Kurt Busch will make his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start since 2001 this weekend at Michigan International Speedway. Busch takes over for Jason Leffler who was released by the team on Tuesday.
Leffler joined Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) over the winter and the team had planned to run him full time in the No. 18 truck. A few weeks KBM announced that Drew Herring would drive the truck in Iowa while Brian Scott was announced as the driver for the upcoming race at Bristol.
“How things have played out this season are not Jason’s fault — we’ve had some bad luck and a few other misfortunate happenings — but when it comes down to it, the #18 team has not performed to the standards we’ve become accustomed to and we owe it to our manufacturer and our sponsors to produce better results,” KBM owner Kyle Busch said.
Busch has seen the results of his No. 18 truck suffer since he stopped driving it for a majority of the CWTS schedule. Busch opened up a Nationwide Series team and has been sharing time in the seat with his older brother Kurt.
In 9 starts for KBM Leffler managed just one top five finish. Leffler was expected to compete for the truck series title. He was replaced by Scott for the Dover race and Denny Hamlin at Pocono.
Kurt is currently driving the No. 51 car for Phoenix Racing in the Sprint Cup Series.
Photo Source: Tyler Barrick/Getty Images North America
