NASCAR driver Kyle Busch has said that he will no longer actively chase a seat for the most prestigious race of them all: the Indianapolis 500. Since his switch from Joe Gibbs Racing to Richard Childress Racing the option to race the Indy 500 became feasible. Former team boss Joe Gibbs has always been against the wish of the Las Vegas native to drive the Indy 500.
Busch’s plan was to drive the so-called “Double Duty”, in which a driver races both the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR race later that evening. His older brother Kurt was the last one to try this feat. He finished sixth in Indianapolis but failed to finish in Charlotte due to a blown engine. If he was to do the “Double Duty”, Busch would be the fifth driver to do so.
After switching to RCR, Busch drives for Chevrolet, thus opening the door for some Chevy-powered IndyCar teams to provide him a seat. Unfortunately that never materialised, and with Kyle Larson securing a seat at the Chevy-powered Arrow McLaren team for next year, the former USF1-prospect feels unsure whether he will ever be able to race the Indy 500.
“Unfortunately I think Larson got the ride that I was slated to get, so he’s got that locked up for two years. So I don’t know if it will ever happen,” he told Fox Sports. “[It’s] just unfortunate for me, wanting to be able to go there and run that race and had a sponsor lined up in order to do it with. And I’ve been told no everywhere, we don’t have room or whatever it might be. So that’s really frustrating, but it is what it is.”
If the opportunity arises in the future he sure is willing to do it, but he won’t be actively looking for a seat anymore, he concluded.
“I’m not gonna be making calls and pushing for it. If somebody calls me and says that they’re ready to go, and it all lines up right, then so be it, we will go do it.”
