Kyle Busch asked for an outrageous salary to extend his JGR contract: Denny Hamlin
Kyle Busch has already scored his maiden Cup race win with his new team RCR at Fontana.
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Denny Hamlin and Kyle Bsuch (Credits: RACER)
Discussions around Kyle Busch’s Joe Gibbs Racing exit saga are yet to hit the pause button as both parties continue to throw shades at each other. Recently, a NASCAR insider quoted Busch saying he refused Joe Gibbs’s personal money Offred to extend the contract. The financial struggle due to the exit of Busch’s long-time primary sponsor, M&M, prompted the move to Richard Childress Racing.
Busch has already settled in with his new team and scored his maiden win last week at Fontana. JGR, who replaced Busch with youngster Ty Gibbs had a slow but productive start to their 2023 campaign. Busch’s old teammate Denny Hamlin in his podcast ‘Action Detrimental’ discussed the recent revelations about the exit. The No:11 JGR driver revealed that Busch had actually demanded a sum that could have ended the team’s operation for the contract extension.
“Fans are having a field day with the JGR Twitter right now. ‘See, we told you.’ People have to understand that Joe Gibbs wanted to sign Kyle Busch. They really tried, and they gave him a very, very good offer, but he did not want to take it,” Denny Hamlin said.
“I see them all dragging JGR, and even if I’m unbiased here, this was a tough situation. It was a situation where they wanted him back. That company would cease to exist if they had to pay Kyle what he was demanding, especially after losing Mars. It would be impossible,” Denny Hamlin added.
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Kyle Busch’s exit is a warning for JGR’s marketing team
If anyone has to be blamed for Kyle Busch’s exit from JGR, it should be the marketing team of team to a certain extent. The team’s failure to land a sustainable replacement for the then-outgoing M&M when they had one year in front of them to do it is worrisome. The sponsorship deals are vital for the survival of NASCAR teams, and for elite outfits like JGR, it’s the teams, not the drivers, responsibility to land sponsors. In small teams, the role is often reversed.
Busch is one of the most successful drivers in the history of the sport, and Toyota Racing’s NASCAR operation, the entire grid was surprised to see Busch’s contract extension talks taking such a turn. RCR, on the other hand, was able to convince all of Tyler Reddick’s sponsors to sit with the No:8 team and also was able to secure some new deals as well.
Joe Gibbs Racing veterans Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. also have similar long-term primary sponsors who might exit the team with the drivers. JGR has to replace them with young drivers and facilitate sponsorship deals if they want to continue at the top, but the inability to land big deals for veterans like Busch puts them in a tough spot.
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Justin P Joy
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