When Austin Hill got the call to join Richard Childress Racing in the Cup Series midway through the 2026 season, he didn’t know what to do. He had never been in such a bittersweet situation before and had to call Kevin Harvick, someone who had been through a similar situation back in 2001.
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Harvick had to replace Dale Earnhardt at RCR after his fatal crash in Daytona. So he had advice for Hill, who was racing full-time in the O’Reilly Series when Kyle Busch passed away on May 21, after suffering complications from pneumonia.
Since Hill joined RCR in the Cup Series, it’s been all about adjusting to life without Busch. For Hill, for owner Richard Childress, and also for Austin Dillon, who recently opened up on how life has been since that fateful day.
“It’s definitely, you know, not the easiest, you know. Kyle was a big part of what we’re doing up here, and from an experience standpoint, you can’t ever get that back. And I think the biggest thing that we’ve all linked into is just working hard,” the 36-year-old said in a recent interview with Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.
RCR started the season badly. Busch and the team were already on the back foot heading into 2026. Rowdy had been winless since 2023, and Chevrolet’s cars appeared to have balance issues that were very evident in the opening rounds.
But it wasn’t all gloom, and the car improved. Weeks before he was cruelly taken, Busch was optimistic about making it to the Chase this season. He finished 10th in the Cup Series race at Talladega on April 29, and Childress, in an interview with The Athletic, revealed that his driver had told him days before his death that with a car as strong as the one they were developing, they’d make the Chase.
Hill and Dillon have since worked tirelessly with the rest of the team. Of course, Hill is ineligible for Cup Series points, having declared fully for the Xfinity Series, while Dillon is currently 27th in the standings.
“Austin’s been a great teammate, and he is trying his butt off to do everything that he can to make those guys happy and get them excited about going to the track every weekend. So we’re putting in effort, we’re working, and I think that’s what Kyle would want us to do, is to keep pushing,” Dillon added in the interview.
Dillon just had the best race of his season in Iowa last weekend, where he finished 10th after qualifying seventh. And while that only moved him up one place, with Chase hopes gone, the fact that RCR has improved enough to get top-10 finishes and start races toward the front is a nod to the belief Busch had in them.
In a season as tragic as 2026, it’s important they end the campaign on a good note and take Richard Childress Racing back to the top. “Do whatever it takes to go win,” and that’s what we’re trying to get back to,” Dillon stated.
Next weekend, the Cup Series heads to Richmond, a track Dillon can now almost certainly call his favorite. He won there in 2024 and 2025, leading 107 laps in the latter race. His short-track speed in Iowa last weekend gives him hope of another strong result there this time around.
When Hill joined the Cup Series, his biggest priority was to stay out of the spotlight. Since then, he has quietly worked behind the scenes to help stabilize things at RCR. It’s been an uneventful campaign, results-wise, but in many ways, that’s exactly how Hill would have wanted it.
Austin Hill didn’t want his name on the car
When it was decided that Hill would be the driver to replace Kyle, RCR and the driver himself knew it had to be handled carefully and respectfully. And understandably, one of the first things they did was retire Busch’s No. 8. It was the number he used since he joined RCR in 2023.
Hill got the No. 33, with Childress announcing that the 8 will be reserved for Kyle’s son Brexton when he makes it to NASCAR. Hill, meanwhile, admitted to The Athletic that he didn’t even want his name on the car.
“Then they brought up putting my name on the car. I said, “I don’t think we should put my name on the car.” I said if you don’t want Kyle’s name on it, we should do it blank. I even kind of pushed for not having my name on it for the rest of the season,” he said.
Hill also met the Busch family at a race where Brexton was competing and revealed that the young man was handling the entire situation much better than he would have at 11 years old.
Throughout the season, Hill kept saying that he struggled to feel like the No. 33 was truly his. He always thought of Kyle, and as Dillon revealed, everyone at RCR continues to push harder and get better in his memory.
For the boss, Richard Childress, it was a déjà vu moment he would have prayed never to experience again. In 2001, he had to deal with the pain of losing Earnhardt, a loss that crushed him and almost made him consider walking away from NASCAR. And now, in 2026, he had lost Busch, someone he admitted was more of a friend than a driver.
It’s been a painful year for everyone at RCR. But they’ve had to keep going, keep working, and keep pushing forward. That’s what Kyle would have wanted, and that’s exactly what the team is trying to do.