Joey Logano Shares Insight Into Kyle Busch's Transition To RCR: 'It's A Weird Environment'

On Tuesday, Kyle Busch put an end to speculation by officially announcing he’s taking his talents to Richard Childress Racing next season to drive alongside Austin Dillon and the other members of the historic NASCAR team. Now, a fellow Cup Series driver with some experience in switching teams is weighing in on the change. 

Joey Logano, who previously switched from Joe Gibbs Racing to Team Penske in 2012, appeared on fellow “Race For The Championship” star Corey LaJoie’s “Stacking Pennies” podcast where he discussed what Busch can expect from the remainder of his season at Joe Gibbs Racing before he switches to RCR. 

“Now you have this like… I don’t want to call it a lame duck year, but it’s a weird environment,” he explained. “Because now you’re working at a place where they’re viewing you as, ‘Yeah, we want to win with you, but you’re also a competitor of ours next year and we don’t want to show you anything anymore.’”

He added: “Now if there were any tests, I’m pretty sure he’s not going to be doing those. He’s not going to be in any meetings anymore, that’s what happened to me. And it’s completely understandable.”

Logano also noted he can already see a weight lifting from Busch. The driver had been in a state of limbo as he decided his future with Joe Gibbs Racing and his home for the upcoming 2023 season remained uncertain. Now, Logano noted, he can go back to focusing entirely on driving. 

“You’re going to have to allocate your time in different ways to maximize what you have,” he explained. “When I can focus 100 percent on driving a race car, Kyle can't right now, or couldn’t, and I think when you hear a lot of his interviews here recently, he was wanting to announce something, he was wanting to get a deal done. You could tell he was just over it like, ‘Get me somewhere, I want to know where I’m going to be next year and let me go focus on that!’ The first domino has fallen today, good for him.”

Logano concluded by noting how bittersweet it was for him on the day he had his last race with Joe Gibbs Racing and believes Busch will experience something similar when he does his last race in Phoenix. 

For his part, Busch echoed Logano’s sentiments noting that he is excited to finally know what his future holds and thanked none other than “Life In The Fast Lane” star Dillon for helping to bring him over to RCR. 

“I was kinda surprised honestly,” Busch said. “When Austin reached out, I was like ‘OK. Well, we probably need to sit down and discuss something first,’ and it was fine. It was easy. Just to feel wanted and feel that they know who I am, what I am. I mean the accolades speak for themselves in that I can go over there and continue that build to the top. I feel like they are on a good path.”

You can catch the ins and outs of Busch’s last season with Joe Gibbs on “Race For The Championship” on USA Network every Thursday at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Meanwhile, you can catch more NASCAR content on Peacock now.