The years surrounding 2010 were an interesting period in Kyle Busch’s career. He had settled well into his #18 Joe Gibbs Racing car and was racking up victories regularly. A significant part of his success at the time came at road courses such as Watkins Glen and Sonoma Raceway. He secured two wins each at Watkins Glen International (2008 and 2013) and Sonoma (2008 and 2015).
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It is with this confidence that he claimed his love for road racing in a 2014 interview with Jeff Gluck. The reporter asked him what kind of track he would like to design if someone offered him $5 million. Busch answered, “I like road-course racing. I think we could have some more road courses. That would be fun.”
“I hear a lot of people who say they enjoy watching the road course races over the ovals. Why? I don’t know. But I think we’ve got plenty of oval tracks, so I’d build a road course.” Months after he said these words, he won once again at Sonoma (2015). However, he is yet to find success at a road course since then.
This brings us to wonder if he still likes racing on road courses and if he would opt to build one if he was offered $5 million today. Despite his dry run, Busch has continued to be a threat. He has secured 19 top 5s and 28 top 10s in 56 appearances on them thus far. In all likelihood, he might still want to design one.
The special additions that Busch wanted to put on a road course
Gluck was taken aback by Rowdy’s choice in 2014. When he expressed his surprise, Busch further detailed, “Yeah. But I’d have some banked corners in there, some interesting stuff. I think the tunnels are cool – not a long tunnel, but like the tunnel at Monaco. I’d have some hairpin stuff, some esses, some switchbacks – I’d have it all.”
He certainly appeared to have given the topic some deep thought. Coming back to the present, he did not have a year worthy of telling in 2024. He struggled to finish high in almost every race and the four road course races were no different. Busch’s sole top-10 finish on road courses in 2024 came at the Circuit of the Americas with a P9 finish.
Hopefully, 2025 will be a year of redemption for the Richard Childress Racing superstar. His regular season campaign will begin on February 16 with the Daytona 500. His first road course race will be at COTA on March 2.
