NASCAR: Kyle Busch discusses potential IndyCar crossover

By Asher Fair | Jan 4, 2021

Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing, NASCAR, Cup Series (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images) /

With the first ever NASCAR/IndyCar doubleheader having taken place at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last season, Kyle Busch discussed a potential crossover in future doubleheaders.

Due to the changes to the NASCAR and IndyCar schedule caused by the coronavirus pandemic, what was believed to not be able to happen until 2022 at the earliest took place on July 4th weekend: a NASCAR/IndyCar doubleheader.

IndyCar and the Xfinity Series competed on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on Saturday, July 4, and the Cup Series ran on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval on Sunday, July 5. Never before had the highest levels of American open-wheel racing and stock car racing run at the same venue on the same weekend.

There is already talk of future NASCAR/IndyCar doubleheaders, and several tracks have been mentioned as possibilities to host. In fact, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course is slated to host another one in August.

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Additionally, many drivers have expressed interest in potentially competing in both NASCAR and IndyCar races during a future doubleheader weekend.

Asked if a future NASCAR/IndyCar doubleheader is something he’d be interested in doing on the IndyCar side in addition to his usual Cup Series duties, two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Busch did not commit to one way or the other, but he did note that he doesn’t expect there to be much crossover in general, despite all of the recent hype.

“I think anything that’s good for racing is a good thing, so I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing more doubleheaders,” Busch told Beyond the Flag.

“I’m not sure you are going to see a whole lot of crossover necessarily, since we all have commitments on our end with our sponsors and our teams and the IndyCar guys have the same. Obviously this year has been completely different, but when we hopefully get back to more normal times it’s something that great for the fans to be able to see guys from both series on the same weekend.”

Busch has expressed interest in driving an open-wheel race car in the Indianapolis 500 before, like his brother Kurt did in 2014 to become the fourth (and still most recent) driver to run the Memorial Day Double. He recently reiterated that interest to Beyond the Flag.

But as for a crossover on a given weekend, that may not be something the fans get to see anytime in the near future, even if more NASCAR/IndyCar doubleheaders do end up on the calendar. With IndyCar and NASCAR set to run on the same weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course next season, we asked Busch specifically about that possibility.

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“I would assume it would be possible,” he said. “I’m just not sure the logistics of it would necessarily work, trying to find a ride and all that sort of stuff. Really the oval for IndyCar is a bigger deal to me than the road course, 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.”

The 105th running of the Indy 500 is scheduled to take place on Sunday, May 30.