The bounty on Kyle Busch remains as Truck Series resumes

The bounty, a combination of $50,000 put forward from Cup Series driver Kevin Harvick and another $50,000 from Gander RV and Outdoors CEO Marcus Lemonis, was created prior to the Truck Series race originally scheduled for Atlanta in mid-March.

Harvick challenged any full-time Cup driver to defeat Busch in one of his four remaining Truck races this year. Busch has won the last seven Truck races in which he’s entered.

The Atlanta race was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic but since NASCAR restarted its season without fans in the stands March 17 at Darlington, S.C.

Tuesday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway (8 p.m. ET, Fox Sports 1) is the first scheduled Truck Series race since NASCAR restarted its season and in a Twitter post Tuesday morning, Harvick made clear the bounty was still up for grabs.

Among the fulltime Cup drivers entered in the race are Chase Elliott, John Hunter Nemechek and Brennan Poole.

In a response to Harvick’s Tweet, Elliott offered his “full support” to Harvick’s decision to change the bounty payment to a donation to a COVID-19 relief effort of the driver’s choice. If no driver prevails, the $100,000 will go to the Busch family’s Bundle of Joy Fund.

Beating Busch is never easy in Trucks and especially difficult at Charlotte, where he has finished either first or second in the last nine Charlotte races and he has amassed eight series wins in 13 starts.

The Truck series ran two races prior to the sport being put on hiatus. Grant Enfinger won the season opener at Daytona and Busch won in his hometown of Las Vegas.