Kurt Busch is on a journey of redemption. After a career of extreme highs and lows, he was forced into retirement in 2023 due to a concussion he’d suffered at Pocono in 2022. He underwent significant struggles in getting himself track-ready since then and is finally there. The 2004 Cup Series champion will be participating in the Race of Champions in Sydney on March 7-8.
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His presence in this event will, or he hopes it will, open up a pandora’s box of opportunities. The ultimate goal is to get back into the NASCAR Cup Series. A tall task considering his age and physical condition, but his surname should tell you that he is not one to back off from a challenge. His very resilience till this point proves the same.
He told RACER magazine, “Things happen on the NASCAR circuit, and my time there was almost up. It was like, ‘This is what is going on. The doctors are not clearing me.’ It felt like the end, and I was fine.” He knew that he could still climb up the ladder again if he gave himself time. He had the connections to make magic happen.
“When you’re a racer, and you’re not reaching too far out, and you’re letting things come to you, it works on the racetrack, and it works off the racetrack, as well,” he explained. Just as he’d expected, the phone call came from Fredrik Johnsson, the President of Race of Champions. Busch has been on cloud nine ever since it did.
Busch is shaking off the rust and preparing to destroy the competition
When Busch received his new racing suit from Alpinestars, it was nothing short of a superhero moment. He said that the new dress made him feel giddy and excited about the future. He has been training at the Radford Racing School in Arizona with the aid of friends such as Paul Tracy, a former IndyCar driver.
He added, “As soon as I put the helmet on, I know. I felt that through these track days. I got the adrenaline going and feeling what it feels like to get in the braking zone and to hit the right shift points and to carry speed, and work on lap times. It’s all of the same stuff that I’ve been doing forever, it’s just a cool and new setting for me to be in.”
You don’t win a Cup Series championship, a Coca-Cola 600, and a Daytona 500 without extraordinary talent. At 46 years of age, Busch is working towards a mission that would put his extraordinariness to the test. It will take more than just talent to win this battle. Only time will tell if he will race against his brother, Kyle, in the premier series again.
