News broke this week that Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) is selling their team, shop, and assets to Spire Motorsports at the conclusion of the 2023 season. This development, paired with GMS’s closure of their truck program at the end of the year, leaves the truck series in a very interesting place.
Let’s start by stating the obvious: KBM and GMS leaving leaves a hole at the top of the series. Long gone are the days of the consistent stalwarts that the series was built on, with the only remaining being Thorsport Racing (formerly Sealmaster from 1996-2003) who’ve raced at least part time in the series since it’s inception.
The series has seen everyone from the likes of Richard Childress, Petty Enterprises in the early days, to Roush Racing and Kevin Harvick through the 2000s all the way up to the latest “era” of KBM and GMS in the 2010’s & 2020’s come and go.
The truck series itself has had its own ebbs and flows in what it tried to be for both it’s drivers and teams. The series started as an idea pitched to Bill and Jim France by Dennis Huth and Brian France. It started its life as a short track series that was full of trucks fielded by the bigger NASCAR teams of the time such as Richard Childress, DEI, and Hendrick Motorsports.
It very quickly blossomed into more of a companion series, thriving on the intermediates for most of it’s existence. During this transition the series was beginning to be used more and more for driver development, with drivers such as Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch and many others getting their first opportunities in NASCAR at this level.
Towards the middle of the 2000s it transitioned again into more of a “proving ground” where the drivers of tomorrow could face off against drivers such as Bobby Hamilton, Johnny Benson Jr, Ron Hornaday and Todd Bodine, all of whom won championships between 2004-2010.
The turn of the decade would see the youth movement taking back over to finish out this “era” with Austin Dillon, James Buescher, and Erik Jones all getting championships under a season long format.
The truck series would then adopt the playoff format which brings us to where we are now. Since 2016 we’ve seen another swing back to a full youth developmental series with drivers such as Sheldon Creed and newly signed Spire Motorsports driver (via Trackhouse) Zane Smith both becoming champions.
The Truck series is filling an important role of being a “proving” ground for the youth of this sport to compete with each other to get to the top rung of the sport – so much so that drivers are even skipping the Xfinity series entirely like the previously mentioned Zane Smith and the rumored signing of Carson Hocevar to Spire, the latter of which has done remarkably well in some fill-in starts for the Legacy MC #42 car this year.
So with both these teams leaving, does this leave the truck series in a worse position without the contributions that these two teams made for the past 10 years? Honestly I don’t believe so, with Spire stepping in and Tricon finding it’s footing I believe the sport will continue as it was with some opportunities possibly arising for the other teams in the fold.
The likes of Niece Motorsports could be poised to gun for that top spot in the series with their #1 driver possibly heading to the cup series. The same could be said for Thorsport, who have been here since the beginning more or less. The family owned Sandusky Ohio based team could find themselves in a great position to be the top team in the series.
With seen time and time again over the almost 30 year history of the Truck series that there is always another team ready to step up into that top spot when another exits. It may be a new cast of characters as far as which teams establish themselves at the top but this may lead to the most parity that we’ve seen in the series in years. A trend that already seems to have started with 8 different winners this year so far among full time drivers.
With the similarities in the way the current Cup and Truck packages race we should see the latter become an even more integral part of driver development going forward as they continue this current “era” they find themselves in. This writer believes that the best days for this series may be ahead yet if the current trend continues.
Photo Credit: @KBMteam (Kyle Busch Motorsports)
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