Aside from the first half of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season, Kyle Busch's time with Richard Childress Racing has been a disappointment. Busch won three races before the second half of 2023, but he hasn't won since.
The 2024 season ended his record-breaking streak of 19 consecutive winning seasons, and he also missed the playoffs for the first time since 2012. In 2025, he was rarely a factor and again missed the playoffs.
To the surprise of some, it was confirmed fairly early on that Busch would be back with Richard Childress Racing for a fourth season in 2026. But it's set to be a contract year for the 40-year-old Las Vegas, Nevada native, who would like nothing more than to be competitive again and turn that into a third career Cup Series championship.
Where might Busch end up in 2027? Here are three realistic landing spots, plus one longshot.
1. Richard Childress Racing
If Busch wants to keep driving after 2026, Richard Childress Racing still might make the most sense. If he struggles again in 2026, the market may not be as strong for a soon-to-be 42-year-old heading into 2027, regardless of his past achievements. And if he doesn't struggle, why leave?
The fact that none of the rumors from late 2024 or early 2025 materialized and Busch is indeed set to be back with Richard Childress Racing behind the wheel of the No. 8 Chevrolet in 2026 show that he is still committed to making this partnership work. Progress next year could go a long way.
2. Spire Motorsports
Busch was linked to Spire Motorsports for 2025 in late 2024 when rumors started to swirl that they'd potentially be moving on from Corey LaJoie, which they did, but Busch had a contract with Richard Childress Racing that already ran through 2025 and stayed put.
Busch sold the entire Kyle Busch Motorsports Truck Series team to Spire Motorsports after the 2023 season, and he continues to compete in as many Truck Series races per year as he is allowed.
Spire Motorsports moved on from Justin Haley after just one season, and Daniel Suarez's deal to replace him is said to be for only one year. It's not hard to envision Busch replacing any one of the team's current three drivers, quite frankly. What if Suarez doesn't perform? What if Michael McDowell retires? And what if Carson Hocevar is finally snatched up by a bigger team?
3. Retirement
Even in his final year with Joe Gibbs Racing, Kyle Busch was simply not Kyle Busch we had grown accustomed to seeing in the No. 18 Toyota throughout the 2010s. He backed into the playoffs with a win he effectively inherited in the final turn of the Bristol Motor Speedway dirt race, and he was unsurprisingly a first round exit when he got there.
Sure, the early 2023 success provided a glimmer of hope that he wasn't done yet. But what about everything that's happened since? Teammate Austin Dillon found victory lane in both 2024 and 2025, despite performing even worse than Busch overall.
Should 2026 produce another year of disappointment, it's not at all far-fetched to imagine Busch calling it quits. It would mirror what Jimmie Johnson did in 2020. After entering the 2018 season on a 16-year winning streak, he failed to win a race in 2018, 2019, or 2020. Another winless season for Busch would indeed be his third in a row after recording a 19-year winning streak of his own.
Longshot: 23XI Racing
Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace are both locked in long-term, barring any major changes. But it's clear that the third seat is bought and paid for by Riley Herbst and family, because with a championship-level team, he finished 35th of 36 full-time drivers in the standings and owned a series-worst top finish of 14th.
The obvious candidate to land in this seat would be Corey Heim, 23XI Racing's development driver. But if it really were that obvious to those making the decisions, it would have happened in 2025. And yet it won't even happen in 2026. Are we really convinced it will happen in 2027?
With Heim all but blacklisted at Joe Gibbs Racing, simply because Ty Gibbs doesn't like him, at what point does he get fed up with Toyota and sign elsewhere? You've got to believe other teams would be lined up for his signature if he becomes available.
What better way for Busch to go out than by reuniting with former teammate Denny Hamlin and Toyota in a car that everyone knows is capable of winning races? Even if Heim is still in the picture, perhaps the team could bill 2027 as Busch's retirement year and finally promise the rising star a seat for 2028.