Silly season for the 2023 NASCAR season unofficially kicked off last weekend.
When Kyle Busch was asked about the status of a contract extension with Joe Gibbs Racing and he left open the possibility that he could leave the team, it opened the floodgates to the NASCAR Cup Series rumor mill.
Everyone and their grandma has an opinion on what Busch is going to do next and how the dominoes will fall after that.
.@KyleBusch’s team is still on the search for a new sponsor as Mars Chocolate departs at the end of the season.
He says if he doesn’t get his contract renewed, “Goodbye.” #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/8ULSaUXcEP
— Noah Lewis (NASCAR) (@Noah_Lewis1) April 23, 2022
But the most significant thing about Busch’s comments is that it has now identified him as the biggest piece of the silly season puzzle. He’s now the musical chairs player after whom, when he finds his seat, everyone else will sort out the rest for themselves.
I get it; we’re only 10 races into 2022, so why are we even talking about 2023 already? But NASCAR silly season starts extremely early every year. There’s even been times where we knew who would take over a car the following year before the Daytona 500 (Chase Elliott for Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer for Tony Stewart).
There’s typically one major silly season move every year that sets everything off like that. Last year, it was Brad Keselowski forming RFK Racing. The year before, it was Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan starting 23XI Racing. And now we wait to see what the 60-time Cup winner decides to do next.
Prior to the Busch comments, the biggest piece of the silly season puzzle was the No. 10 at Stewart-Haas Racing, as Aric Almirola will be stepping away from full-time competition (not retiring) at the end of 2022. Maybe those two silly season rumors go hand in hand?
The most likely scenario is that Busch re-signs with JGR. But if he were to leave, there are really only a few destinations that would be realistic or even…
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