On Saturday at Daytona International Speedway, Kurt Busch decided to publicly declare what many have suspected – he has competed in his last NASCAR event.
The 2004 Cup Series champion suffered a closed head injury in a wreck during qualifying at Pocono Raceway last July. He hasn't raced since but has made sponsor and TV appearances while serving as a mentor for drivers Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick at 23XI Racing. This season both its cars have reached the playoffs for the first time in 23XI's short three-year history, with Wallace making the cut on points in the final race of the regular season at Daytona.
Busch joined Toyota outfit 23XI – co-owned by Cup driver Denny Hamlin and NBA legend Michael Jordan – for 2022 in what was going to be the final full-time Cup ride of his long career. And it was, only it did not end on the terms he envisioned. Still, as the 43-year-old has done his entire career, he remained steadfast that his final chapter has not yet been written speaking to media at Daytona.
“I’m still wanting to get doctor approval and get cleared [to get back on track]. That’s the first step,” he said. “That’s what I need to do personally, then I will have opportunities to talk to different motorsports teams and sponsors on doing other races.
“The perspective and taking a little step back from being in the car every week, the joy that I’ve found is that everything has slowed down for me to help analyse the data, to give advice to Bubba, to give advice to Tyler, the engineering staff, the team members at 23XI. It’s really neat to have all of this current knowledge and have the opportunity to digest it and give back to this team. That’s the short-term goal.”
While Busch’s younger brother, Kyle, has won more NASCAR races and championships, the elder Busch’s career has had far more ups and downs as well as twists and turns. Kurt joined what is now Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing in 2000, making his NASCAR national series debut in the Truck Series, where he won four races and was second in the series standings in his first year.
Busch’s talent was evident from the start and Roush wasted no time promoting him to Cup in 2001, bypassing the typical stop in the second-tier Xfinity Series. Busch had a rough rookie outing but won 11 races over the next three seasons, including the series championship in 2004 – the first year of NASCAR’s playoff system.
Source: Autosport