CONCORD, N.C. — Kyle Busch will remain with Richard Childress Racing through the 2026 season.
Busch and team owner Richard Childress made the announcement Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Busch, one of the most recognizable and successful drivers in NASCAR’s modern era, boasts a career that spans more than 20 years and includes two NASCAR Cup Series Championships and 63 career wins in NASCAR’s premier series. Since joining the RCR team and reuniting with Chevrolet in 2023, Busch has earned three Cup Series wins among 16 top-five and 31 top-10 finishes.
From a one-man team in 1969, Childress has grown RCR into one of the most storied organizations in NASCAR, with more than 200 victories and 16 championships, including six in the NASCAR Cup Series with the legendary Dale Earnhardt. RCR was the first organization to win championships in the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Truck Series, and is a three-time winner of the Daytona 500 (1998, 2007, 2018).
Childress continues to invest resources and personnel into the 56-year-old race team.
“You know, this is extending our contract for another year, and we’re really excited,” Childress said. “Kyle has been great to work with. Everybody had questions going in. I love a driver that doesn’t like to lose. We’ve worked hard. We’ve got some exciting things coming up. He and I are both alike in one area – that we don’t like to lose. We want to win races. I still think Kyle will win him a championship, and we’re going to have it at RCR.
“That’s our plans. We’ve got a lot of new things coming. This car is a lot different. It’s so engineer-driven that we’re stepping our engineering up more. And I’m excited about the future of where we can go. Watching Kyle race and working with him, it’s been a great pleasure. You know, he’s a champion. Here’s the guy that’s won over 200 NASCAR races. His career is not even close to being over.”
Busch shared his thoughts on the contract exctension.
“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,” Busch said. “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, who recently turned 40, said retirement is not on his radar.
“No, no, not at all,” Busch said. “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 joins Austin Dillon as part of a two-car NASCAR Cup Series lineup in 2026.
