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After a rather public break-up between long-time affiliates Kyle Busch and Joe Gibbs Racing was announced last week, the #18 Toyota Camry TRD driver announced his switch to Richard Childress racing for the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season.
One of the major reasons why Busch's contract with his current team for 2022 was not renewed was the lack of sponsorship interest in the Las Vegas, Nevada driver after M&M's, a long-time sponsor, decided to leave. The reasons for this could be multi-faceted as Busch, a 60-time Cup Series winner, is not exactly the most economical to sponsor and demands one of the heftiest salaries on the field.
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Former stock car racing driver and current NBC Networks analyst Kyle Petty was critical of this move from the 37-year-old driver and spoke about the same at Saturday's pre-race show before the Bass Pro Shops Night Race. He said:
“This is what I’m going to say. It is not a move forward and it is not a lateral move. It is a move in the wrong direction for a guy like Kyle Busch I believe. It’s a move backwards. Here’s a team, who since Kevin Harvick left at the end of 2013 and took his 23 wins with him, they’ve only won seven times. In that same amount of time and this is a little bit of apples to oranges. Kyle Busch himself has won two championships and 32 races. That’s with a totally different type of organization.”
The 62-year-old certainly did not mince any words about the #18 M&M's Toyota Camry TRD driver.
Kyle Petty has been critical of Kyle Busch in the past as well
Kyle Busch's switch from Joe Gibbs Racing to Richard Childress Racing was not the first time Kyle Petty was critical of the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion. With the kind of salary a name like Busch demands in the Cup Series, Petty felt that he had to adjust given the situation he is in and said:
“He’s earned the right to ask for a lot of money, but if the market won’t bear it, tough stuff, dude, It’s like that in any business. This is a business. It’s a sport this afternoon, but it’s a business every other day. Sometimes you have to compromise. You have to look different. This should be a cautionary tale for every young race car driver out there. You’re only worth what the market will bear.”
Watch Kyle Busch race this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway in the AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 500.
