NASCAR: Rusty Wallace replacement confirmed for Kansas

Kurt Busch is set to join the Fox Sports broadcast booth for the NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway after Rusty Wallace joined the team at Dover Motor Speedway.

1989 NASCAR Cup Series champion Rusty Wallace joined the Fox Sports broadcast booth for this past rain-postponed Monday afternoon’s Cup Series race at Dover Motor Speedway, calling the race alongside lead announcer Mike Joy and fellow former driver Clint Bowyer.

Wallace became the eighth different individual to join the full-time duo as a guest analyst this season. The approach of using a guest analyst instead of a third full-time analyst was introduced last year after Jeff Gordon stepped away post-2021 to focus on his role as Vice Chairman of Hendrick Motorsports.

Kevin Harvick is set to join the booth full-time next year after retiring from Cup Series competition at the end of the 2023 season.

Tony Stewart leads everybody with six appearances so far during the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season.

This coming Sunday afternoon’s race at Kansas Speedway is set to see the return of a guest analyst from the March race at Circuit of the Americas.

2004 Cup Series champion Kurt Busch, who won last May’s race at Kansas Speedway, is set to join the booth again for this 267-lap race around the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) Kansas City, Kansas oval.

Busch was initially supposed to be in his second season competing for 23XI Racing behind the wheel of the No. 45 Toyota this year, but a single-car crash during qualifying at Pocono Raceway last July left him with concussion-like symptoms, and he hasn’t been back since.

Instead, Tyler Reddick made the move to the Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan-owned team a year earlier than expected and took over.

The No. 45 Toyota won both races at Kansas Speedway last year, with Busch taking the checkered flag in May and Bubba Wallace doing so in October after 23XI Racing moved him to Busch’s car due to the fact that it was still in the owner playoffs, even amid Busch’s absence.

Then in March, when Busch was in the booth for the race at Circuit of the Americas along with Haas Formula 1 team principal Guenther Steiner and Chase Elliott (remotely), it was the No. 45 Toyota that came out on top. Reddick earned his first win with 23XI Racing, and Busch got emotional watching it unfold.

Fox Sports 1 is set to broadcast Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 live from Kansas Speedway beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET. Start a free trial of FuboTV now and don’t miss any of the action!