NASCAR: Kyle Busch still interested in Indy 500 bid?
By Asher Fair
Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch confirmed to Beyond the Flag that he still has interest in competing in the Indy 500 in the near future.
After a historic NASCAR/IndyCar doubleheader last season at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course as a result of the rescheduling caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the Cup Series and IndyCar are again set to run at the 13-turn, 2.439-mile (3.925-kilometer) road course in Speedway, Indiana on the same weekend in 2021.
Before the pandemic, this doubleheader was something that hadn’t been seen as an option until 2022 at the earliest.
The Xfinity Series ran on that road course in 2020, although the Cup Series ran on four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) oval, the site of the annual Brickyard 400 since 1994.
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But NASCAR will be abandoning the oval completely in 2021, and the Cup Series is also set to run on the road course. IndyCar is scheduled to race at the track on Saturday, August 14 while the Cup Series is set to do so on Sunday, August 15.
Asked if it would even be possible for any drivers, not specifically himself, to do a weekend crossover that weekend, two-time Cup Series champion noted that it would be possible but challenging.
“I would assume it would be possible,” he told Beyond the Flag. “I’m just not sure the logistics of it would necessarily work, trying to find a ride and all that sort of stuff.”
As for him, his desire isn’t to drive an IndyCar on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course; it is to compete in the Indy 500 on the oval.
“Really the oval for IndyCar is a bigger deal to me than the road course,” he said, something that he has discussed many times in the past. “So I wouldn’t take to doing two road courses on the same weekend knowing how physically exhausting that can be versus trying to run the oval.”
After it was postponed to August this year for the first time, the Indy 500 is again set to return to its usual date next year: Memorial Day Sunday, the same day as NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
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Just four drivers have ever competed in both races of the “Memorial Day Double” on the same day, and the most recent driver to do it was Kurt Busch, Kyle’s brother, back in 2014. Will Kyle do it this May?