Replacing a legendary driver who was taken before his time is never easy. Unfortunately, Richard Childress has been forced into that position twice since the start of the millennium. It all began with Dale Earnhardt, who lost his life in 2001, and Kevin Harvick was roped in to fill his shoes. Then, back in May, Kyle Busch unexpectedly passed away, and the responsibility fell on Austin Hill. For the moment, he is expected to keep the seat until the end of the season. Beyond that, though, Childress must decide on who to pair up with his grandson, Austin Dillon, after the passing of Kyle Busch. Speaking of whom, he was asked about his favorite to take the second RCR seat. The #3 driver hugged silence and avoided replicating an infamous blunder.

What did the Richard Childress Racing driver mean by his comments?

“I think he’s doing a great job. I’m not gonna Christopher Bell what the future is of that,” he stated, per Steven Taranto on X. “I’ll wait and let RCR make that call.”

Briscoe happened to be on Joe Gibbs Racing’s radar, but Bell accidentally spoiled the announcement. In the end, Briscoe got his move and has not regretted it ever since. Another consequence of the spoiler was that no one was ever going to let Bell live it down. Of course, Austin Dillon would like nothing better than to avoid a repeat of that, so he kept his mouth firmly sealed. Naturally, this did not stop fans from making their own predictions and assumptions.

NASCAR fans started guessing who would replace Kyle Busch

The consensus is that Austin Hill won’t be back for 2027. As per some Reddit fans’ observation, “So Hill is out sounds like…”, while others were praying that it wasn’t him.

Some fans pleaded, “Anybody but Hill please.”, but others were a bit kinder. They said, “I gotta imagine it’s Hill. I think it’s just a matter of working everything out with the sponsors since they were all signed on with KB.”

However, some felt that there was another driver on the radar. One fan noted, “I mean I think everyone knows chances were slim he’d stay in the 33 anyway. He’s just the short term plan. I believe Gragson and Bass Pro are the long term plan.”

Others begrudgingly agreed, “If they want to be competitive, they won’t let him come back. Oh wait it may be Gragson…” Needless to say, not a lot of NASCAR fans were thrilled with the options, “It’ll probably be Gragson. He’s done 0 to earn it but Johnny likes him for some reason.”

A few people threw in another name, “I’m not sure what is best here. Hill is mostly ok, I think he’s somehow less drama than Gragson. They need an experienced guy, though. In a perfect world, they need a Chris Buescher kind of guy to help them stabilize. I think Ross could be a guy who might thrive there.”

For the moment, Richard Childress Racing is content with seeing out the remainder of the 2026 season. Austin Dillon is obviously going to be a mainstay in the organisation. So the big dilemma is the second seat, and there are plenty of options on the table. Maybe Jesse Love could earn a promotion to the Cup Series on a full-time basis.