Richard Childress, owner of Richard Childress Racing, addressed the media onsite at Michigan International Speedway.
Opening remarks by Richard Childress:
“First off, I’d just like to take this opportunity to thank all the media, and the ones that aren’t here today, for all of your support through this unbelievable challenge that we’re all facing, losing Kyle Busch unexpectedly at such a young age. I just wanted to look around the room and thank so many of you that have been friends and supporting the Busch family – Brexton, Lennix, Samantha – and RCR through these challenging times.
Secondly, the hardest part of this is that today, we were going to be in here, Kyle was going to be with me, and we were going to announce that he was coming back in 2027 and drive for RCR. We wanted to do it up here in Michigan with our GM friends, with Chevrolet, and it didn’t happen. This is a different type of media availability instead of a press conference that he was coming back to race for us in 2027. I talked to Kyle Tuesday night, before everything went down Wednesday night and Thursday, and we had a great conversation. He said, ‘you give me cars like you gave me the last three weeks and I will make the Chase this year.’ We were that confident. Both of us had a lot of confidence in this team. We haven’t had the year that any of us expected or wanted. We started out like gangbusters, and it just didn’t go as we expected. We’ve had a lot of opportunities, and we just didn’t finish them off.
But that’s the tough part about today. Even walking in here, I was thinking, what if he and I were walking in together. Instead, I’m in here talking and thanking the media for your support.”
A couple things… how are you doing? How hard is this hitting? Is this almost, in a sense, like 2001 all over again?
“It’s challenging. You lose two of the greatest drivers that’s ever driven a car in NASCAR, and now having to go through it again. I just feel so bad for the family and the RCR employees. I haven’t slept very well, I’ll leave it at that.”
And obviously, as you stated, you had planned to come in here to announce an extension with Kyle. How does an organization have to shift, and how do you turn a mindset while you’re in mourning of looking at the future and what the future for that No. 33 car is going to be?
“Mike Verlander, our President, and I were talking about it. We made the decision to not run the 8 car. Kyle helped us design it. We told him we had the 8 number. He was happy going back to it a few years. He said, ‘let’s design it differently’, so this was Kyle’s design. We showed him a lot of stuff, and at the end of the day, this was his design, so we decided to take it off. In 2001, we didn’t have a number. We had the 33 already, so we just figured we’d put it on it. Back then, I just told Bobby Hutchens, ‘call NASCAR and get the lowest number available’, and it happened to be No. 29 when we put (Kevin) Harvick in it.
We talked about it, and we decided that Austin Hill was who we needed to put in it at this time.”
How long will Austin Hill be in the No. 33 car? Is that for the rest of the season, or is that race to race?
“Our sponsors have been great to work with through this. Just like we had with Dale (Earnhardt Sr.), the sponsors worked really well with us with that loss. Putting Austin Hill in it was a choice that we made for right now.”
It’s been said that you and Kyle were very similar, personality-wise, and he obviously knew that you believed in him. He spoke several times about your belief in him and that meant something to him personally. What did you see of yourself in Kyle, and what kind of bond did you feel like you shared with him?
“Kyle Busch was a totally different person when he was away from the track. He wanted to win. He was driven by winning, hard work and doing everything that he could do to help the team. Once somebody said, ‘the only difference is one’s got an accent and the other doesn’t’. We built a friendship out of this. We went hunting. I took him on one of his very first hunts, and he really got into hunting. He started taking Brexton.
We had other plans. The sad part for me looking back, knowing what Dale Earnhardt had in mind and the plans he had for his future, and then sitting and talking to Kyle at different times, knowing his plans and what he had in the future for him, Brexton and his family and the many things that we all could have done together; that was probably the toughest part of this whole thing.”
Austin Dillon has played a bigger and bigger role with the organization, and I know he spoke to us last week. He said he was one of the ones who spoke to the entire group at RCR. How is his role growing, and what have you seen in terms of his future leadership and confidence in him of maybe someday running your organization?
“Yes, both Austin and Ty Dillon went up to RCR the next day and talked to the whole company. I see a role with both of them being involved. Austin is the General Manager over the Carolina Cowboys, and he’s learning how to deal with a sanctioning body. He’s learning how to deal with riders instead of drivers, which would be different. Ty’s involved a lot, as well. He’s there with us. It’s a family operation, and we’re doing our best to keep it like that.”
Obviously, you’re going through something terrible when this is all happening, yourself personally, and you’re feeling all this, but then you also have to lead your company and try to get everybody who is just feeling a loss themselves. How do you get up there yourself, and how do you push your company forward and keep driving everybody despite what’s happened here?
“It’s tough on them too; the people that worked with Kyle and the engine shop. He made a lot of friends at RCR through his time. My job as the owner is to try to talk to them as much as I can. Mike Verlander’s put together so many things, and he spoke with them a lot, as well. So between Austin, Ty, Mike, and Mike Dillon, as well, they’ve made it a lot easier on me than it was in 2001. It’s never easy, but they just gave me a little bit of time to get my head right.”
What do you think that Kyle’s long-term legacy is going to be in this sport? How did he help RCR in the short period of time he was there, and what do you think his contributions to NASCAR overall will be?
“Kyle Busch will go down in history as one of the greatest drivers there’s ever been. He’ll be in the Hall of Fame. I’d love to see them put him in it right away. He helped RCR when we needed him. He came right in, and we won three races the first part of the year. We had a lot of opportunities to win other races, but we just didn’t finish and capitalize on them.
He was a man that a lot of people thought he was tough to deal with and that we wouldn’t last long, but he was a man that loved this sport. He loved it so much that he wanted to see his family carry it on. To watch what he had going on with Brexton — I would go to Millbridge and watch them race together, and just see the enjoyment in Kyle’s eyes watching his son race was just unbelievable. His legacy will be in history. He’ll go down as one of the greatest drivers of all times. He’s won over 200 races. All of us are going to miss him. You all are going to miss having him in here after a win.”
I wanted to ask about the car number a little bit more… what were the discussions like about changing it and preserving it for Brexton in the future, and why was that important to you?
“Kyle designed that style of the No. 8. It was never to put any pressure on him (Brexton) to run the No. 8, but it’s there for him. It’s stylized. We have the stylized number registered or patented, however they do it, and we saved it for Brexton if he ever comes and says, ‘hey, I’m going to go drive for Rick Hendrick and I want to use that 8’. That’s what I was saying, we’re saving that stylized No. 8 for him if he wants to run it in the future.”
I just wanted to ask a little bit about Brexton. He’s obviously gone through an incredibly tough time. I know that you obviously knew Kyle’s plans for him. What can RCR do, or what can the racing community do in general, to make sure that Brexton’s going to be put in the best position possible for his future going forward?
“I think just showing him the respect and trying not to put more pressure on him, just like Dale Earnhardt Jr. I think that he’s got a great future. That kid can drive a racecar. Personally and mentally, watching him last Tuesday, was incredible. He’s just a bright young man and a great little racecar driver. He’ll carry the Busch legacy for many years to come.”
— Team Chevy —