NASCAR news: Kyle Busch out, Carl Edwards finally unretiring?

It's that time of year again: the time of year when we ordinarily would have put out an annual April Fools' Day NASCAR article to celebrate the annual "holiday".

That tradition that was unfortunately brought to a mandatory end in 2020 when there was enough fake news circulating the great World Wide Web amid the pandemic – and of course, the innate desire of a large percentage of the population to take to social media to pretend to be the most educated experts on the topic.

But I digress. Now that that's out of the way, it's still fun to look back at some of the jokes from pre-2020, including two from 2019, one of which generated a hilarious response from the team in question themselves.

The odd thing about these jokes is that some of them, even if only in a roundabout way, turned out to be somewhat true.

It's hard to believe it's been six years since our most recent. Without further ado, here are some of the ones that stand out.

2014 - Danica Patrick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. switch teams

At the time, Danica Patrick was competing for Stewart-Haas Racing, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was competing for Roush Fenway Racing, and the two were dating away from the race track.

According to the prank, Patrick and Stenhouse were to be getting engaged to be married, and the decision would also come with a Cup team swap.

None of that happened, of course, as the pair broke up in 2017, and Stenhouse has since gotten married.

Having said that, Stenhouse did end up being a part of a straight-up team swap in 2020, when he switched places with Chris Buescher at JTG Daugherty Racing. To this day, Buescher still competes for the team now known as RFK Racing, and Stenhouse still competes for the team now known as Hyak Motorsports.

As for Patrick, she left Stewart-Haas Racing after 2017 and made just one more Cup Series start for Premium Motorsports in the 2018 Daytona 500.

2015 - Brian France out

You're almost left scratching your head more so when the pranks end up being completely true than when they don't. This one, however, is one that a lot of NASCAR fans probably saw coming.

Brian France was indeed ousted as NASCAR chairman and CEO, though it happened in August 2018 after he was arrested for driving while intoxicated and for criminal possession of oxycodone. His uncle, Jim France, took over and has remained in place ever since.

2016 - Tony Stewart return

Tony Stewart retired after the 2016 season ended, a decision he made even before the 2015 season ended when he picked Clint Bowyer to be his replacement for 2017. However, on April Fools' Day 2016, he was said to be making a comeback in the 2017 Daytona 500.

While that return didn't happen, Stewart did win the race for the first time – as a team owner – when Kurt Busch took the checkered flag.

Stewart is no longer a Cup Series team owner, with Stewart-Haas Racing having shut down after the 2024 season. Gene Haas retained one of their four charters and continues to operate Haas Factory Team.

2018 - Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch retirement

Kyle Busch was still largely considered the most hated driver in NASCAR at the time, but Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin was running him a pretty close second after wrecking Chase Elliott at Martinsville Speedway in the previous October's playoff race.

So a lot of fans were pleased to learn that they had announced their abrupt retirement in a joint statement, before being disappointed to look at their calendars.

Oddly enough, Busch has since left Joe Gibbs Racing for Richard Childress Racing. Hamlin, although he still competes for Joe Gibbs Racing, now co-owns 23XI Racing along with NBA legend Michael Jordan. And believe it or not, it was actually a "fake news" article -- not an April Fools' Day prank -- which led to the creation of this team.

2019 - Carl Edwards unretires

Ever since Carl Edwards unexpectedly decided to retire from NASCAR before the 2017 season, just months after coming oh-so-close to capturing his first Cup Series championship, there have been rumors about him making a comeback. That is literally true to this day. In every single media availability he has, he is still asked about it, even more than eight years later.

It made our 2019 prank extremely low-hanging fruit. In 2017, there were rumors about him returning with Team Penske, which only ran two cars full-time at the time. They added a third car for Ryan Blaney in 2018; Blaney had driven for Wood Brothers Racing, which had (and still have) a technical alliance with Penske.

So the joke was that Team Penske would fully acquire the historic Wood Brothers team, run a fourth car, and bring Edwards out of retirement to drive it.

Wood Brothers Racing were literally contacted about the suggestion with excited (or maybe concerned?) fans throughout that morning and afternoon.

2019 - Kyle Busch fired for winning races

Everything needed to go right at Texas Motor Speedway for this article to be valid; otherwise, it would have just been the Edwards to Wood Brothers (to Penske) post. In 2019, Kyle Busch was in his prime when it came to riling up fans by competing in (and winning) Truck Series and Xfinity Series races, in addition to Cup Series races.

He was lined up to compete in all three races at Texas. He won the Truck and Xfinity Series races, but he placed 10th at the Cup level, leading to a totally believable quote from team owner Joe Gibbs that Busch was no longer going to be a member of the team because he couldn't win at the Cup level, yet kept stealing wins from his playoff-eligible Xfinity drivers (including Christopher Bell).

Busch "responded" with an equally believable Drake-inspired quote.

Ironically, Busch did leave Joe Gibbs Racing after the 2022 season, and after the 2023 season, he sold his Truck Series team to Spire Motorsports, though he has still competed in five races per year. He did take the 2022 season off from Xfinity Series competition after scoring his 100th win in 2021, but he returned for select starts in 2023. He hasn't been back since.