Kyle Busch will not sign a new deal to return to Joe Gibbs Racing for the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season. Who will replace him?
Kyle Busch unofficially got NASCAR Cup Series silly season underway with the comments he made back in April at Talladega Superspeedway about not having a deal with Joe Gibbs Racing for 2023 and the possibility of “goodbye” if significant sponsorship could not be found.
Longtime partner M&M’s announced before the 2022 season started that they would not be returning to the #18 Toyota next year, and that caught a lot of people, including Busch and Joe Gibbs Racing, by surprise.
There had been a promising development for Busch and Joe Gibbs Racing on the sponsorship front after Busch’s comments about wanting to have a deal done “yesterday”, but that deal ultimately fell through.
Busch publicly admitted that he would be willing to take a pay cut to remain where he is, and he was even made an offer by Joe Gibbs Racing. But he also admitted he was talking to other teams and had been offered a contract by a number of them, and he ultimately decided to sign with Richard Childress Racing, ending a 15-year relationship with Toyota.
Who could replace the 37-year-old Las Vegas, Nevada native?
Possible Kyle Busch replacements for 2023: No. 1 – Ty Gibbs
The obvious option and clear favorite to replace Kyle Busch is Ty Gibbs, who competes for his grandfather’s team in the Xfinity Series and has impressed since winning in his first start at the Daytona International Speedway road course in February 2021.
A Cup Series promotion for Gibbs is justifiably seen as a matter of when, not if, and with the 19-year-old Charlotte, North Carolina native being backed by Monster Energy, sponsorship doesn’t appear to be an issue.
Joe Gibbs did say that he would like Ty to run two full seasons in the Xfinity Series before promoting him, as he doesn’t want to run the risk of ruining his career by rushing him to the sport’s top level.
While Ty did run 18 of 33 races on the 2021 schedule, that obviously isn’t a full season. What he has done recently, however, is gain Cup Series experience, replacing the injured Kurt Busch at the Joe Gibbs Racing-affiliated 23XI Racing for several races.
In the event that a deal cannot get done with Busch, would one and a half seasons plus several Cup Series races be enough to justify Ty’s promotion to the Cup Series for 2023, or would the team look elsewhere?
Possible Kyle Busch replacements for 2023: No. 2 – John Hunter Nemechek
While Ty Gibbs has been the driver who has generated most of the headlines, there might not be a Toyota driver who is more Cup Series-ready than John Hunter Nemechek.
After spending several seasons competing in the Xfinity Series and the Truck Series, Nemechek ended up with Front Row Motorsports in the Cup Series for the 2020 season. Despite a solid season in relatively noncompetitive equipment, he made the decision to leave the team after 2020 and drop down to the Truck Series.
He returned to Toyota Racing Development and joined Kyle Busch Motorsports, and he was an immediate championship contender in competitive equipment. In fact, he won five races in 2021, and in three of those five wins, he finished ahead of Kyle Busch himself in second place.
Unsurprisingly, following a Championship 4 appearance last year, the 24-year-old Mooresville, North Carolina native has established himself as a championship frontrunner again in 2022.
At this point, what is another Truck Series season — or even another Xfinity Series season — going to do for him, especially if he has the chance to land a competitive Cup seat?
It makes far more sense to keep Ty Gibbs in the lower series to gain more experience than it does to keep Nemechek there. The potential of landing an opportunity such as the one this situation could present is exactly why he made the move he did and left the Cup Series after just one season post-2020. Could this be that opportunity?
What is interesting to note, however, is that Nemechek, not Gibbs, was the driver whom 23XI Racing had originally lined up as a potential replacement driver. With Gibbs ultimately getting the nod, could this signal that Nemechek isn’t in consideration any longer?
Unfortunately, that might well be the case. Will he remain with Kyle Busch Motorsports once they switch to Chevrolet? Could he stay with Toyota by replacing Ty Gibbs at Joe Gibbs Racing’s Xfinity Series team?
Possible Kyle Busch replacements: No. 3 – Tyler Reddick
Tyler Reddick is under contract with Richard Childress Racing through the end of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season, team owner Richard Childress confirmed earlier this summer.
Richard Childress Racing picked up an option in Reddick’s contract to keep him behind the wheel of the #8 Chevrolet for next year. However, what the team didn’t do was extend his contract, and Reddick went on to not only earn his first career victory but to sign with 23XI Racing and Toyota for 2024.
The move shocked Richard Childress Racing, which responded by stating that the timing of the announcement could not have been worse.
As a result, Reddick is now set to spend the next year and a half with his current team before switching not only teams but manufacturers.
But is there a chance that he gets out of his deal early, given Richard Childress Racing’s response, especially now that Kyle Busch is set to join the team and they only run two chartered cars?
We have seen instances of drivers signing with new teams early before, so staying behind the wheel of the #8 Chevrolet — or a non-chartered car — isn’t unprecedented, even if awkward.
But in the off chance that Reddick and the team do cut ties early, is Joe Gibbs Racing an option for 2023?
It’s hard to imagine a proven Cup talent such as Reddick joining a top-tier Cup Series team on a one-year deal, but the advantages in this unique scenario are abundant.
First of all, Reddick already knows that his future is secure with 23XI Racing and Toyota, having signed a multi-year deal that runs through at least the 2025 season, so it wouldn’t be a typical one-year deal.
Secondly, it would give him an extra year with Toyota before he joins the Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan-owned team.
And finally, this would give Joe Gibbs Racing the perfect opportunity to allow Ty Gibbs to spend an extra season in the Xfinity Series before being promoted to the Cup Series, preventing them from rushing him simply because a deal wasn’t able to get done with Busch.
With Reddick on a one-year deal, they would know for a fact that he would be out post-2023, so they could effectively do what 23XI Racing did with Reddick: confirm Gibbs for 2024.
With Joe Gibbs Racing and Kyle Busch unable to reach an agreement to keep the latter behind the wheel of the #18 Toyota for the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season, who will replace him? Will it be one of these three drivers?