Last Fall, Richard Childress made one of the biggest signings of Richard Childress Racing history by signing one of NASCAR’s most decorated drivers in the 21st century.

RCR had successfully landed Kyle Busch to drive one of their cars for the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season. Busch, 38, and Joey Logano, are the only active drivers in the garage to have won multiple Cup Series championships.

While some wondered if the two side could co-exist, now that we’re 15 races into the season, one could say that this relationship is better than we ever could have imagined.

On Sunday at the World Wide Technology Raceway, 12 years to the date that Childress minced the words “hold my watch” as he went after Busch at the Kansas Speedway following a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, Busch, the pole winner, survived five restarts in the last 40 laps of the Enjoy Illinois 300 and beat Denny Hamlin to the finish line by .517 seconds.

“Yeah, I mean, people change. People grow up. Whatever happens,” Busch said of that feat coinciding on the same day. “The relationship that I have now, and the effort that’s gone into securing me, to get me to go to RCR, the discussions and talks that happened there. Obviously being able to get there and have some really strong runs, winning right out of the gate at Fontana was big for us, a good morale booster. Just proves them right, right? Gives them greater satisfaction in me being part of the team.

“It’s been fun to have that group around. They know when we go to places, we struggle at places, that we all want to get better, right? I could do a better job most of the time. Randall and the guys can do a better job as well.

“We just all continue to strive and work hard and bounce off of each other in order to make sure we can come out and have the best possible stuff every time we hit the racetrack.”

His new boss, agreed.

“Yeah, we put that totally behind us,” Childress said. “We talked about it. That was one of the first things we talked about. That’s history. We’ve both grown a lot. I know I’ve grown up. I’ve grown older, but I’ve grown up, too. There’s an old song out there, I’m still growing up but I’m getting older.”

The victory was Busch’s first at the 1.25-mile track and the third in his debut season with RCR. It was a home game for his crew chief, Randall Burnett, who grew up in Fenton, Mo., and had family in attendance on Sunday. 

“That was pretty awesome,” Busch exulted after he climbed from his car. “Man, to sit on the pole, lead a lot of laps and have my guys do such a great job today was pretty phenomenal for us. Great for RCR. Just win, baby! Thanks to Team Chevy, appreciate (sponsor) 3Chi…

“We’re going to have a great time with this one. This one is pretty cool.” 

Did he expect this level of success this soon?

“We’ve had some really good runs,” Busch said after leading five times for 121 laps. “We’ve had three wins obviously, which is great.

“It’s great to be able to score a win here in St. Louis for Randall’s hometown, that’s really good. So the team is really on a high. The whole organization has been really fighting hard, doing a great job.

“Everybody back at RCR, at the shop, ECR, the engine shop, has been doing great. Just been so welcoming and really cool to be able to go out there and succeed for them and to give them back what all the hard work they’re putting in is doing.”

How many more is on the table?

Sky could be the limit here.

2022 was the most wins (4) in a single season for RCR since Kevin Harvick won 4 times for them in 2013. It’s a long way from being winless in 2021 and having 1 win in 2020. In fact, from 2014 through 2021, they were winless in 6 of those 8 seasons. They had 1 win in the other 2 years each. Last year, they had 4 trips to victory lane and 3 of the 4 were at iconic tracks in Indianapolis, Daytona and Talladega.

While all 4 wins were on “wild card” type tracks, with a pair of road course wins and two on superspeedways, it was still signaling that RCR is trending up.

This year, Busch has taken them to wins in Fontana, Talladega and Gateway.

“Well, he’s helped us all around,” Childress said of Busch. “Number one, he’s winning races, showing we can win races. He’s helped Austin a whole lot. Austin has had some really good runs. He had drove up to about 10th until the 2 car wrecked him in there on purpose, sort of a payback.

“But you know, Kyle has been really — he’s such a pleasure to work with. Everybody says, man, how y’all going to get along. Same question they asked me about you and Dale won’t last six months. We lasted 20 years. I want to keep Kyle there, and hopefully we can end his career when he gets ready to.”

Harvick’s car from 2001 through 2013 was the flagship entry at RCR. That has since moved over to Austin Dillon’s ride from 2014 on. From 2014 through 2017, RCR was a three-car operation. Paul Menard drove the 27 and Ryan Newman in the 31. In 144 starts, that duo combined one win, and just 28 top five finishes.

In 2018, they scaled back to a two-car outfit. Newman was in it the first year but had no wins nor any top five finishes. He led just 57 laps. Daniel Hemric replaced him in 2019. He had no wins, one top five and just two top 10’s including only 22 laps led. In 2020 it was Tyler Reddick’s turn. Between 2020 and 2021, Reddick had no wins, six top five finishes and 73 laps led.

Last year was that breakout year for Reddick but he left. Still, three wins, 10 top five finishes and 15 top 10’s later. He also led 503 laps.

Busch in only 15 races has already equaled the amount of wins (3) has four top five finishes, eight top 10’s and has led 197 laps.

He had just four wins in his final 108 starts with Joe Gibbs Racing and is one shy of reaching that mark just 15 starts into his RCR tenure. Dare I say he’s a championship front runner?

“We’ve also had some of the dismal days as well,” Busch said of his season. “We’ve had peaks and valleys so far this year.

“We just got to find the greater planes, if you will, and level this thing out a little bit.”

Childress feels that pressure now. It’s a welcomed pressure, but pressure is pressure and he knows now that he has to produce good cars and get out of Busch’s way.

 “You know, anytime he gets in the car, I think he drives a really great race,” Childress said. “Anytime we can give him a car capable of winning, he’s going to win with it. I think he just did a great job today.

“Those last three or four or however many it was restarts, I felt they were pretty tough, but I knew he would be able to do his job.”