Kyle Busch sells NASCAR team to Spire Motorsports as 2-time Cup champion ends ownership role
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Kyle Busch has sold his Truck Series team, manufacturing business and all the Kyle Busch Motorsports assets to Spire Motorsports in a deal announced Wednesday.
KBM is one of the most successful truck organizations in NASCAR history and holds the series record for most career wins (100) and most wins in a single season (14). Busch has won seven owner's championships and a pair of driver championships with Erik Jones in 2015 and Christopher Bell in 2017.
KBM, started in 2010 by two-time Cup Series champion Busch, for more than a decade has been a development step for young drivers backed by Toyota. Busch left Joe Gibbs Racing, a Toyota team, at the end of last season for Richard Childress Racing, which fields Chevrolets.
KBM this season has fielded Chevy trucks, and Spire is a Chevrolet-aligned team. The sale includes Rowdy Manufacturing and the assets from its chassis building operation and CNC machine shop, as well as the assets of Busch’s NASCAR team.
The sale includes the 77,000-square-foot facility that houses KBM and Rowdy Manufacturing in Mooresville.
Busch said his priorities have shifted and that's why he sold the team.
“I’m at a different point in my life now than I was back in 2010. My family has grown, my Cup Series team changed this year and our son’s racing schedule has become as demanding as my own," he said. "It’s important to me to be able to spend more time with my family and my No. 8 team at Richard Childress Racing.
"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.”
Busch, the winningest driver in Truck Series history with 64 victories, said he's confident the bones of his race team will still be successful under Spire ownership. Spire currently fields two full-time cars in the Cup Series and recently spent $40 million to obtain a third charter for a third car next season.
Spire co-owner Jeff Dickerson was Busch's spotter and agent early in his NASCAR career.
“I don’t see the winning ways changing at all. I’ve known the Spire guys for a long time and their recent investments in NASCAR show their commitment to success,” Busch said.
Busch races Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama, where he's trying to secure a spot in the round of eight of NASCAR's playoffs.
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