When Busch met with reporters shortly after announcing his move to Richard Childress Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series next year, he touched on one item that was once a hot topic. Doing the traditional “double” has always been on Kyle’s bucket list. He may be closer to that now than ever before, but why hasn’t it happened already?
Kyle had a deal in place to drive for Roger Penske in the 2017 Greatest Spectacle in Racing, but his boss Joe Gibbs put cold water on that fire. When the 2020 Indy 500 was moved to August due to the pandemic, he tried to put another deal together since it would not interfere with his Cup obligations, but it never came to fruition.
Now that the door is wide open, Busch is ready to start talking about it. “I made sure that was in the deal,” he said about running the race. “By all means, any IndyCar teams that are Chevrolet, call me up.”
With Kyle no longer restricted from running in the iconic event, the question is which team would be the best fit for his services? When his brother Kurt ran the 500 in 2014, he drove for Andretti Autosport, but they are a Honda-powered team.
The first choice might seem like it would be Penske, but despite Roger Penske’s monumental success (18 Indy 500 wins) at IMS, the team has somewhat struggled in recent years.
The team ran four cars in the 2020 race but scored just one top-ten finish. They had the same result in 2021 and struggled in qualifying once again as Will Power nearly got bumped and started on the last row. This past year, none of their three drivers qualified inside the top-ten, and finished 13th, 15th, and 29th respectively.
Power won his second IndyCar title with Penske earlier this month, and says he would welcome Busch to the team. “It would be great to have Kyle run the Indy 500. I think it’s good for the series and it’d just be interesting to see him in a car like that. His brother did really well, so I’d expect him to be just as good.” Kurt finished 6th in that race, earning Rookie of the Year honors.
Penske trimmed their lineup to three full-time cars this year, which resulted in a 1-2-4 placement in the championship. All three drivers won races, combining to win nine of the 17 rounds. Adding a fourth car while managing their new sportscar program is something Roger would likely want to avoid, especially with their recent struggles at his home track.
Ed Carpenter Racing has been arguably the strongest Chevrolet team at the speedway in recent years. Team…
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