On Saturday afternoon at Michigan International Speedway, Richard Childress sat alone in front of the media corps, whom he took time to thank for their support during what has been an extremely difficult time for the legendary NASCAR Cup Series team owner.
While Childress was alone at the table, the team owner opened his first public availability since the death of Kyle Busch by revealing that he wasn’t supposed to be at that table alone on Saturday afternoon in Brooklyn, MI.
According to Childress, the initial plan for Busch and Richard Childress Racing was for the driver and team to announce a contract extension, which would keep Busch as the driver of the team’s No. 8 Chevrolet for the 2027 NASCAR Cup Series season.
“The hardest part 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 [20]27 and drive for RCR. We wanted to do it here in Michigan with our GM friends, with Chevrolet, and it didn’t happen. This is a different type of media availability instead of a press conference…”
While the season had started off incredibly shaky for Busch and the No. 8 team, the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion had finally found some stability on track in the weeks prior to his unexpected death. Childress says in the conversations he had with Busch in the days leading up to his death, the 41-year-old racer was optimistic that he could still work himself into ‘The Chase’.
“You give me cars like you gave me the last three weeks, and I will make the Chase this year,” Busch said on Tuesday night before his death, according to Childress. “That’s the tough part about today. Walking in here, I was thinking of what if he and I were walking in together instead of being here talking, and thanking the media for y’all’s support.”
Childress has seen more than his fair share of tragedy as a team owner in NASCAR. In 2001, Childress was tasked with trying to keep his race team together after the loss of Dale Earnhardt, a seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, who passed away in a crash on the final lap of the Daytona 500.
To have to go through that pain again has been tough on Childress, and his race team.
“It’s challenging. Both of them, I mean, you lose two of the greatest drivers that has ever driven a car in NASCAR, and have to go through it again. I just feel so bad for the family, and the employees, and everybody,” Childress explained. “I haven’t slept very good lately. I’ll leave it at that.”
Childress would go on to confirm that the plan for Richard Childress Racing is to keep Austin Hill behind the wheel of the renumbered No. 33 Chevrolet in the NASCAR Cup Series for the remainder of the season.
“For right now, Austin [Hill] is going to drive, as far as we’re concerned, for the rest of the year,” Childress said. “We don’t want to put a burden back on everybody trying to go from one driver to another one.”
And as far as the stylized No. 8 font that Busch utilized for four seasons driving for Richard Childress Racing, Childress says Richard Childress Racing will hold onto that stylized car number specifically for Busch’s son, Brexton, if he chooses to pursue a career in NASCAR.
Childress said that he will hold onto the number and relinquish it to Brexton even if Brexton wants to use the number with another team in the future.
“Kyle designed that style of the No. 8. It was never to put any pressure on him (Brexton) to run the No. 8, but it’s there for him. It’s stylized. We have the stylized number registered or patented, however they do it, and we saved it for Brexton if he ever comes and says, ‘hey, I’m going to go drive for Rick Hendrick and I want to use that 8’. That’s what I was saying, we’re saving that stylized No. 8 for him if he wants to run it in the future,” Childress explained.
