Kurt Busch chases playoff berth with his NASCAR future uncertain
Kurt Busch has welcomed the uncertainty of this season as he chases a playoff berth while pondering his future in NASCAR.
Busch posted the fastest practice time Saturday as NASCAR’s Cup Series returned to Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, for the first time since 1956. His younger brother, Kyle Busch, had the secondfastest practice time but crashed and will have to start Sunday at the back of the pack in a backup car.
There’s plenty at stake for Kurt Busch the rest of the year as he heads into Sunday’s race 14th in the points standings.
“I haven’t really been in this situation much,” Busch said. “Usually there’s a win or really good points that give us a cushion. I’ve embraced this year in a whole different level just because of all the challenges that have come our way.”
Busch’s contract with Chip Ganassi Racing expires at the end of the year, and Ganassi sold his NASCAR team to Trackhouse Racing owner Justin Marks this week and will leave the Cup Series at the end of the season.
Busch said the news broke when he was inside a simulator. He stepped out and saw he had a couple hundred text messages.
“You drive harder and push deeper and push harder when news like that comes out,” Busch said. “It was a surprise to me. All of us at Ganassi looked at each other and said, ‘We’ve got a playoff berth right in front of us. Let’s go get it. Let’s win and let’s push as hard as we can here right now in 2021.’ ”
Busch prepared for Road America on the simulator for a refresher on a course he last raced 2012 when he finished eighth in an Xfinity Series race. He said he attended an IndyCar race at the track as a fan in 1997.
Road America, located on 640 acres about halfway between Milwaukee and Green Bay, has hosted an Xfinity Series race each year since 2010. But this weekend marks the first time Road America has hosted NASCAR’s premier series since Tim Flock won a rainy Grand National event back in 1956.
This is the fourth of seven road-course races on this year’s Cup Series schedule, and red-hot Kyle Larson thinks it’s the toughest yet.
“There’s just not much room for error here,” Larson said.
XFINITY SERIES
Kyle Busch continued his perfect NASCAR Xfinity Series season Saturday at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
After spinning off course twice, Busch rallied in the final stage and led the final five laps in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota for his fourth victory in four starts this year and 101st in the series.
NASCAR only allows Cup Series drivers to compete in five Xfinity and five Truck Series races a year. Busch is scheduled to enter his final Xfinity event of the season next week at Atlanta.
Busch edged teammate
Daniel Hemric by 3.522 seconds, with Michael Annett third, AJ Allmendinger fourth and
Harrison Burton fifth. Road America has had a different winner in each of its 12 Xfinity events.
Austin Cindric, the 2020 winner on the 4.048-mile course, led Saturday, but his Ford suffered damage in a wreck that began when Myatt Snider spun off course coming out of a restart. Cindric ended up in eighth.
FORMULA ONE
As a relentless Max Verstappen clinched his third straight pole position with a commanding drive for Red Bull at the Austrian Grand Prix in Spielberg, Austria, his title rival Lewis Hamilton could only manage fourth place on the day flagging Mercedes announced his two-year contract extension.
Verstappen’s latest pole was on his team’s home track at the Red Bull ring, where he won from pole last weekend. The Formula One championship leader is aiming for a third straight victory and a fifth in a row for Red Bull. But it’s a measure of his form that he thinks he could have done better.
Hamilton was under pressure in his final lap and went too wide on the last two turns.
The seven-time defending F1 champion was even upstaged by 21year-old countryman Lando Norris, who qualified second for McLaren ahead of Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez — who has also won a race this season.