By David Morgan, Associate Editor
Kyle Busch will be sticking around the No. 8 Chevrolet at Richard Childress Racing – at least for one more year.
On Saturday, the team announced it had picked up the option on Busch’s contract to keep him behind the wheel through the end of the 2026 season.
“We’re proud to continue our relationship with Kyle Busch and remain focused on our shared goals of winning races and championships together,” said Richard Childress, Chairman and CEO of Richard Childress Racing.
“Kyle is a tremendous racer and ambassador of the sport for our fans and partners. Everyone at RCR is committed to putting the pieces in place to enhance the competition side of our business.”
The two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and 63-time Cup Series race winner moved over to RCR in 2023 after stints at Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing beforehand. Since taking over the No. 8 machine, Busch has banked three wins – all of which came in his debut season with the team.
Through 12 races in the 2025 Cup Series season, Busch has scored one top-five finish (5th – Austin), along with four top-10 finishes and sits 17th in the standings.
“I really want to give thanks to Richard and Judy (Childress) and everyone at RCR for another opportunity to be able to go back and drive the 8 car for next season,” said Busch.
“Certainly echo Richard’s statements that there’s a lot of things happening behind the scenes. It’s a great place to be, a great place to work, a great atmosphere, and a lot of grit and determination with a lot of people up there in Welcome, North Carolina. We have certainly had our battles. It’s been fun, but yet challenging. It definitely isn’t easy. This sport is very, very tough, very, very close and challenging.
“Being able to score those wins and compete for those each and every week… we know those areas in which we can improve both behind the wheel, on pit road, in engineering, all of the above. This is just the pinnacle of that, and I hope to continue to build on our successes that we’ve been working towards for the last two years.”
Busch added in a press conference announcing the extension that although he is closer to the end of his career than he is to the start of it at 40 years old, he doesn’t plan on retiring anytime soon.
He explained that he has a plan of sorts to start transitioning out of the Cup Series once his son Brexton is old enough to start driving in the Truck Series. With his son only now 10 years old, Busch will have a bit of a runway before that comes to fruition.
“No, no, not at all,” Busch said of the retirement talk. “There’s kind of the vision or the plan, if you will, on being able to race in some Truck races with Brexton alongside him. So obviously, that’s six years from now before he can make that start. That would sort of be an idea of when I would look at stepping aside from Cup Series racing. But, you know, it’s a long ways out.”
Busch will once again be joined by teammate Austin Dillon in the No. 3 car to make up the RCR stable, with the team noting in its release that additional details about the program, including sponsors, will be announced at a later date.
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