Kyle Busch’s team parks No. 56 truck after driver promoted

Kyle Busch shut down one of his financially strapped Truck Series teams Tuesday after driver Tayler Malsam accepted a promotion to the Nationwide Series.

Malsam will drive the No. 10 Toyota for Braun Racing starting Saturday at Nashville, Tenn. Kyle Busch Motorsports announced it will no longer enter the No. 56 truck, which doesn't have a full-time sponsor, this season.

Malsam is the second KBM driver to leave for the Nationwide Series in a month. Brian Ickler, who had been splitting time with Busch in the No. 18 truck, took a job with Roush Fenway Racing.

"The same situation occurred with Tayler," Busch said in a statement. "Braun offered him a chance to move up to the Nationwide Series, and we have no reason to hold him back. He's a driver, like Brian, who absorbed a lot of knowledge from myself, (competition director) Rick Ren and the rest of the guys at KBM. We support him all the way."

Shutting down the No. 56 team will lessen the financial load for Busch, the Sprint Cup star whose foray into ownership this year has been plagued by sponsorship woes. The Las Vegas native acknowledged last month that he was funding the two teams mostly out of his pocket.

KBM will continue to field the No. 18 truck, which leads the owners' standings. Busch will drive it in some races. The rest of the driver schedule is still being determined after Ickler's departure.

Veteran Johnny Benson will drive the truck Friday at Texas with Busch at Pocono Raceway for the Sprint Cup race.

■ RED BULL SHAKE-UP -- Red Bull Racing swapped crew chiefs and key team members for drivers Scott Speed and Casey Mears, a move designed to try new personnel pairings during Brian Vickers' absence.

Vickers will miss the rest of the season while undergoing treatment for blood clots in his lungs and legs. Mears has been filling in for him in the No. 83 Toyota.

The swap comes two days after Mears and Speed finished 29th and 30th in the Coca-Cola 600 and reunites Mears with crew chief Jimmy Elledge. The two once worked together for Chip Ganassi Racing.

Ryan Pemberton, crew chief for Vickers' team since the start of the 2009 season, will begin working with Speed this weekend at Pocono.

Vickers was 20th in points before being sidelined with blood clots.

Speed is 26th in the standings.

■ OBIT -- Richard Jackson, who fielded cars in NASCAR's top two levels for 26 years, has died in Asheville, N.C. He was 74.

Jackson formed Precision Products Racing with his brother, Leo Jackson Jr., in 1974. Bob Pressley drove for the team in what was the NASCAR Late Model Sportsman Division.

The team made its Cup debut in 1981 with Dave Marcis at Darlington. Its drivers over the years included Benny Parsons, Harry Gant and Phil Parsons.

Richard Jackson formed Richard Jackson Motorsports in 1990, and its drivers included Rick Mast, Terry Labonte, Jerry Nadeau, Morgan Shepherd and Lance Hooper. The team ran until 2001.