Kyle Busch Motorsports

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Kyle Busch Motorsports
180px
Owner(s) Kyle Busch
Samantha Busch
Base Mooresville, North Carolina
Series Camping World Truck Series
Car numbers 4, 9, 15, 18, 34, 51, 54, 56, 77, 87
Race drivers TBA. Christopher Bell
TBA. William Byron (R)
TBA. Daniel Suárez, Cody Coughlin
Sponsors TBA. TBA
9. Liberty University
TBA. ARRIS (Suárez), ToyotaCare, Dollar General
TBA. TBA
Manufacturer Toyota
Opened 2010
Career
Debut Nationwide Series:
2011 Top Gear 300 (Charlotte)
Camping World Truck Series:
2010 NextEra Energy Resources 250 (Daytona)
Latest race Nationwide Series:
2013 Ford EcoBoost 300 (Homestead)
Camping World Truck Series:
2016 North Carolina Education Lottery 200 (Charlotte)
Races competed Total: 338
Nationwide Series: 67
Camping World Truck Series: 271
Drivers' Championships Total: 1
Nationwide Series: 0
Camping World Truck Series: 1
2015
Race victories Total: 46
Nationwide Series: 1
Camping World Truck Series: 45
Pole positions Total: 27
Nationwide Series: 3
Camping World Truck Series: 24

Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) is an American professional stock car racing team that competes in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and late model team that is owned and operated by Kyle Busch, a Sprint Cup Series and Xfinity Series champion, and Truck Series driver. The team currently fields the No. TBA Toyota Tundra full-time for Christopher Bell, the No. TBA Toyota Tundra for Kyle Busch, Daniel Suárez, Matt Tifft and Christopher Bell, and the No. 54 Toyota Tundra for Bell, Matt Tifft, Gray Gaulding, and Cody Coughlin in the Camping World Truck Series. The team formerly operated a team in the Nationwide Series (now Xfinity Series) before ending the Nationwide Series program at the end of the 2013 season.

History

KBM was founded after Busch purchased the remaining assets of Xpress Motorsports from J.B. Scott (father of driver Brian Scott) in late 2009 as well as purchasing trucks from Roush Fenway Racing, which had closed its Truck team the previous year. Rick Ren, the crew chief on Ron Hornaday Jr.'s 2009 championship team, would be signed as the team's competition director. Busch had competed in the truck series for the 2008 and 2009 seasons in the No. 51 for Billy Ballew Motorsports with Miccosukee Indian Gaming as his primary sponsor, and had split the ride with Brian Ickler the previous year.[1]

Busch brought Ickler to the KBM stable, and signed Tayler Malsam away from Randy Moss Motorsports after he finished second in series Rookie of the Year standings to former Cup and Busch/Nationwide driver Johnny Sauter. The team ambitiously planned to run three trucks in its debut season: Busch and Ickler would split the primary truck (No. 18), Malsam was to drive a second truck for KBM, the No. 56 ActivWater/Talking Rain Tundra, and a third was to be fielded for 2008 series champion Johnny Benson if sponsorship could be found. The Miccosukee sponsorship was to carry over to Busch's primary truck as part of an agreement with Phoenix Racing.[1] On February 7, however, the Miccosukee tribe's new leadership pulled out of NASCAR altogether, leaving Busch's team and Phoenix's Cup and Nationwide series teams without sponsorship.[2] Benson would also be limited to a part-time schedule with KBM and Ballew,[3] and Malsam's team ceased operations after only seven races.[2][4]

After operating out of the former Xpress shop for most of its first season, the team opened its new $10 million facility in Mooresville, North Carolina on October 14, 2010.[5][6]

In 2011, KBM made its first foray into the then-Nationwide Series (now Xfinity Series) in conjunction with NEMCO Motorsports.[7] The team moved to full-time in 2012. On November 16, 2013, Busch announced that the team will not race in the Nationwide Series in 2014 due to lack of funding.[8]

