DAYTONA BEACH, Fla — In his quest to find a new NASCAR Cup Series team for 2023, Kyle Busch made some new friends along the way.

Though he opted for Richard Childress Racing in NASCAR’s premier division, Busch discovered he was simpatico with one of his other suitors—Kaulig Racing—and that led to a five-race deal in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

Busch bowed out of Xfinity racing after the 2021 season when he won all five of his starts and increased his victory total in the series to a record 102—a number that may prove as unassailable Richard Petty’s 200 Cup wins.

But circumstances have changed with Busch’s move from a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to an RCR Chevrolet, and that includes the willingness to help Kaulig establish benchmarks for its Xfinity program.

Busch will share the No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet with a roster that includes fellow Cup drivers AJ Allmendinger, Austin Dillon and Justin Haley. Busch will debut in the Kaulig car in his native Las Vegas and also will race at Phoenix, Charlotte, Watkins Glen and Darlington.

Though Busch had to disappoint team owner Matt Kaulig and president Chris Rice on the Cup side, he wanted to build on the warm relationship that developed during the job-seeking process.

“When it came down to decision time and I had to let everybody know who wasn’t the choice for going Cup racing with, I told them that I would still love to drive for them and have a chance to go race his cars,” Busch said. “It just wouldn’t be on Sunday. 

“They were gracious enough to let me run in their Xfinity program, and I would love to go over there and help those guys out. I feel like they are really, really, really close and right on the brink of a force to be reckoned with in the Xfinity Series, and I would love to help carry that torch to the next level.”

Busch has 102 career Xfinity Series victories. That’s 53 more than next best (Mark Martin who has 49). He grew increasingly more and more tired of fans whining about him racing in that series and elected to have a big number like 100 and just be done.

What most people didn’t realize however, it wasn’t like Busch was doing it to beat up on kids. He raced to help sell sponsorships and by doing this for Kaulig, it can only help this organization grow too.

Out of his last 17 NXS starts, he’s won 10 of them including 14 Top-5 finishes in that span. He went 5-for-5 in 2021. 14 of the last 17 races at that he had a top three.