NASCAR driver Kyle Busch comes to Kansas without a sponsor secured for 2023 Cup season

He’s a two-time NASCAR Cup champion. He has won 60 career Cup races, tied for ninth all-time. He earns millions of dollars a year. He has a loving family.

All he lacks is a job for 2023.

At least for now.

Almost inexplicably, the Hall of Fame-bound Kyle Busch has spent most of the season looking for a ride for next year because Mars, Inc., his longtime primary sponsor, is pulling out of NASCAR. With his contract expiring at the end of this season, Busch has been unable to find the necessary funding for a new deal with Joe Gibbs Racing, his employer in the No. 18 Toyota since 2008.

Toyota executive David Wilson said last week that a decision on Busch’s future could be determined by this weekend’s Hollywood 400 at Kansas Speedway, a prospect Busch welcomed.

“I was hoping yesterday,” Busch said during playoff media day last Thursday at Darlington. “It needs to be. I’m not going to put a timeline on it, but time is ticking, and there are a lot of other options and a lot of other dominoes that need to fall.”

While Busch said returning to Joe Gibbs Racing is an option, there could be other choices, including Kaulig Racing, Richard Childress Racing and 23XI, the Toyota team owned by Gibbs teammate Denny Hamlin and basketball legend Michael Jordan.

Kaulig Racing is in its first season of fulltime Cup racing with Justin Haley in the No. 31 and three others sharing the No. 16. Kaulig, like Childress, runs Chevrolets, which could be problematic for Busch. He not only pilots Toyotas for Gibbs, but his Kyle Busch Motorsports trucks teams are affiliated with Toyota.

The uncertainty hasn’t been easy for Busch, who will enter Sunday’s second playoff race a distant 11th in the standings. He led a race-high 155 laps last Sunday in the playoff opener at Darlington before a blown engine consigned him to a 30th-place finish.

“Let’s be frank about it, I’m an athlete. I make a lot of money, people aren’t going to feel or shouldn’t feel sorry for me,” he said recently. “I’ve made a good living. But it’s been hard as hell. It’s been a lot of sleepless nights figuring out what your future is.

“And, you know, everybody’s like, ‘Oh, well, you’ve made plenty of money. You’re fine. You don’t have anything to worry about.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, that’s true.’ But you still want to do what you love to do, right?’ I’m a racer and only ever known how to race, nothing else … So, it has been hard and figuring out all of that is certainly tough.”

It takes upward of $25 million to fund a competitive Cup team, including $10-$15 million to pay a championship level driver. Despite Busch’s on-track success, he has been a polarizing personality, and outside of his Rowdy Nation, he’s the driver legions of fans love to hate.

Some companies may be hesitant to invest that kind of money in a driver who is often at the center of controversy, no matter how successful he is on the track.

“The perception is that it’s probably tougher being who I am to sell a sponsor, but … name me the last big five-to-10 million dollar sponsor that’s come in our sport lately,” said Busch, 37. “So is that a Kyle problem or a sport problem?”

Busch, a two-time Cup winner at Kansas Speedway, owns a record 224 wins across all three NASCAR touring series — 60 Cup, 102 Xfinity and 62 trucks — so whether he leaves Gibbs or joins a new organization, he wants to drive for a team that is capable of winning immediately.

“Thankfully there are opportunities out there,” he said. “There are Cup jobs available. But again, it will not look the same as what it has for the last 15 years.”

Busch went through a similar experience when he left Hendrick Motorsports for Gibbs 15 years ago, but he’s in a different personal situation.

“It was hard then too, but it was nothing like now,” he said. “Then it was just me, myself and I. I didn’t have Samantha, I didn’t have a son. I didn’t have a daughter. All I had was an agent who was helping me, and now I’m kind of all on my own doing it along with Samantha and family, but, you know, going through many of the same things.

“But it’s way, way harder because now you have Kyle Busch Motorsports (trucks teams) that you’ve got to think about, you’ve got a building that you’ve got to pay on, and all that sort of stuff. So there’s a lot a lot a lot of pieces and that’s why it’s not so simple.”

Like most NASCAR observers, former Cup champion Dale Jarrett, who spent the early part of his Hall of Fame career as Joe Gibbs Racing’s first driver in 1992, is incredulous that Busch and JGR haven’t been able to come to an agreement.

“I can’t even fathom how this has gotten to this point, but it just shows there is so much more involved than just being able to put up wins and championships,” said Jarrett, now an analyst for NBC Sports. “It’s what sponsors look for. That’s where they’re having a tough time with, and not just with Kyle Busch, but they’re having a difficult time selling sponsorships at the magnitude it takes to run these race teams and pay these drivers.

“I don’t fault Kyle Busch for wanting to be paid what he’s worth. That’s a big number to come by in this day and time. I really thought by this time we would see, between Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota, in particular, because they have so much invested in Kyle over these years, they would figure out a way to make this happen.”

Jarrett’s prediction on where Busch lands?

“He’s more than likely going to be with another manufacturer next year, and with a completely different team,” Jarrett said, “and he’s still a young enough man that he can adapt to that and make the change and still be successful.”