In December 2014, former competition director Rick Ren (released after 2013) filed suit against the team for breach of contract, claiming the team failed to pay him a contractual bonus and 10% commissions for two sponsorship deals Ren claimed to have procured for the team, totaling USD$355,000. The sponsorships in question — Central Kentucky Angus Sales for driver Parker Kligerman and Sabala Whitetail for driver Brian Scott (owned by Scott's father J.B. Scott) — had prior associations with the drivers.[9]

After receiving engines from Triad Racing Technologies early in its history, KBM currently receives engines and technical support from Joe Gibbs Racing.[10]

Nationwide Series

In May 2011, Kimi Räikkönen made his Nationwide Series (now Xfinity Series) debut at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the No. 87 Perky Jerky Toyota Camry. The car was fielded in an alliance between KBM and NEMCO Motorsports, guaranteeing Raikkonen a spot in the field. Raikkonen started 22nd and finished 27th, four laps down.[7][11]

Car No. 54 history

For the operations of the No. 54 team after the 2012 season, see Joe Gibbs Racing

File:54 Kurt Busch 2012 Road America Sargento 200.jpg
Kurt Busch in 2012.
File:Road America 2013 Nationwide 77 Parker Kligerman.jpg
Parker Kligerman in 2013

For 2012, KBM added a full-time Nationwide team, the No. 54 Toyota Camry. The car was split by both Kyle Busch and older brother Kurt, both with sponsorship from Monster Energy.[12] Kyle ran 17 races while Kurt ran 16. The team struggled in its initial year, winning only one race with Kurt at Richmond.[13] This was the first time in his Nationwide Series career that Kyle Busch did not score a victory over the course of a season, leading him to return to Joe Gibbs Racing's Nationwide program for 2013, bringing the No. 54 Toyota Camry and Monster Energy with him.[10]

Car No. 77 history

For 2013 22-year-old Parker Kligerman, a former development driver for Team Penske, was signed to run his first full Nationwide Series schedule in the No. 77 Toyota Camry, with sponsorship from Toyota and Bandit Chippers.[13] Despite finishing 9th in the standings, owner Busch announced after the Ford EcoBoost 300 that he would be shutting down the Nationwide team due to a lack of funding.[8]

Camping World Truck Series

Truck No. 4 history

Jason Leffler in 2012.

The No. 4 truck began as the No. 18 truck (Kyle Busch's Sprint Cup Series number), the primary entry of KBM during their debut 2010 season, with Kyle Busch running a partial schedule and Brian Ickler running non-companion races.[1] The team would lose its Miccosukee sponsorship prior to the season,[2] replaced by Toyota, M&M's, Interstate Batteries, Dollar General, and Traxxas. In the first seven races of the season, Busch made five starts and won twice, while Ickler finished in the top ten both of his starts. KBM lost Ickler in May when he was signed by Roush Fenway Racing to drive its No. 6 and No. 16 Nationwide Series cars on a part-time basis as part of an extended tryout with the organization. Busch announced shortly thereafter that he would split the driving duties of the No. 18 with Johnny Benson for the remainder of the year. Kyle Busch won 8 races in 16 starts, and the No. 18 truck won the owners championship in its first full-time season.

Both Ickler and Busch returned for 2011, with Kyle running 16 races and Ickler running 4. Kasey Kahne drove a single race for the No. 18 with sponsorship from Automotive Service Excellence, winning at Darlington. Josh Richards drove two races with Joy Mining Equipment. Kyle Busch scored 6 wins over the course of the season.[14]

For 2012, veteran Jason Leffler was signed to be the primary driver of the No. 18 Toyota Tundra. The team secured sponsorship from Dollar General for 14 races.[15] After nine starts and with a lone top-five finish to his credit, Leffler was released.[16] Finishing the season in the truck were Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Brian Scott (five races), Denny Hamlin, Drew Herring, and Kyle Busch (3 races), along with Kurt Busch.[16] Kyle Busch had previously abstained from driving in the Truck Series per a request from JGR co-owner J.D. Gibbs, following an incident the previous season.[17] Hamlin and Scott scored the team's only wins of the season at Martinsville and Phoenix. Kyle Busch didn't win a race for the first time in his Camping World Truck Series career.

