Yahoo Autos KBM sale isn’t the end of Kyle Busch in NASCAR’s Truck Series
Kyle Busch will still be involved in the Craftsman Truck Series team he founded next season, even after selling all its assets to Spire Motorsports.
Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway, a few days after the sale was announced, Busch described his future as a consultant for Spire, while also continuing to run the five races he’s eligible for in the series to keep working with partner Zariz Transport.
“It’ll still be worthwhile for me to see that team succeed with all the people and everything we’ve had there over the years,” Busch said. “I’m excited about those that will stay and getting a key fob that turns off at 6 p.m.”
Kyle Busch Motorsports was founded in 2010 and has 100 victories in the series to date. The organization has won two driver championships with Erik Jones and Christopher Bell and a record seven owner’s championships.
Busch sold the race team, which fields two entries, the 77,000-square-foot race shop in Mooresville, North Carolina, as well as Rowdy Manufacturing — a chassis-building company that is housed in the race shop.
Jeff Dickerson, a former spotter for Busch, and T.J. Puchyr co-own Spire Motorsports. The organization debuted in the Cup Series in 2019 and now fields two full-time entries. Spire began fielding a Truck Series entry on a part-time basis last season.
“I just feel I haven’t been able to give it as much of my devoted attention as it needs — being around as much with (son) Brexton racing, and family stuff, and me racing, and trying to focus on that and being with the Cup team,” Busch said. “There were some conversations that happened with the crew chiefs that kind of made me start thinking about it.
“Then [Dickerson] showed up at the door and we had a conversation. The turn of events happened really, really fast [and I’m] excited about the future of it.”
The veteran driver made it clear that he wasn’t looking to sell his team, though. An opportunity presented itself over the summer predicating that step.
“We had a great deal this year with Chevrolet and Rev Racing and Max [Siegel] and all the guys over there to carry on with [Nick] Sanchez and, of course, the Chase Purdy deal as well,” Busch said. “We were set. We were fine. We were ready to go into next year. This all just kind of came about a month ago, maybe a couple of months ago, where we started talking about forming an alliance and working on chassis and continuing to service them with Rowdy Manufacturing and things like that — what that could look like — and trying to broaden the scope of that to all Chevy teams.
“Then I think it was (Dickerson’s) bright idea, or he was like, ‘Why are you even doing this? Why don’t we just do it? Why don’t we just take it over?’ And I’m like, ‘Well, OK. Make it worth my while.’ That’s kind of how it happened and it literally happened very, very quick,” Busch said. “Time flew by and rumors flew fast, and we obviously made our announcement this week.”
Busch has no regrets about his time as a team owner in the series and said the investment was worth it.
“I feel like a lot of the personal relationships and things over the years, whether it’s been Eric Phillips, Rick Ren, Rudy Fugle, all of that stuff…” said Busch. “Chris Gabehart is another one from our stable. But I think we’ve had a great ride and a great run, and it’s been worth it in a…sense.
“I’ve had a lot of fun racing super late models, racing trucks, winning late models, winning trucks. I’ve got a storage facility now full or needing to get one full of show cars and things of past memories that I’ve accomplished and cars that I’ve accomplished big wins in. I would say yes.”
