Busch’s future plans with RCR would have been revealed Michigan, Childress says

Richard Childress sat alone on the press conference stage Saturday at Michigan International Speedway. But he wasn’t supposed to be.

Childress looked at the empty chair to his right and admitted that a plan was in place for this weekend to be when he and Kyle Busch announced a 2027 contract extension. But the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion unexpectedly passed on May 21 from severe pneumonia that progressed into sepsis.

“The hardest of this is today we were going to be in here, Kyle was going to be with me, and we were going to announce that he was coming back in ’27 and drive for RCR,” Childress said. “We wanted to do it up here at Michigan with GM friends with Chevrolet, and it didn’t happen. This is a different type of media availability, instead of a press conference, that he was coming back and racing for us in ’27.”

It was the first time that Childress had publicly spoken since Busch’s passing. The Hall of Fame team owner offered gratitude for the support of Richard Childress Racing and the Busch family.

“I talked to him Tuesday night before everything went down Wednesday night and Thursday, and we had a great conversation,” said Childress. “He said, ‘You give me cars like you gave me the last three weeks, I will make the Chase this year.’ We were that confident. Both of us had a lot of confidence. We haven’t had the year that any of us expected or wanted. We started out like gangbusters, and it just didn’t go. We’ve had a lot of opportunities, and we just didn’t finish them off.

“But that’s the tough part about today. Even walking in here, I was thinking, ‘What if he and I were walking in together’ instead of me here talking.”

Austin Hill is instead the next man up for Childress. The car has been renumbered to 33, and the plan is for Hill to drive it the rest of the season. Childress doesn’t want to burden everyone by switching from one driver to another, and acknowledged that the team sponsors have been great to work with through the unexpected pivot and loss.

RCR has committed to Austin Hill for the rest of the year in its renumbered No. 33. David Jensen/Getty Images

Busch will go down as one of NASCAR’s greatest drivers, and Childress would like to see him put into the Hall of Fame right away. In addition to two Cup Series championships, Busch was a championship-winning car owner, had over 200 national series wins, and won an O’Reilly Auto Parts Series championship.

When he signed with Childress after 15 years at Joe Gibbs Racing, it might have been looked at as a step back. But he had found a new home and became close to everyone there, and in his first year, Busch won three races. The final three races of his career.

“He helped RCR when we needed it,” Childress said. “He came right in, and we won three races the first part of the year, got a little off, and we had a lot of opportunities to win other races, and we just didn’t finish and capitalize on them. But I think his legacy is going to be that he was a man who a lot of people thought was tough to deal with and that we wouldn’t last long, but he was a man who loved this sport.

“He wanted to see his family carry on and to watch what he had going on with Brexton – I would go to the race over in Millbridge and watch them race together, and just see the enjoyment in Kyle’s eye watching his son race was just unbelievable. … All of us are going to miss him.”

Childress admitted it has been a challenging time for him the last two weeks, and unfortunately reminiscent of what Childress and his organization went through after February 2001, when they lost Dale Earnhardt.

“You lose two of the greatest drivers that have ever driven a car in NASCAR and have to go through it again,” Childress said. “I just feel so bad for the family and the employees and everybody. I haven’t seen very good lately. I’ll leave it at that.”