It has been a tough time over the past few months for Kyle Busch. The 37-year-old has underperformed for the last 2 years in comparison to his past seasons. Joe Gibbs Racing, a team he had been associated with for 15 years, decided to pull the plug on him. For the obvious reasons, Busch wasn’t happy, as JGR was a team he had given so much, including the 2 Cup Series in 2015 and 2019.

Regardless of his not liking it one bit, the decision had been made. He, later on, announced and confirmed that he will be racing for Richard Childress Racing from the 2023 season onwards. RCR believed in the veteran who has more than 600 Cup Series races under his belt. Busch’s last race was in Phoenix, the Championship 4 race.

It was going to be an emotional one having spent the last 15 years with the same team. But it was made worse by the untimely death of Coy Gibbs, the owner of JGR and son of Joe Gibbs. He has been hit with another setback, though not as severe as the previous ones. Samantha Busch, his wife, revealed in an Instagram Q&A session that Brexton Busch, his son, won’t be taking up the #8 car in the footsteps of Kyle.

Brexton drives for Kyle Busch Motorsports’ #18 car at the moment in the beginner’s leagues. Fans would have expected he would follow in Kyle’s footsteps. But when asked “Will Brexton switch to the #8 for 2023 like Kyle?”, Samantha said, “Nope he said his bday (sic) is on the 18th so that’s his number.”

Kyle Busch is unlikely to be perturbed too much by what number Brexton chooses, especially given the spectacular performances the 7-year-old has been putting out at such a young age.

The burning question is who replaces Kyle Busch?

There were a host of reasons for Kyle Busch’s departure from Joe Gibbs Racing. While the inability of the two parties to agree on a new contract was one of those, the biggest reason seemingly was the loss of M&M’s sponsorship for “The Candyman”.

With that behind, the question now is who will replace the Las Vegas native at JGR? One of the most talked about and touted names at the time was Ty Gibbs. Ty is from within the bloodline of the JGR ownership, with Joe Gibbs being his grandfather and late Coy Gibbs, his father.

The 20-year-old has been in phenomenal form, winning the Xfinity Series this year. He finished the season with 7 wins, 16 top 5 finishes, and 23 top 10 finishes to go with the Championship. The only possible ‘obstacle’ to his promotion comes from within the team, as Joe Gibbs had earlier in the year said he would like Ty to complete 2 full seasons in the Xfinity Series before making a step up to the Cup Series.

But things have changed a lot since that statement was made. For starters, Ty was asked to fill in for Kurt after the concussion he had suffered in Pocono. Having never driven a Gen 7 car earlier, he managed to finish a very respectable 16th on his debut. He ended up finishing 15 races in the Cup Series with the highest finish of 10th.

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Gibbs looks to be the perfect replacement for Busch. But JGR is known to play their cards close to their chests, and we probably wouldn’t know for a few months who that replacement is going to be.