BUSY BUSCH

eyes 7 events in 11 days.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — NASCAR champion Kyle Busch will sprint back into competition when the season resumes by running all seven races that have been scheduled over an 11-day span.

Busch will drive his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Toyota on Sunday when the Cup Series season resumes at Darlington Raceway then again next Wednesday when the series returns to the South Carolina track. He will also run at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 24 and May 27.

In between, Busch will run for JGR in the Xfinity Series race next Tuesday at Darlington and again at Charlotte on May 25. He also will race in the Truck Series at Charlotte for Kyle Busch Motorsports for a scheduled 1,100 miles over three days.

His calendar includes all seven of the initial races NASCAR has rescheduled in its return from the pandemic shutdown, spokesman Bill Janitz confirmed Thursday.

Busch was not originally scheduled to race the truck race at Charlotte because he was ineligible as it was designated part of a NASCAR challenge. That’s been altered and Busch can now compete.

The Xfinity Series race at Darlington replaces the event at Chicago Busch was scheduled to race this summer. The Chicago race has been canceled.

NASCAR rules limit Busch to just seven Xfinity Series and five Truck Series appearances per season, restrictions he is unhappy with. A year ago, Busch won all five truck races he entered and four of the seven races in the Xfinity Series.

He also added a second Cup championship for Gibbs in a five-win season.

A truck victory at Las Vegas is Busch’s only win so far this season and he’s ranked 12th in the Cup standings. Busch had a pair of top-five finishes through the first four NASCAR events before the season was suspended.

SUMMER SCHEDULE

It will be a summer in the South for NASCAR: The stock car series announced Thursday it will stick to Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, Florida and Alabama for June races — all of them without fans.

NASCAR has now set plans for 20 races — including nine in the elite Cup Series — as it returns to the tracks after being shut down for more than two months by concerns about the coronavirus.

The Cup Series is scheduled to resume on Sunday at Darlington Raceway and will run four times in 11 days at the South Carolina track and at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.

Then NASCAR will go to Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee on May 31. The track is roughly three hours’ driving distance for most of the Charlotte-area based teams. Some drivers could fly privately to the track via helicopter.

NASCAR will then race at Atlanta Motor Speedway with the Truck Series and Xfinity Series on June 6 and the Cup Series on June 7. The track in Hampton, Ga.

The Cup Series will race for a third time on a Wednesday night at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia on June 10.

Then all three national series will run together with two full days at Homestead-Miami Speedway in South Florida. The Truck Series and Xfinity Series will race June 13, then the Xfinity Series will run again on June 14 in a warm-up for the Cup Series.

NASCAR will then go to to Talladega Superspeedway with the ARCA Series and the Xfinity Series racing June 20 and Cup on June 21.

NASCAR postponed events at Kansas Speedway, Michigan International Speedway, the Xfinity Series race at Mid-Ohio and the Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. The Xfinity race at Iowa Speedway scheduled for June 13 has been moved to Homestead on June 14.

(AP/Ralph Freso) Kyle Busch, shown before a NASCAR Cup Series race in March at Phoenix Raceway, is set to compete in seven races in an 11-day span when the season resumes Sunday.