Kurt Busch to make racing return at Race of Champions
Yesterday at 11:55 AM
Kurt Busch will make his first racing appearance since his premature NASCAR Cup Series retirement at the Race of Champions on March 7-8.
The 2004 Cup champion called time on his Cup Series career after crashing heavily at Pocono in July 2022. He then withdrew from full-time competition that October before officially ending his career in August 2023.
But he has received medical clearance to take part in his third Race of Champions, which will this year take place at Accor Stadium in Sydney, Australia.
"Race car drivers always push the limits to be the best, and drive to win," said Busch. "That is what I have strived for my whole career, and to receive another invite from Race Of Champions is a chance to go up against the best of the best from around the world. What an honor!"
Busch debuted in the Race of Champions at Bushy Park Circuit in Barbados in 2014 – the same year he competed in the Indianapolis 500 – getting knocked out of the group stage of the Nations Cup with Ryan Hunter-Reay, before topping his group in the individual contest, bettering 2003 World Rally champion and two-time World Rallycross champion Petter Solberg as well as Barbadian rally driver Rhett Watson and Susie Wolff before falling to Australian Supercars legend Jamie Whincup in the knockout stage.
Three years later he teamed up with brother Kyle Busch at Miami’s LoanDepot Park (then known as Marlins Park) for the Nations Cup, They finished second to Team USA IndyCar’s Hunter-Reay and Alexander Rossi, who then beat the brothers in the knockout stage. Busch fell in the group stage of the individual competition behind David Coulthard and Tom Kristensen, but ahead of Hunter-Reay.
This time around Busch will partner Travis Pastrana for Team USA in the Nations Cup event before competing individually in the head-to-head competition.
"There is no-one that I've seen at past Race Of Champions from America that's been able to jump in the cars and perform like Kurt Busch," said Pastrana. "I've talked to Kurt a few times over the past months and pleaded with him to come out of retirement since his crash in NASCAR.
“I would have loved to see another ultra-talented driver like Kyle Larson come to Race Of Champions as well, but he has a NASCAR race the same weekend. I said if I'm going all the way to Australia then it has to be with someone that can help me win it all for Team USA."
“Hopefully Kurt can teach me how to drive on tarmac. I'm so stoked that he has confirmed and we are going to do everything we can to win ROC Sydney for the USA."
As well as a NASCAR career that has spanned 776 races in the Cup series, returning 34 wins (including the 2017 Daytona 500), and a sole Indy 500 start which also earned him Rookie of the Year honors, Busch was the 2003 IROC champion and the 2010 NASCAR All-Star race winner.
He joins a packed roster at the Race of Champions that also includes nine-time World Rally Champion and four-time ROC winner Sebastien Loeb, four-time Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel, seven-time World Rallycross champion Johan Kristofferson, and seven-time Supercars champion Whincup.
Also competing are two-time European Rally champion Hayden Paddon, 10-time F1 race winner Valtteri Bottas, reigning Supercars champion Will Brown, inaugural Extreme E champion Molly Taylor, 2020 Formula 2 champion and current Alpine World Endurance Championship driver Mick Schumacher, Petter and Oliver Solberg, and double Dakar winner Toby Price.
