Before Kyle Busch’s sudden death, Richard Childress Racing was planning to announce his return for the 2027 NASCAR Cup Series season. RCR owner Richard Childress spoke with the media on Saturday at Michigan and revealed that Busch’s return to the team for 2027 was set to be announced this weekend.
Kyle Busch had a difficult time with RCR since the start of the 2024 Cup Series season, failing to win a single race. With Busch’s contract ending at the end of the 2026 season, questions over where the legend would race in 2027 were circling the paddock.
Spire Motorsports, Hendrick Motorsports and Legacy Motor Club were the possible destinations for the two-time Cup Series champion if RCR decided not to re-sign him.
On May 21, Kyle Busch’s family announced that the NASCAR driver was battling a severe illness and was set to miss the Coca-Cola 600. Just hours later, NASCAR released a statement on behalf of the family, revealing that Busch had died.
RCR owner Richard Childress addressed the media on Saturday at Michigan ahead of the Truck Series race. During the same press conference, the RCR owner announced that he and Kyle Busch were set to announce the two-time Cup Series champion’s return to RCR for 2027 this weekend, but Busch died ahead of the race weekend at Charlotte.
“The hardest part of this is that today, we were going to be in here and Kyle was going to be with me and we were going to announce that he was coming back in 2027 and driving for RCR,” said Richard Childress.
“We wanted to be up here in Michigan with our GM (General Motors) friends, with Chevrolet and it didn’t happen. This is a different type of media availability instead of a press conference saying he was coming back and race for us in 2027,” he added.
Richard Childress revealed that Austin Hill will drive the No. 33 RCR for the remainder of the 2026 Cup Series season.
Richard Childress reveals conversation with Kyle Busch just a couple of days before his sudden death
Richard Childress, speaking with the media at Michigan, revealed that he had a conversation with Kyle Busch on Tuesday, a couple of days before his demise on Thursday, where the two-time Cup Series champion promised to push the No. 8 RCR to the Chase.
Kyle Busch had a difficult start to the 2026 season but came out well in the last few races before his demise, finishing in the top 10 in two of the three races.
“I talked to Kyle on Tuesday night before everything went down, and we had a great conversation talking about how he said, ‘You give me a car like you gave me the last three weeks, and I will make the Chase this year.’ We were that confident.”
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A family statement revealed a couple of days after Busch’s demise that he had sudden bacterial pneumonia, which turned into sepsis, leading to complications and eventually his death.
