(WOMR file photo)
Stewart-Haas Racing driver Kurt Busch said he expects to have “a pretty good indication” by the end of January if he will make what he expects is his last attempt to enter the Indianapolis 500.
The 2004 Sprint Cup champion completed IndyCar’s rookie orientation program for the race last season in a car prepared by Andretti Autosport and said he has a standing offer from that team — plus another — to enter the May 25 spectacle. Doing so would make the Stewart-Haas Racing driver the first since Robby Gordon in 2004 to contest both the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600, NASCAR’s Memorial Day weekend offering, on the same day. Busch said he has a “couple of strong leads for advertising partners” but is concerned over a lack of testing time and that the Indianapolis 500 is the first oval event on the 2014 IndyCar schedule. His age, he said, might make this his last shot.
“Testing, we still would probably need to go to Fontana [Calif.], or we’re just going to have to bite the bullet and show up at Indy and let ‘er rip,” he said. “But I turn 36 this summer and to me that’s like an artificial drawing-a-line in the sand of ‘I’m getting too old.‘ I can’t teach myself new tricks. You can show up at Indy as a 20-year-old and go and do that. So I’m thinking this is probably the cutoff year”, Busch relayed.(ESPN)
Kurt Busch went on to say that there is a “70 percent” chance he’ll compete in the Indianapolis 500 this year. Busch said Monday during the opening day of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Media Tour that progress has been made to make him the first NASCAR driver to to run in the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 in the same day since Robby Gordon last did a decade ago.
Additionally, Busch said that Stewart-Haas Racing co-owners Gene Haas and Tony Stewart have given their approval to his attempt. “It’s actually grabbed better traction the last couple of weeks, it’s gotten me more excited,” Busch said. “The teams that are showing interest, the sponsors and the opportunity is there. I think we’ve even rounded up some partners that will make transportation better. I don’t know when we’ll have a decision but we now have to understand how NASCAR’s qualifying procedures will work and the time I cannot be out of the Cup car to go to do Indianapolis stuff. We have to make sure we balance that.” Busch said he’s had interest from Andretti Autosport, the team owned by Michael Andretti, and another team he declined to name.(Motor Racing Network)
There are many questions to be answered before this can all come to fruitition!
If, “The Outlaw”, as he likes to call himself, can pull of this fete this year, he will have to get into a much better shape that he is accustomed to being in. just doing 12 ounce curls is not going to get it done! Pulling off “the double” is a young man’s game that requires a boat load of driving talent. Does KuBu possess that kind of talent? Can KuBu get into that kind of shape to pull off 1100 miles of racing in one day? Can he pull together the kind of “marketing partners” (read sponsors) required to make this work, in light of his previously public meltdowns and profanity laced tirades?
Wasn’t KuBu considered some really bad “soiled linen”, “persona no gratis”, “a cancer on the race team”, “radioactive”, just a couple of years ago?
I am just saying….
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
