Kyle Busch has long been NASCAR’s highest-paid driver, but that crown may finally be under threat. In the 2010s, no driver was more successful than Kyle Busch when it came to race wins and records. All of this ensured that he became one of the biggest, if not the biggest, faces in NASCAR at that time. Which is why it made sense that he was also the highest-paid driver, a title he still holds. But is that about to change soon?
2026’s star driver all set for major bump up in pay
When Kyle Busch departed JGR for RCR in 2023, a lot of things changed. He was no longer a Toyota driver, he was no longer sponsored by M&Ms, but one thing that didn’t change was his title of being the highest-paid NASCAR driver. As per Sports Business Journal, Busch earned about $16.9 million in 2024, which was significantly more than Denny Hamlin in second, who earned $13.1 million.
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But in 2026, things have changed, both for Kyle Busch and for a rising star in the garage. The last time Rowdy won a race in NASCAR’s top flight was at Gateway in May 2023. Since his first season with RCR, Busch has endured season after season of disappointing results and storylines.
On the other side of fortunes, one driver who has not only delivered great results but also created storylines Busch once used to make is Tyler Reddick. Interestingly, Reddick is the driver Busch replaced at RCR in the #8 team when he left for 23XI Racing.
And while Reddick had shown promising results and delivered race wins in his first three seasons with the Michael Jordan-Denny Hamlin-owned team, in 2026, he has taken it to another level.
This season, Reddick created NASCAR history as he won the first three races of the season in a row. No driver had achieved that feat before. In fact, he won once again at Darlington, taking his win tally for 2026 to four wins in six races.
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Interestingly, Reddick’s best season with 23XI also came at a time when he was in the last year of his contract. After 2026, he would be a free agent.
Now, both Tyler Reddick and Denny Hamlin have publicly claimed that the #45 driver remains a crucial part of the team’s plans and a new contract is on the way. But what will surely change in Reddick’s new deal would be the money he’s being paid.
Under his current deal, Reddick is paid $1.3 million per year by 23XI. That number was an upgrade from the $1 million he earned at RCR. But with another bump in his earnings on the way, will his next contract make him the highest-paid NASCAR driver in the garage?
The answer to that is no. As per industry speculation, according to SBJ, given his success and the brand visibility he has created for himself, he could be given a $7 million annual salary.
That number is certainly not close to Kyle Busch’s $16M+ earnings yet, or even to his boss Hamlin’s. A $7 million per year contract would put him pretty high on the list of top-paid drivers.
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Reddick could potentially become the 6th-highest-paid driver in the garage, behind the HMS duo of Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott, who earn $8 million annually each.
Denny Hamlin suggests the era of Kyle Busch in NASCAR could be on the decline
For years, NASCAR fans and drivers got used to seeing Kyle Busch in victory lane. After all, he’s the sports’ winningest driver across the three national series with 233 wins.
But the fact that his last win came three years ago in 2023, and even before that, he had four wins in three seasons between 2020 and 2022, Busch was surely not performing like he used to in his heyday.
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And all of this, especially his current struggles with RCR, convinced Hamlin that his glory days might be coming to an end. “If you’re expecting Kyle Busch to just go back to Victory Lane, you’re going to be very disappointed. I don’t have the answers, and I think we have to live in this reality for the time being,” Hamlin described.
Given his current struggles with RCR and his lack of wins, it’s not far-fetched to assume that Kyle Busch could soon search for a different project. And when he does that, he would sign a new contract, which would come with a new pay agreement, which, given everything, almost certainly wouldn’t be as fancy as the current paycheck he’s earning.
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