NASCAR: 3 teams Kyle Busch won’t drive for in 2023

Teams Kyle Busch won’t drive for: No. 2 – Hendrick Motorsports

Could Kyle Busch make an unexpected return to the team he left after the 2007 NASCAR Cup Series season to join Joe Gibbs Racing as the driver of the #18 Toyota?

The fact that Busch is available for the 2023 season is something that team owner Rick Hendrick can’t ignore, but it’s not necessarily something that he will act upon.

In other words, he isn’t exactly in the position to go after Busch, who drove the #5 Chevrolet for his organization during the first three years of his career, at all costs like other co-owners such as Tony Stewart might be able to.

First and foremost, all four of his drivers are under contract through at least the end of the 2023 season. Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman are under contract through 2023 after signing extensions last year, and Chase Elliott and William Byron are under contract through 2027 and 2025, respectively, after signing extensions earlier this year.

And secondly, none of those drivers would necessarily be worth replacing at this point anyway, even with the sport’s most successful active driver. Even Bowman has seven wins since July 2019; Busch has five.

Sure, there are talks about Bowman and what his future might hold after 2023, but there will always be those sorts of talks amid a rough stretch of races. And even if he does get replaced, it wouldn’t be until 2024. As for the oldest of the four, reigning series champion Larson, he only just turned 30.