NASCAR: Key detail surrounds Kyle Busch Indy 500 bid

Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch has approval to run in the Indy 500 if he can put a deal together, but only with a Chevrolet team.

After winning his second NASCAR Cup Series championship in 2019, Kyle Busch was officially given the green light to pursue an Indy 500 bid from Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota.

Busch, who has long made clear that he still has interest in competing in the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing”, previously stated that he had one “boss” who wouldn’t allow him to compete in the 200-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval in Speedway, Indiana and another “boss” who would.

Here is what he had to say about the matter in 2017 after having what he described as a done deal for 2016 fall through, according to IndyStar.

"“I had it done last year [2016], sold and everything ready to go, and I’ve got a boss that said no. Figure it out. I’ve got two bosses — one’s a male and one’s a female. I thought that I had a great opportunity to do it.”"

Team owner Joe Gibbs was the boss who initially wouldn’t allow him to do it. The “boss” who had been okay with it was his wife, Samantha, who admitted she would be a “nervous wreck” but did not want to stand in her husband’s way of doing something he really wanted to do.

Despite getting approval to do so, Busch didn’t compete in the race in 2020, 2021, or 2022.

In 2020, the race was pushed back by nearly three months as a result of COVID-19-related restrictions, and the Cup Series was at Dover International Speedway at the same time of the August event. So even if he had put together a deal to do so, he would not have gotten the opportunity to run it.

More than two years later, Busch has yet to become the fifth driver and first since his brother Kurt to attempt the Memorial Day Double: compete in the Indy 500 and then fly to Charlotte Motor Speedway to compete in NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 later in the evening.

And now he is set to leave Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota following the 2022 season.

Kyle recently signed a multi-year deal with Richard Childress Racing, reuniting him with Chevrolet for the first time since he competed for Hendrick Motorsports from 2005 to 2007.

While he admitted that this particular clause was not a priority, the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion does continue to have approval to compete in the Indy 500.

But there is one thing to note about Busch’s approval to compete in the Indy 500 that narrows his list of potential opportunities — and it’s interestingly the same one he had when he was with Joe Gibbs Racing.

He would have to drive a Chevrolet-powered car, not a Honda-powered car.

When he was with Toyota, the reason for this was the fact that IndyCar’s only two manufacturers are Chevrolet and Honda, and Honda and Toyota are global rivals.

Toyota wouldn’t want the full-time driver of the #18 Camry behind the wheel of a Honda for anything, much less the greatest race in the world. Busch had competed against Chevrolet in the Cup Series for more than a decade, but that was considered less of a sacrifice for Toyota considering IndyCar’s only other option is Honda.

Now the reason for Busch being allowed to compete only for Chevrolet is a bit more obvious.

With the 37-year-old Las Vegas, Nevada native now literally set to drive full-time for Chevrolet, and presumably convert his Kyle Busch Motorsports Truck Series team to the same as well, Chevrolet is the lone manufacturer with which he can compete.

Team Penske, Ed Carpenter Racing, and Arrow McLaren SP are notable Chevrolet teams in IndyCar which regularly contend in the Indy 500. Others include Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, A.J. Foyt Enterprises, and Juncos Hollinger Racing.

Will Kyle Busch compete in the 107th running of the Indy 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway? The race is scheduled to take place on Sunday, May 28, 2023.