In acknowledging Tyler Reddick’s surprise departure for 23XI Racing last July, Richard Childress set the tone for a silly season’s worth of bitter posturing by complaining that “the timing of this announcement could not be any worse.” Kyle Busch, bracing for the loss of his longstanding sponsor, Mars Inc., and slogging through one of his worst campaigns of the past decade, was likely feeling no better about the state of affairs as his contract extension talks with Joe Gibbs Racing foundered.
Looking back at what would transpire in the coming months, however, it is difficult to imagine things working out better for either party. In September, Kyle Busch made the shocking announcement that he was exiting the Toyota camp entirely to pilot the No. 8 Chevrolet for Richard Childress, leaving Tyler Reddick free, after some contract negotiations, to slot in at 23XI a year early. Capping his meteoric rise through stock car racing’s lower ranks, Ty Gibbs was then tabbed to take over for Busch at Joe Gibbs Racing in the rebranded No. 54 Toyota.
Fast forward to June 2023. Nearing the midway point in the season, I don’t think any of the three “trade partners” can be upset with how things have turned out.
Through 16 races, no one has more points-paying wins or top ten finishes than Kyle Busch, who followed up his recent victory at World Wide Technology Raceway by nearly stealing another win this past weekend in Sonoma. “I don’t know if I want an off week,” Busch joked after the race. “Let’s go, right? We’re rolling right now.”
Perhaps more impressive than the number of wins has been the variety of tracks where they have occurred. The No. 8 team has already found victory lane at a high-speed 2-mile oval, a drafting superspeedway, and through the heavy braking zones of Gateway. Throw in their two consecutive runner-up road course finishes and it becomes clear that crew chief Randall Burnett — who has more wins than any other crew chief since last summer — has built a program well-suited for NASCAR’s uniquely variable schedule.
Maybe you can quibble with their consistency, and their short track performance thus far leaves something to be desired, but finding this level of success so quickly has to feel like a major success. Certainly they’ve exceeded the expectations of all but the most ardent Rowdy Nation adherents. There are still a lot of laps to run, but Busch has established himself as a mid-season title contender.
Far removed from last summer’s shell shock, Childress is not lacking in confidence. “You know, we won a lot with Harvick, won a lot with Earnhardt, our plans is to win a lot with Kyle,” he said after winning at Gateway. “If we make the Final Four, we’ll have a shot at winning it for sure.”
It might be tempting to view RCR as the clear winner at this point, and given both the charismatic personas of Busch and Childress and the general inclination of NASCAR fans towards the Chevrolet banner, this has certainly been the perception among much of the fanbase. However, the story isn’t that simple. Rowdy isn’t the only one with three win stickers over his door, and he isn’t the one heading into the off-week with the points lead.
Courtesy of Martin Truex, Jr.’s dominant showing at Sonoma, Joe Gibbs Racing has now found themselves in victory lane four times this season. Well, four points-paying times. That business in The Coliseum doesn’t really count. The regular season points championship, on other other hand, counts a good deal — awarding the playoff point equivalent of winning three races — and Martin Truex, Jr. is now in the driver’s seat, managing a 13 point lead over William Byron (and a 29 point lead over Busch).
The 42-year-old Truex had flirted with retirement throughout a frustrating 2022 campaign that saw him go winless and miss the playoffs despite finishing fourth in the regular season points standings, but minor tweaks to the Toyota front end template and continued improvements at JGR have him right back in championship contention. Both of JGR’s other veteran drivers have scored points-paying wins as well, with Christopher Bell earning the victory at Bristol Dirt and Denny Hamlin out-dueling Kyle Larson at Kansas, and they each sit comfortably in the top ten on regular season points.
Ty Gibbs, meanwhile, continues to stack the type of workmanlike outings that have kept him within striking distance of the playoff cutline despite a rough stretch to start the season. A four race run of top ten finishes stretching from Atlanta to Bristol Dirt, in particular, offers a promising indication of his growing into a Cup star sooner rather than later. Legacy Motor Club certainly has its own issues, but when you compare the results Gibbs has achieved with those of fellow rookie Noah Gragson, it is tough to imagine JGR being disappointed with his performance.
While Kyle Busch understandably dominated the silly season news cycle, the story of his brother Kurt was ultimately just as significant in determining how things played out. Sidelined by a concussion sustained during practice at Pocono, Kurt decided to retire from full-time Cup Series racing (although he’s still working towards making a part-time return whenever he can obtain medical clearance). With 23XI now looking to solidify its driver lineup for 2023, and RCR having already signed Kyle Busch to take over the No. 8, it is no surprise that a deal was worked out for Reddick to join the team a year ahead of schedule.
Early-season gremlins have struck 23XI yet again this year, perhaps best exemplified by brake failures at Gateway that negated promising top ten runs for both Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace. Still, Reddick has emerged as a road course ace over the past couple years, winning more right-turn-races than anyone else in the Cup Series since the debut of the Next Gen car.
“Tyler’s been a huge help,” Wallace said during media availability at Kansas. “He’s fast in a lot of places where I’m not, like the road courses we go to.” With a dominant win at COTA in the bank and a summer of promising tracks on deck, the rising star has been performing as-advertised for his new team, although everyone involved is no doubt hoping to put the gremlins in the rearview and aim for a more productive summer swing once NASCAR gets back in action at Nashville.
Reddick also had the rather unique opportunity at COTA to face off against his old car for the win, needing to line up against Busch during a seemingly endless sequence of late-race restarts.
“He’s one of the few drivers that certainly really still races with that honor and integrity and wants to race fair, race hard, race clean,” Reddick said of Busch after holding off the No. 8. “I knew he wasn’t going to do anything too crazy.” It was a sentiment shared by Martin Truex, Jr., who faced a similar situation when battling his former teammate at Sonoma: “Kyle and I have raced together long enough, have enough respect for one another to race hard but race clean”.
Joe Gibbs probably explained the situation the best, though. When asked about how it felt to race against Busch after all their years working together Gibbs joked that “It’s not fun. We don’t like that, okay?”
“He’s a real talent; got such respect for him,” Gibbs went on to say. “I think he’s going to win a bunch. We know it. So we got to work our guts out to try and stay in front of him. I’m just thankful today that Martin was able to stay there.”
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