Kyle Busch likely will run for the Nationwide Series title next year, Joe Gibbs Racing President J.D. Gibbs said Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Missing five races during the 2008 season, Busch finished sixth in the standings, 671 points behind champion Clint Bowyer. Busch won 10 races. Gibbs said the team is close on sponsorship for the full season and if it can get it, then Busch would run the entire schedule one that includes five weekends where the Nationwide and Sprint Cup series run in different cities. Most of the sponsorship for Busch will come from Z-Line Design, JGR Nationwide Series general manager Steve DeSouza said. Gibbs said the second JGR Nationwide car will feature mostly Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin. Loganos sponsorship is expected to come from GameStop for about 24 races, with Hamlin running the rest with a sponsor to be announced, DeSouza said.(Scene Daily)(11-15-2008)
UPDATE: Kyle Busch is “99 percent” certain to run the full 35-race Nationwide schedule next year, Joe Gibbs Racing’s vice president of Nationwide Series operations Steve de Souza said on Friday. Dave Rogers, the crew chief for JGR’s owners’ championship-winning #20 Toyota, said that he’d work another combination season, with Gibbs’ Sprint Cup drivers Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano doing most of the races. He said Busch would run a full schedule in the #18 Camry with crew chief Jason Ratcliff.(NASCAR.com)(11-23-2008)
UPDATE 2: Joe Gibbs Racing President J.D. Gibbs said Tuesday during the NASCAR Media Tour that Busch will drive a full Nationwide schedule in the #18 in addition to his Sprint Cup duties. Busch won 10 Nationwide races last year, nine of them coming in 19 starts with JGR. Eight of his victories came in the #18 he’ll pilot in 2009.(ESPN.com)(1-20-2009)
