car operation is set with Austin Cindric behind the wheel of the #2 Ford, Ryan Blaney behind the wheel of the #12 Ford, and Joey Logano behind the wheel of the #22 Ford for another year. There is zero chance that a fourth car is added, despite the fact that it would be allowed.

Additionally, the Team Penske-affiliated Wood Brothers Racing are reportedly keen to move forward with Harrison Burton behind the wheel of the #21 Ford.

Here is what Penske had to say about the matter in late July, according to NBC Sports.

"“We’ve really got four cars that we’re involved in today. We support the Wood Brothers and obviously Harrison (Burton). We’re full of drivers, and we’re happy with the guys we have there. They’re young and ready to go, and I think our sponsors are fully aligned with us.“It’s interesting that Kyle hasn’t gotten a spot yet. Look … he’s one of the best out there. I think his expectations, along with what the sponsors and the teams want to step up with, sometimes that doesn’t align. So at the moment I think we’ll wait and see.”"

Since then, the team have put their money where their mouths are, as the Captain signed Blaney and Logano to long-term contract extensions last month, avoiding a “Kyle Busch ” problem for both.

Perhaps the possibility of Busch running the Indy 500 in a Team Penske Chevrolet still exists, though that wasn’t discussed; Busch hasn’t ruled out IndyCar in the future. But for now, there are still a number of teams in the running to sign him in the Cup Series, and Team Penske isn’t one.