With his 44th birthday coming up, Kurt Busch is not exactly a spring chicken. Although he isn’t the oldest NASCAR driver on the grid, he has been competing in the series for 22 years on a full-time basis. Naturally, people have begun to wonder when the 2004 Cup Series champion will hang up his boots.
Barely a couple of years ago, Busch confessed that there was a “50-50” chance he’d be done with racing.
However, the veteran has still stuck around and snatched his 34th career Cup win at Kansas. Not only did it propel him up to 25th on the all-time wins list, it proved that despite his age, he still has what it takes to win.
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Will Kurt Busch retire from NASCAR soon?
Recently, the #45 driver hinted that he may consider NASCAR retirement very soon. He and his 23XI Racing teammate Bubba Wallace were in Chicago for the street race announcement. Though it is worth mentioning that while he was excited, he did drop a massive hint about his future beyond 2023.
He said, “I’ve been in this sport 23 years, and this, to me, is like one of those kid-in-the-candy-store moments of, ‘I wanna be part of this.’ And I’m glad that I’m having the chance to drive next year for the team, and I might be done driving after that.”
“There’s a few different options, and for me, the team that just gave me so much respect about a month ago. They said, ‘You can drive as long as you want to drive for us. We really appreciate you driving. Well, we needed to start to look at who the next new talent is, where the sponsorships are. We just signed a new guy, Tyler Reddick, to 23XI, so we’re building.”
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With the recent recruitment of Tyler Reddick for 2024 and beyond, is it a sign that Reddick will replace him? The Richard Childress Racing driver was pretty much hot property after he won his first career Cup race.
However, it was assumed that 23XI Racing would field three cars by 2024, with Wallace, Busch, and Reddick.
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With Busch’s startling revelation, could it actually mean that Reddick is his successor?
WATCH STORY: From Kurt Busch’s “F**ked Up” Rant to Kyle Larson’s Tire Blowout: Dover Highlights”