By STEVE REED AP Sports Writer
CONCORD, N.C. (AP) — Richard Childress Racing is temporarily retiring Kyle Busch’s No. 8 Cup Series car — at least until the late driver’s 11-year-old son Brexton is ready to take over behind the wheel.
RCR will run the No. 33 car on the Cup Series circuit beginning Sunday night at the Coca-Cola 600 and for the foreseeable future after the 41-year-old Busch died unexpectedly Thursday. The cause of death has not been released.
Austin Hill is scheduled to replace Busch, a two-time Cup Series champion, in the driver’s seat at Charlotte Motor Speedway for NASCAR’s longest race of the season.
Busch’s son, Brexton, is already known for his racing exploits, having won the Tulsa Shootout Jr. Sprint Championship to earn his first career Golden Driller last year.
“Kyle Busch was instrumental in the design of RCR’s stylized No. 8 and it has become synonymous with Kyle and an important symbol for his fans and the NASCAR industry,” RCR said in a statement. “No one can carry it forward to the level that he did. The No. 8 is reserved and ready for Brexton Busch when he is ready to go NASCAR racing.”
Brexton, a third-generation Busch driver, began his racing career in 2020 at 5 years old in the Beginner Box Stock division at Millbridge Speedway, a 1/6-mile dirt track in Salisbury, North Carolina, according to his website. He picked up his first victory at Mountain Creek Speedway a month later and has built on his racing resume since.
He won 48 races, earned 126 top-10s and 107 top-5’s in multiple styles of race cars in 2024.
In 2001, when Dale Earnhardt was killed in a crash at the Daytona 500, RCR changed car numbers from the black No. 3 to the white No. 29. The No. 3 eventually returned for the 2014 season when owner Richard Childress’ grandson Austin Dillon took over as the driver.