LAS VEGAS — Kurt Busch is a Vegas native, through and through.
So what better place for 23XI Racing to pay tribute to its first NASCAR Hall of Fame driver than Las Vegas Motor Speedway?
MORE: Sunday’s starting lineup | At-track photos: Las Vegas
This weekend, as a nod to the Class of 2026 Hall of Fame inductee, the No. 45 team is featuring the same Jordan Brand elephant-print paint scheme it donned when Busch wheeled it to Victory Lane at Kansas Speedway in May 2022 in the 34th and final victory of his illustrious NASCAR Cup Series career.
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Tyler Reddick is driving that car now — one which opened the 2026 season with a never-before-seen three-peat across the Daytona 500, EchoPark Speedway and Circuit of The Americas. But much of today’s No. 45 team remains intact from its 2022 inception, when Busch joined the 23XI Racing program in its infancy as its second full-time driver in the organization’s second season.
“I mean, he kind of set the table for me, really,” Reddick said Saturday at the track. “He was a part of that process of putting together the 45 team. Obviously, there’s been a couple changes over the years, but he played a huge role in where this team started out, and I jumped into it in a really good place. And he’s just continued to stay involved to offer up anything and everything. Over the years, as I’ve learned more, our relationship has certainly changed a little bit. But it is always still great to be able to talk to Kurt because the amount of insight and knowledge he has from the years, just the massive amount of experience he has, it’s always good to lean on.”
Today’s team still includes crew chief Billy Scott, who first worked as Busch’s crew chief at Stewart-Haas Racing in 2018 and rekindled their relationship at 23XI in 2022. Though Busch has been out of the driver’s seat since the summer of 2022, the impact he’s made on the blossoming company lingers through Scott’s team today.
“It’s just everything that we desire as a team — just the winning, the competitiveness — that was Kurt through and through,” Scott told NASCAR.com. “That’s Tyler. That’s the way Bubba is now. It’s just, that’s the way our nature is. And you know, even last week (at Phoenix), you’ve got to lose eventually. We were happy for those guys (on the No. 12 team). They earned it, for sure. We got beat. But it’s still disappointing. And it still leaves you hungry coming back, ready to get back to Victory Lane.”
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When team co-owner and Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin sought a new driver to join 23XI as Bubba Wallace’s teammate, Busch’s name came highly recommended. The production in the short 20 races they had together arguably surpassed expectations, collecting one win, five top fives and eight top 10s while leading 182 laps that season, nearly matching his entire output from the previous season. The people who helped make his No. 45 Toyota competitive were there in large part because of its driver.
Tyler Reddick drives a Kurt Busch tribute at Las Vegas.
“I think (he) was very instrumental in getting quality people to come to work here,” Scott said. “They had a really good basis. But when you’re trying to add on that much at that time period, it was very important to have a Hall-of-Fame driver in the lineup to be able to get people to come over and start a team from scratch because the company was very small at the time. But then his impact as part of the team is being — I think — Denny found this out when he was researching who to get — that he is one of the best teammates you could ever ask.
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“Everybody that’s ever worked with him has found value in him being there because he does care about everybody. He is one of the most genuinely good people that you’ll ever meet, and just building the team camaraderie of totally embracing their culture that they wanted to have, where everybody works together, everybody helps each other out, he is kind of the definition of that. So, yeah, I think his impact will forever be felt, and everybody still leans on him. And he’s still around, right? He still has advice now and then, and he’s still one of our biggest cheerleaders. So being able to just pay tribute to him with his car is special in itself.”
Busch’s reach expanded outside the No. 45 team, even within Airspeed, 23XI Racing’s shop.
The 2004 NASCAR Cup Series champion became the first teammate Wallace ever had at the Cup level. That bond proved fruitful almost immediately — and lasts today.
“Kurt has always believed in me,” Wallace told NASCAR.com. “He‘s always a phone call or a text away anytime I need him, and that made for a remarkable first teammate. It‘s nice to see where he is now and to still have him a part of the team. He‘s a true Hall of Famer.”
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Of the 182 laps Busch led with 23XI, 116 came at Kansas, where he delivered Jordan Brand its first NASCAR Cup Series victory. Scott, of course, was the crew chief that day, too. To see that car back on track — and qualifying seventh for Sunday’s race (4 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) — is a feeling Scott will cherish all over again. The first thing he thinks of? The celebration.
NASCAR ON YOUTUBE: Busch breaks down his best moments
“Seeing the satisfaction on his face and knowing that he gave Michael his first win with the Jordan Brand car, and the first one for the 45, just, you don’t know when that’s coming. None of us do,” Scott said. “And to start the new team with, again, how small the company was as a whole, you knew they had a win with Bubba the year before so, knew it was possible. We were optimistic. But to see it probably come to fruition and have that victory and watch him celebrate for that, that made it all worthwhile.”
Now, he’s busy influencing how 23XI’s racers may strive to remain involved once they’re out of the cars themselves.
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“Now that he is not the driver, he still wants to see the team do very, very well,” Reddick said. “That’s just the kind of guy that he is. Who knows, maybe years down the road, when I’m in a similar spot, I could see myself being in the same position, where the team that you’ve worked together with and put together, you still care once you’ve transitioned to a different role, you still care for how they perform and do.”
Kurt Busch looks on at Las Vegas.
