Kurt Busch talks IROC and finding fraternity at the Freedom 250

IndyCar recently stopped through Washington, D.C. for its Freedom 250 street race. With the International Race of Champions staging two 10-lap support races on Saturday, Kurt Busch was in the nation's capital to participate in the IROC Presented by Chevrolet events, where the 2003 IROC champion powered to two second-place finishes to double race winner and former NASCAR Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon. It was an excellent afternoon for Busch, who was in excellent fighting trim on the 1.7-mile Freedom 250 Grand Prix street circuit that ran through the National Mall.

Winner of the previous Heritage Invitational at Ten Tenths Motor Club in Concord, North Carolina, as well as the winner of the WeatherTech Laguna Seca Raceway round, Busch ultimately slotted in at second in points to Gordon in the 2026 International Race of Champions standings. Now back home in North Carolina and pondering what might be coming at him through his windshield next, Busch reflected on his highly competitive IROC body of work.

“We were just racing in Washington, D.C. on an incredible street course with IndyCar," explained Busch a few days removed from the Freedom 250. "It was an awesome couple weeks of preparation going in and having my purple people eater, my old IROC car, out there running. I was able to beat Jimmie Johnson in a photo finish at Laguna Seca with a last corner pass. I thought he was going to throw some blocks. He did and I was able to out drag race him to the line. What an incredible fraternity feel it is with the IROC guys.

"Then there was a group that went to Washington, D.C. with the most current Firebirds and, man, it was just a lot of fun again with the frat house feel and with seeing Rusty Wallace and Bill Elliott. Tony Kanaan and Helio Castroneves were out there running with us, as well as Tommy Kendall. It was just cool to be part of the group and see everyone. It was so much fun.

"The conversations that spur up, it’s awesome. We used to talk abut how much we would bench press or how much we were running and now we’re talking about how our knees hurt and how our feet hurt. Laughter. The frat house has just gotten a little older in the IROC Series, but that’s part of it.”

All along the way, Kurt Busch has thoroughly enjoyed the IROC Series and the fraternal feel it spools up amongst the legendary competitors present.

“To win at Ten Tenths earlier this year at the new track that Rick Hendrick put in, what an incredible country club atmosphere there,” pointed out Busch. “Then there was Historic Week at Laguna. And then with D.C., to be part of the support show for IndyCar, that was just a huge stage for IROC to stand on with Ray Evernham and the whole group of mechanics. It was like the old school gang together to go out there and put on a show. It was definitely fun. Very, very challenging with the braking zones.

"You know our big, heavy cars, they’re a lot to slow down, and when you’re jumping and going over crosswalks, you’ve got to hit it all just the right way. The fun meter was pegged and it was really cool that we did two races with the full invert, but man, Jeff Gordon brought the heat and he was fast. Helio Castroneves was right there in the mix. It was just neat to see everyone having fun and putting on a good show.”

Busch explained just what it was like to hustle a lumbering IROC Pontiac Firebird around the rough and tumble 1.7-mile Freedom 250 street course.

“I saw the track map and then saw the big pit straight that was just under a half a mile long, and we were thinking speeds would approach 165 miles an hour with our cars,” explained Busch. “It ended up where the corner leading on to that straightaway was a little slower, so it was actually the same gearing as Laguna Seca as far as the front stretch there.

"Obviously, Laguna is a much faster track. On the street course, there were crosswalks with bricks. There was paint. You had old asphalt and you had new asphalt. There were some concrete sections. But what was so cool was that the Goodyear tire was the same one that we ran on all the road courses and it did really, really well. We ran two races on one set of the Goodyear Eagle, so props to them. There was plenty of grip and the tires really weren’t dropping off all that much.

“It was hilarious,” furthered Busch of the vibe around the Freedom 250 IROC paddock. “Every time everyone heard a V8 NASCAR-type car, they were all geeked up twice as hard as we were when we heard their IndyCars fired up. That was part of the fraternity of motorsports on how everyone respects each other. It’s cool listening to the other cars out there running. When we hit the track, man, it was like all the fans were just glued to the fences and going, ‘Wow.’ Those are the days of old with the split pipe and that V8 engine.

"As far as driving an IROC car there, you feel the old sensation when you get into it. There are the old analog gauges. Then there is the shape of the greenhouse. The transmission is just one of those old G-Force transmissions. It’s not like the new Jerico gearboxes. Every shift is a lot longer and a lot more delicate. And then again with the brakes. Your mentality is, ‘I’ve got to go hard.’ But the way the spindles and the tie rods and everything flex, and when the calipers grab, there are a lot of compliance issues and the car and the car kind of wanders around.

"One of my first practice sessions, it was like that front tire on a shopping cart wobbling around. It was like, ‘We’ve got to get this fixed!’ Street courses are brutal. They’re just tougher on cars. They’re meaner on the cars. You kind of got to drive with this finesse to not hurt your own equipment. Everything is just meaner on a street course with the bumps and all. Everything has more of a consequence with the concrete walls being right next to you on the corner apex. If it’s a left hand turn, you’ve got that concrete wall right there, you know? That’s not going to give any if you turn in too soon.

"What was cool, as the race progressed and as the day progressed, more rubber from the IndyCars was getting laid down and the speeds kept getting quicker. Then there was more shift points and you just had to balance out everything. Like that Kyle Kirkwood dude that’s been winning all the street course races in IndyCar, he’s got it, man. He’s in the zone and he’s doing something different than the rest of the gang and that’s what you have to find. You have to find out how he’s doing that.”

Did Busch and double race winner Jeff Gordon speak at all after all the racing was complete?

“We did! Man, it was fun!” answered Busch. “It was like that old school battle of, ‘Alright, man, let’s bring the heat!’ It was so cool to see Bill Elliott out there running good lap times. Helio Castroneves was right in the mix. Rusty Wallace was running strong. Again, you’re smiling at it the whole time.

"We had a full invert for the second race, so me and Jeff were on the back row. When they dropped the green in the second race, I’ll tell you dude, my car owner instincts kicked in. I was like, ‘Man, we don’t need to all go down in here and pile in.’ So I was conservative on the first lap and that’s when Castroneves and Gordon made some passes and got away from me for a little bit. So I had to go to work in the second half of that race to catch back up.

"Jeff still has it, too. Jeff was good, and we raced really strong earlier this year at Ten Tenths Motor Club. I mean everybody has still got it, you know? It’s just a matter of how hard you want to push. I think the fun level is always going to be there with IROC and the community and we’ll see what happens next.

"One of the coolest thongs so far with IROC has been the autograph sessions. You’re sitting in a line and you have Al Unser Jr. as our lead guy up front. Zac Brown, the McLaren boss, he’s got an old Camaro. Patrick Long is out there. Tommy Kendall was there. I loved watching him in Trans-Am. I’m geeking out. I’m the young guy in the group and I’m geeking out just hanging out with my boys. It was just a lot of fun.”