Richard Childress Racing was thrust back into the difficult position of having to find a new full-time Cup Series driver for next season following the sudden passing of its future Hall of Famer. While RCR still has several months to determine who replaces Kyle Busch in its second chartered car, there appears to be a clear favorite.
NASCAR Rumors & Nostalgia passed along this week that “all signs currently point to” Austin Hill remaining behind the wheel of the No. 33 car full-time next season in the Cup Series for RCR.
When Busch was first hospitalized, Hill was tabbed to be his fill-in driver in the No. 8 car. After the all-time great’s sudden death, the team retired Busch’s car number and announced that Hill would drive the No. 33 for the remainder of the 2026 Cup Series season.
For this season, including this weekend’s upcoming race at EchoPark Speedway, Hill has been pulling double-duty between the Cup and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. However, he isn’t earning any points in Cup.
Hill, who will be 33 years old next season, hasn’t exactly performed well thus far in limited Cup races. He boasts just a single top-10 finish in 24 career Cup races and his 28.1 average finishing position this year is just slightly ahead of Cody Ware (28.7) and below Connor Zilisch (27.6).
Jesse Love could’ve been an option, but the Richard Childress Racing development driver signed with Wood Brothers Racing to replace Josh Berry behind the wheel of the No. 21 car next season in the Cup Series.
Unfortunately for RCR, there simply aren’t many compelling options available. A majority of the drivers who were the subject of speculation earlier this year in NASCAR silly season re-signed with their respective teams and there’s been little movement otherwise.
As for who replaces Hill in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, it appears that Carson Brown and Chandler Smith could both get huge opportunities with RCR next season. Meanwhile, the team will hope that a clean slate and a chance to focus entirely on Cup with more experience in the Next Gen car will help Hill deliver better results in 2027.
More must-reads:
