WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — The spring and summer months have been anything but easy going for Kyle Busch.
When it was announced in December that Busch’s primary sponsor M&M’s would be exiting NASCAR after the 2022 season, Joe Gibbs Racing and Busch began searching for sponsorship.
Eight months later, the No. 18 driver is still without a sponsor, and job security next season.
As the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion still finds himself without a deal done for 2023, it leaves Busch with what he describes as a lot of “sleepless nights.”
“It’s easy to summarize, but probably tough for some to understand,” Busch said. “Let’s be frank about it, I’m an athlete. I make a lot of money, people aren’t going to feel or shouldn’t feel sorry for me. I’ve made a good living. And so that’s not the premise of this answer, but it’s been hard as hell. It’s been a lot of sleepless nights figuring out what your future is, and all that sort of stuff.
“And, you know, everybody’s like, ‘Oh, well, you’ve made plenty of money. You’re fine. You don’t have anything to worry about.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, that’s true.’ But you still want to do what you love to do, right?
“I’m a racer and only ever known how to race, nothing else, trying to do other business projects and things like that, but none of them have really blown up and taken off,” Busch continued. “So it has been hard and figuring out all of that is certainly tough.”
The last time Busch experienced free agency was in 2007, after he chose to leave Hendrick Motorsports and join Joe Gibbs Racing for the 2008 season.
However, Busch admitted that experience isn’t comparable to his current situation from a business and family standpoint.
“The first time I went through this was 15 years ago and it was a learning experience. It was hard then too, but it was nothing like now,” Busch said. “Then it was just me, myself and I. I didn’t have Samantha. I didn’t have a son. I didn’t have a daughter. All I had was an agent that was helping me and now I’m kind of all on my own doing it along with Samantha and family, but, you know, going through many of the same things, but it’s way, way harder because now you have Kyle Busch Motorsports that you’ve got to think about, you’ve got a building that you’ve got to pay on, you’ve got a building note and all that sort of stuff.”
Despite the unknowns, finding a competitive home remains a priority — whether that’s with Joe Gibbs Racing or somewhere else.
However, Busch continues to brace for change on the horizon.
“You want to be able to go somewhere that you feel like you have a legit shot to race to win,” Busch said. “You know, trust me, I don’t feel like it’s fair to me or my family or anything else if we’re going to have to spend less time together moving forward because we are going to have to change our lifestyle, no questions.
“There’s a big change coming. And so, is it worth it to go run around and not have an opportunity to win right away versus building something versus jumping in something that can win. All those questions are certainly being weighed out. And so, again, that’s also why it’s not so simple and so easy. So, thankfully there are opportunities out there. There are Cup jobs available. But again, it will not look the same as what it has for the last 15 years.”
When asked whether Rowdy Energy, Busch’s energy drink company, would potentially have the funds to sponsor the driver next season, Busch shut the door due to lack of finances.
“No, no, it makes decent money, but the problem is that the expenses that you have in which to build this business to build this company and all that sort of stuff,” Busch said. “We’re not black yet. We’re still in the red. So that, no, you can’t default on a loan in order to pay yourself sponsorship. That’s not going to happen.”
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