NASCAR: Kyle Busch’s retirement keeps getting delayed

By Asher Fair | Jul 31, 2020

Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing, Texas, NASCAR, Xfinity Series (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images) /

Kyle Busch’s retirement from NASCAR Xfinity Series competition continues to be delayed, most recently via a win-stripping disqualification at Texas Motor Speedway and the cancellation of an event in which he was slated to compete.

Kyle Busch had a chance to retire from NASCAR Xfinity Series competition this season, given that he has said multiple times that he will retire from the sport’s second highest level of competition once he reaches the 100-win mark.

He entered the 2020 season with 96 career victories, and he was slated to compete in five races after NASCAR made the restrictions on full-time Cup Series drivers competing in the lower series stricter than they already were (seven races to five). So he could afford one non-win and still hang up his helmet after this year.

“Yeah, I’ve said it over and over again. … I’ll get to 100 and then I don’t need to be there,” he said late last season. “That’s just kind of a number I would like to get to.”

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He used up that one non-win in his first start of the season, as he was passed late by teammates Brandon Jones and Harrison Burton at Phoenix Raceway back in March before settling for a third place finish.

It was then confirmed that the 35-year-old Las Vegas, Nevada native would not be retiring this season in the following race at Darlington Raceway in May. After a classic late battle with Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe, Busch had to settle for second place by just a nose.

Busch did inch closer to retirement at Charlotte Motor Speedway the following week with a victory over Team Penske’s Austin Cindric, the 97th of his career, but he still had no path to 100 wins in 2020.

At Texas Motor Speedway, Busch thought he had inched even closer to retirement with his 98th victory, and it was looking like he could very well end the 2020 season needing just one more victory to hit 100 since he is only scheduled to make one more start this year.

Unfortunately for him, he was disqualified from this race and stripped of his victory after his #54 Toyota failed post-race inspection. Second place finisher Cindric was classified as the official race winner.

That’s where Busch’s tongue-in-cheek humor from last year came into play yet again.

“I would be there by now and I would have been out of it by now but apparently NASCAR and the fans love me there so much they keep make limitations on keeping me there,” he joked last year.

After his disqualification, maybe he has a solid point.

And it’s a point he brought up again following the disqualification.

“I guess NASCAR wants me here longer.”

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Additionally, the location of Busch’s fifth and final start of the 2020 season has not yet been determined, creating yet another delay to the process. He had been slated to make it at Watkins Glen International on Saturday, August 15, but that race was scrapped from the calendar as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

He is unable to compete in the replacement race at the Daytona International Speedway road course since NASCAR has restricted drivers from competing in more than one race that weekend.

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