Newly-cleared Kurt Busch hoping RoC opens doors to more racing

Kurt Busch is hoping that his upcoming participation at the Race of Champions is a springboard to a broader return to racing.

The 2004 NASCAR Cup Series champion was forced to call time on his full-time NASCAR career in 2023 due to the effects of a concussion sustained in a c rash during qualifying at Pocono in 2022. He gained medical clearance to get back into the cockpit this week ahead of the Race of Champions in Sydney on March 7-8, and told RACER that he hopes that more driving is on the horizon.

“It has been awesome these last couple of months, preparing for the Race of Champions,” Busch said.

“Fredrik Johnsson, the main guy of the Race of Champions, called me and I told him that I had a few things that I had to get sorted out to be able to participate. And once I was able to do that, it was like a cloud was lifted and blue skies opened up, and it has been awesome to just get back in the groove of making phone calls again to places like Alpinestars to get a new drivers suit, and to get all of my safety gear updated.

"I have been doing some track days in Arizona and some track days in North Carolina. Great friends have been (there) all the way around. Friends like Paul Tracy, the old IndyCar racer, helped me out. I went back and spent time at the old Radford Racing School. It’s in Chandler, Arizona and I went there in the 1990s to work on my road racing skills. So it has been fun to go back and say hi to some of the guys and meet the new people.

“It has been so much fun just dialing myself back in. I mean, it has even been simple things like opening up my box from Alpinestars in Italy, and there is my new driving suit. That kind of thing has made me feel giddy, and made me feel excited about the upcoming season. I don’t know where this will lead to, but I’m sure it will open the door and create a ripple effect in the water and it is going to lead to other things.”

Busch said that the enforced time off from the commitments that come with racing in the Cup Series gave him an opportunity to open his eyes to other categories that he hasn’t previously had time to consider.

“It’s like the weight of the normal grind and not being a full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver gave me the freedom to look around and say, ‘Alright! What’s up with this Trans Am Series that Paul Tracy is doing? What’s going on with the IMSA series over here? What’s going on globally over in Europe?’” he said.

“So all of this is a chance for me to go rub elbows with some old friends and go racing with no pressure. And it’s me. 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.

“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. I knew that a different chapter would open up after a certain amount of time, or with connections. 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.”