For 2013, Busch hired former Richard Childress Racing driver Joey Coulter to drive the No. 18.[13][18] Coulter and Busch had a previous on-track altercation in 2011, leading to a physical encounter between Busch and team owner Richard Childress.[19] Coulter struggled, with only five top tens and a 15th-place points finish. With Coulter moving to GMS Racing, the No. 18 team did not run in 2014.[20]

For 2015, Erik Jones began running a third KBM truck full-time after running the No. 51 part-time in 2013 and 2014. In December 2014, it was announced that the truck would be number 4.[21][22] Jones would have his best season with collecting 3 wins, 11 top-five and 20 top-ten finishes to win the championship title.

Truck No. 9 history

In the middle of the 2015 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season, team owner Kyle Busch announced that Christopher Bell would drive a fourth KBM truck, numbered 52, in the UNOH 225 at Kentucky Speedway. The crew chief was announced as Wes Ward.[23] After the release of Justin Boston, however, Bell moved to the No. 54 truck at Kentucky and the No. 52 did not run.[24]

At Phoenix in November, William Byron made his debut in a fourth KBM truck numbered 9, with sponsorship from Liberty University.[25][26] Bryon finished 31st after being involved in the early wreck with Brandon Jones and Cole Custer.

Truck No. 15 history

In April 2011, KBM signed 2007 Formula One World Champion Kimi Räikkönen to run a limited schedule in the Camping World Truck Series. Räikkönen and Busch planned three to five races beginning at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May.[27] The efforts were sponsored by Perky Jerky,[28] and the team used the owners points of Billy Ballew Motorsports' 15 team. In his debut, Räikkönen started 31st but finished a solid 15th. The deal ended due to lack of sponsorship beyond the Charlotte race.[29] Dirt late model driver Josh Richards signed to run 11 races with KBM and sponsor Joy Mining Machinery, making his debut in the No. 15 at Kentucky Speedway.[30] Richards finished 29th in his debut, then 21st at Atlanta.

Truck No. 51 history

Erik Jones driving the No. 51 truck at Rockingham

The No. 51 was previously used by Busch at Billy Ballew Motorsports, a reverse of the team's No. 15 and a tribute to both the late Bobby Hamilton and the film Days of Thunder. In 2011, NASCAR Corona Series champion Germán Quiroga made his first Truck Series start in the No. 51 with Telcel as a sponsor at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the New England 175. Quiroga finished a solid 16th, but 3 laps down. He would run the truck again in the season finale at Homestead, finishing 26th. Josh Richards ran four races in the No. 51 with Joy Mining Equipment, scoring a best finish of 13th at Talladega.

In July 2012, the team announced that Quiroga would return to the No. 51 truck for four races: Talladega Superspeedway on October 6, Texas Motor Speedway on November 2, Phoenix International Raceway on November 9 and Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 16, with sponship from Net10 Wireless.[31] Denny Hamlin drove the truck at Martinsville Speedway on October 27, 2012 with sponsorship from Toyota and earned Kyle Busch Motorsports their first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win of the 2012 season.

In 2013, the No. 51 became a full-time team, with owner Kyle Busch running 11 races. 16-year-old driver Erik Jones ran 5 races, while Scott Bloomquist ran the Mudsummer Classic.[32] On November 8, 2013, Jones won the Lucas Oil 150 at Phoenix International Raceway, the youngest winner of a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at 17 years, 5 months, and 9 days. Busch would go on to win the season finale Ford EcoBoost 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway the next week. The No. 51 would win the 2013 Camping World Truck Series owner's title, barely edging the ThorSport Racing No. 88 team of driver's champion Matt Crafton. It was the second owner's championship for Kyle Busch Motorsports.

In 2014, Kyle Busch and Erik Jones split the No. 51 truck, with Busch driving 10 races and Jones driving 12 races. Eric Phillips served as the crew chief.[33] Dollar General sponsored the truck at Kentucky, Bristol, and Chicagoland with Busch driving and at Phoenix with Jones driving.[34] Busch won the season-opener at Daytona along with his next four starts in the No. 51 truck at Kansas, Charlotte, Dover, and Kentucky. Erik Jones won at Iowa, Las Vegas and Phoenix. The team won its second consecutive owner's championship, with 10 wins among the two drivers.

For 2015, Busch shared the ride with JGR Xfinity Series driver Daniel Suárez, ARCA Racing Series driver Matt Tifft and late model racer Christopher Bell, while Jones will move into a third full-time ride (No. 4).[22][35][36] Bell scored a top five finish in his debut at Iowa Speedway.[23]

For 2016, Suárez will split the ride with Cody Coughlin, with the two drivers slated to contest a minimum of 10 races each. Kyle Busch does not have plans to drive in the Truck Series as of November 2015.

Truck No. 54 history

Darrell Wallace, Jr.'s 2013 truck

In 2013, Joe Gibbs Racing development driver Darrell "Bubba" Wallace, Jr. ran the full season in the No. 54 Toyota with sponsorship from ToyotaCare and Camping World/Good Sam Club. Wallace won his first race at Martinsville Speedway in the Kroger 200, and would finish 8th in points.[37]

In 2014, Wallace ran his second full-time season in the No. 54. In June, Wallace won the Drivin' for Linemen 200 at Gateway Motorsports Park. Three weeks later, he battled Kyle Larson and Ron Hornaday, Jr. for the win at Eldora Speedway. Wallace, Jr. held off a hard charging Larson, who wrecked his car trying to catch him, and beat Hornaday by a 5.489 second margin to win the second annual Mudsummer Classic.[38] Wallace switched to the No. 34 for the Kroger 200 at Martinsville in tribute to Wendell Scott,[39] and led the most laps en route to his second straight victory in the race. Wallace won his final race with KBM, the season finale at Homestead Miami Speedway, beating Larson again to earn his first non-short track victory.[40] Wallace's four wins along with nine top fives and 14 top tens led to a third-place finish in points.[37]

Former ARCA Racing Series rookie of the year and Joe Gibbs Racing development driver Justin Boston signed to run the full 2015 season in the No. 54.[22][41] After nine races and while sitting 12th in the points standings, Boston left the team.[24] Initial reports stated that Boston and KBM parted ways due to lack of performance and requests for internal changes by Boston not being met.[24] A later report, however, stated that KBM released Boston due to sponsor Zloop breaching its agreement with the team. The company had initially signed on to be the primary sponsor, but only appeared in two races.[41][42] KBM would later sue Boston and Zloop (owned by Boston's father) for $4.025 million in defaulted payments.[43][44] Boston was replaced by Toyota development driver Christopher Bell at Kentucky,[24] where he was involved in a crash. In his next start, however, Bell battled with rookie Bobby Pierce at Eldora Speedway and won the race after a Green White Checkered finish. It was the second consecutive Eldora win for the No. 54 team.[45][46] Matt Tifft drove the truck at Pocono, finishing eighth. JGR development driver Cody Coughlin was signed to drive the truck at Michigan, with backing from family sponsor JEGS.[47] Kyle Busch drove the 54 at Bristol. Gray Gaulding drove the No. 54 in three races, with sponsorship from Krispy Kreme.[48]

Truck No. 56 history

The 2010 season started out with Tayler Malsam in the No. 56 Toyota Tundra. Early in the season after seven races, it was announced that Malsam was signed by Braun Racing to take over in their No. 10 Toyota in the Nationwide Series. With no driver or sponsorship, the No. 56 team shut down immediately.[2]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ http://kylebuschmotorsports.com/news/entry.php?nid=133
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 24.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  36. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  37. ↑ 37.0 37.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  38. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  39. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  40. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  41. ↑ 41.0 41.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  42. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  43. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  44. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  45. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  46. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  47. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  48. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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