NASCAR: Spire Motorsports purchases Kyle Busch Motorsports
NASCAR Truck Series mainstay Kyle Busch Motorsports has been sold.
KBM announced Wednesday that Spire Motorsports had purchased its team assets, including its equipment, shop and even Busch’s chassis-building operation. The move means that Busch is getting out of NASCAR team ownership while Spire keeps expanding its NASCAR footprint.
“When we started the Truck Series team back in 2010, I never imagined that we would be able to win 100 races with 18 different drivers and that one day I’d be racing in the Cup Series alongside so many of the drivers that I once mentored at KBM,” Busch said in a statement. “I owe a lot of gratitude to so many people, starting with [wife] Samantha and my family for believing in this dream that I had. It took countless hours by so many amazing people to make KBM the winningest team in Truck Series history.”
Drivers for KBM have made 816 Truck Series starts over 14 seasons and Busch won the team’s 100th race earlier in 2023 at Pocono. Current Cup Series drivers like Erik Jones, Bubba Wallace, Christopher Bell, William Byron and Harrison Burton have gotten their NASCAR careers started by driving for Busch’s Truck Series team.
Kyle Busch Motorsports had been a Toyota-backed team for the first 13 years of its existence before switching to Chevrolet in 2023 when Busch left Joe Gibbs Racing and moved to Richard Childress Racing. Busch has scored two wins in five starts in the Truck Series in 2023 and has scored 48 of his 64 career Truck Series wins while driving for his own team.
Busch’s departure from the Truck Series is yet another longtime owner loss for NASCAR’s No. 3 series. GMS Racing is ending operations at the conclusion of the 2023 season, while Brad Keselowski made the choice to close his Truck Series team at the end of the 2017 season.
Busch said in his statement that it was the right time to sell with a new Cup Series team and two children at home.
“I’m at a different point in my life now than I was back in 2010," Busch said. "My family has grown, my Cup Series team changed this year and our son’s racing schedule has become as demanding as my own. It’s important to me to be able to spend more time with my family and my No. 8 team at Richard Childress Racing. It’ll be hard to walk away from the amazing facility that we’ve built. I’ll miss walking the shop floor, talking with our employees, hosting our fan days in the lobby and spending countless hours there ensuring its success. However, I know at this point in my life and in my career that this is the correct decision.”
Spire’s recent expansion
Spire’s acquisition of KBM comes on the heels of its big-money move to purchase a third charter for the 2024 Cup Series season. Spire recently purchased the No. 78 car’s charter from Live Fast Racing so the team could expand to three cars next season. The deal for the Live Fast charter is reported to be worth up to $40 million and would easily be the richest deal for a Cup Series charter if that number is accurate.
Spire, a longtime NASCAR agency, joined the team ownership ranks in 2019 after purchasing Furniture Row Racing’s charter at the end of the 2018 season following FRR’s closure. The team then expanded to two cars in 2021.
Spire’s only Cup Series win came in fluky circumstances in 2019 at Daytona, thanks to a well-timed lightning strike. Since then, the team has scored just three more top-five finishes and eight more top 10s in over 270 starts. Corey LaJoie has been its flagship Cup Series driver the past three seasons and is currently 27th in the points standings.
In addition to fielding a Cup Series team, Spire has also dabbled in the Truck Series over the past two seasons and has partnered with Hendrick Motorsports. Trucks owned by Spire have made 20 starts in 2022 and 2023 with Byron getting a win in 2022 at Martinsville and Kyle Larson winning at North Wilkesboro this season.
