Even before the 2022 NASCAR season began, M&M’s announced that the 2022 season would be their final season as a major sponsor in NASCAR.  When the season is over it will end a sponsorship partnership of over 25 years.

The exit of M&M’s leaves the Joe Gibbs Racing number 18 car currently driven by Two time Cup Series champion Kyle Busch.

Racing fans have also learned that Busch is in his final contract season with Gibbs.

While Kyle Busch’s future is still up in the air as where he will land for next season and future years; Busch himself, while vocal, has been relatively calm about the affair.  However, there is one person who is neither calm nor okay with the current events.

Toyota Racing Development (TRD) President David Wilson is weighing in on the situation stating not only does he want Kyle Busch to remain driving in a Toyota; but feels that it would be best if Busch were to stay on with Joe Gibbs Racing as well.

Currently Kyle Busch has a total of 203 wins while driving a Toyota across all three NASCAR’s racing series; 56 of Busch’s 60 Cup Series wins have been in a Toyota.

While speaking with reporters David Wilson said, “we’ve been very close to Kyle for years and years and years, and some of that relationship, to be candid, has been born through trials that we’ve gone through together and through controversy that we’ve gone through together.  We’ve had some really tough times with Kyle Busch but we also are sitting on two championships and in celebrating recently our 1,500 starts across the three national series.” 

Wilson added, “I’ll pull this up, because I keep the stat handy all the time: One driver has accounted for 36 percent of our total wins across all three series, and you know who that driver is. It’s just amazing. So any scenario that doesn’t have Kyle Busch retiring from Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota would be a monstrous disappointment — for us and for Coach Gibbs and the family.”

Wilson even hinted at the future of the Toyota racing franchise noting that Busch’s seven year old son Brexton “could keep the family connection going one day, starting with the Camping World Truck Series team that his father owns.”

Wilson continued, “put yourself in his shoes. He’s on an out year of his contract. This is so rare, because, of course, what the team, what we try and do is get well ahead of this, particularly with a tier-one driver like Kyle Busch.  The circumstances, unfortunately, have made that challenging. So you know, we’re working on it. This is a conversation I have with Joe every week, and I’m optimistic.  I know, and Kyle wants … you know, he doesn’t want to go anywhere else. He has been very candid. You know, he can’t wait for the day that his little boy, Brexton, races a Toyota Tundra out of the Kyle Busch Motorsports stable. He has that in his sights. And that’s not going to be for another 10-plus years, which means that we’ve got to make sure that we’re still together long after Kyle’s out of the driver’s seat full time.  If nothing else, I can’t envision any other scenario. Any other scenario is just unacceptable.  The last I’ll add is just the point of obvious — it takes both of us to get there, right? It takes Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing and Kyle Busch to get there. So we can’t control everything, and I’ll leave it at that.”