Kyle Busch sells championship-winning truck series team to Spire Motorsports
Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch has sold his championship-winning truck series team to Spire Motorsports.
Over the past 14 seasons, Busch's truck teams won 100 races (Busch has 48 of them) and two driver championships with Erik Jones (2015) and Christopher Bell (2017) along with seven owners championships. It has operated three trucks this year, one for Chase Purdy — who is 11th in the standings — another truck that has had multiple drivers and a third truck fielded by Rev Racing for Nick Sanchez, who is still alive in the truck playoffs.
"I will always appreciate everyone that walked through the doors and gave their all to make this such a successful organization," Busch said Wednesday in a statement. "Not only has it been the people that were employed here, but it's also the families that supported them while they worked long hours and traveled on the weekend sacrificing time at home and missing family events."
Spire Motorsports fields two Cup teams with a current driver lineup of Corey LaJoie and Ty Dillon. It will expand to a third next season with driver Zane Smith on loan from Trackhouse joining LaJoie and likely Carson Hocevar in its Cup stable. It also has operated a part-time truck and part-time Xfinity car this year.
Spire is expected to field three full-time trucks next year as part of its purchase of KBM, according to those familiar with the deal. Sanchez and Spire both have relationships with Gainbridge Insurance and he likely will be in one of the trucks, and Purdy possibly could drive one of the other full-time trucks.
As Spire was set to expand its Cup program, it began to look for a bigger shop and that led to conversations with KBM, which moved to fielding Chevrolets at the start of this year to coincide with Busch's move as a Cup driver from racing Toyotas at Joe Gibbs Racing to racing Chevrolets at Richard Childress Racing.
"I'm at a different point in my life now than I was back in 2010," Busch said. "My family has grown, my Cup Series team changed this year and our son's racing schedule has become as demanding as my own. It's important to me to be able to spend more time with my family and my No. 8 team at Richard Childress Racing.
"It'll be hard to walk away from the amazing facility that we've built. 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."
Buying KBM gives Spire not only space (the building is approximately 77,000 square feet and sits on 8 acres of property) but also access to a workforce as it expands its operations. The sale includes the Rowdy Manufacturing chassis building company as well as Busch's machine shop.
Spire owner Jeff Dickerson used to be Busch's agent at the start of his Cup career in the mid-2000s.
"I'm confident that our assets and employees are in good hands moving forward," Busch said in a statement. "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."
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass, and sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass.