Kyle Busch Could Open the Door for Drivers to Explore Racing Outside NASCAR With his V8 Supercars Opportunity

Over the past few days, there have been talks of Kyle Busch exploring racing options outside NASCAR. Crossovers are always exciting for people, be it in the world of entertainment or sports. This often happens when athletes from one sport become spectators of a different one and are seen cheering their favorite teams and players. Even better than this is when athletes compete in a sport different from their own.

This is not very common, and few have succeeded, if at all. Surprisingly though, crossovers between classes and divisions are fairly common in the motorsport arena. One of the most successful of these was John Surtees, who is the only racer to win championships in Formula One and MotoGP. Typically though, drivers often switch to another class when they’re at the end of their primary racing careers.

Notable examples are the various F1 drivers either competing in Endurance racing, Formula E, or other sports. Retired NASCAR drivers are known to continue racing in late models, sprint cars, and midgets well into their 40s and early 50s.

Where does Kyle Busch fit into the equation?

NASCAR drivers are not immune to this phenomenon. After all, Tony Stewart came from IndyCar as a champion and won three NASCAR Cup championships. Lately, many drivers from different disciplines have come to compete in the Cup Series arena. The latest one to join the party was 3x Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen. The Trackhouse Racing star enjoyed a dream debut at Chicago earlier this year, taking home the trophy.

SVG, as he is fondly known, is hardly the first V8 Supercars driver to compete in NASCAR. That honor goes to Marcos Ambrose, who raced between 2007 and 2014, taking two wins at Watkins Glen in consecutive years. Now the interesting part is that Kyle Busch will likely be heading in the other direction. To be precise, it is rumored that he will make his V8 Supercars debut in 2024. Admittedly, it will just be one race, but that particular race is the Adelaide 500—one of the four crown jewel events in the Supercars calendar.

To make this happen, Richard Childress Racing is in talks with Erebus Motorsport to field Busch as a wildcard. Richard Childress was in attendance at the 2023 V8 Supercars finale earlier this year. He was reported by V8 Sleuth as saying, “We’ve talked to [Kyle Busch] some about coming. I think he might one of these days. He’d enjoy this. The track’s good, right, the kind of racing that he’d like. I think he’d do good over here.”

Erebus Motorsport CEO Barry Ryan confirmed Childress’s statement, adding, “We were at the state dinner the other night and the Premier came up and said he wanted him to bring Kyle back next year, so I think we could make it happen.”

What does this mean for NASCAR drivers in the future?

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NASCAR drivers competing in other racing ventures is not uncommon. After all, drivers like Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, and Alex Bowman are being seen as Tony Stewart’s successors. Larson, in particular, races across numerous series and more often than most other drivers. Kyle Busch, too, is known to race in national midget racing events, apart from racing in Xfinity and Truck Series.

Moreover, the tie up with Erebus Motorsport makes sense. This is because RCR’s wants Brodie Kostecki, the reigning Supercars champion, to compete in more Cup Series races in 2024. The Adelaide 500 is also a reasonable race to compete in, since it takes place after the conclusion of the Cup season.

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Earlier this year, RCR managed to gets its hands on a V8 Supercar, probably to help the drivers improve their road course racing skills. For Kyle Busch in particular, it could prove quite useful because it would help him get used to driving the V8 Supercar. If Busch’s stint Down Under proves successful, it is just a matter of time before other teams follow suit.

What else to know about Kyle Busch and his V8 Supercars attempt?

Interestingly, Richard Childress confirmed that the Adelaide 500 is not exactly an event that runs wildcard drivers. This is because it is in essence the season finale. Additionally, it would be amateurish to assume that Busch’s potential V8 Supercars debut would play out like Shane van Gisbergen’s. Busch’s engineer Andrew Dickeson confessed that there are no delusions that Busch’s debut would be parallel to van Gisbergen’s NASCAR debut.

He insisted that Busch has to work on his road course skills. He does have a couple of road course wins at Sonoma and Watkins Glen, but not in RCR machinery. As a result, it is imperative that the 2-time NASCAR Cup Series champion improves his race craft on road courses. Dickeson acknowledged that the road will be hard, but Busch would be willing to learn. However, he does hope that the experience on foreign shores will help Busch get even better when he is back to the NASCAR arena.

READ MORE: Kyle Busch Named as Supercars’ Adelaide 500 Wild-Card, Thanks to Richard Childress’ Erebus Motorsport Partnership