Kurt Busch sets aim on becoming 4th repeat Daytona 500 champ
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.— Kurt Busch is ready for his close-up outside the car. Busch signed with an entertainment agency in the offseason and may soon make the leap from stock cars to the silver screen.
Busch could beef up his IMDB page instead of racing for NASCAR titles.
Always one of sports more fiery personalities, performing comes naturally to Busch.
“I’ve been acting for 18 years in the garage area,” Busch said.
Busch already had several starring roles in some of NASCAR’s top dramas over the course of his career. He’s been the bad boy. He’s been rebooted as a family man. Through 18 seasons and five teams, Busch’s top starring role has always come behind the wheel.
The 39-year-old Busch is racing toward a Daytona 500 championship sequel.
Busch could become just the fourth driver to go backto-back and win consecutive Daytona 500s. Richard Petty (1973-1974) and Cale Yarborough (1983-1984) both won consecutive Daytona 500s, and no driver had his name etched on the Harley J. Earl Trophy two straight years since Sterling Marlin (1994-95).
“I feel the pressure. I like it,” Busch said Saturday at Daytona International Speedway.
Busch was a bit of a surprise winner last season in the first race for Ford as part of Stewart-Haas Racing’s lineup. Busch, who had been suspended by NASCAR for two days before the 2015 Daytona 500 for off-track behavior, used a last-lap pass to win a race that was otherwise marred by a series of wrecks.
He survived the crashes and gave SHR its first Daytona 500 victory.
“Winning Daytona is like winning a championship ,” Busch said. “It’s one of the coolest things in stock car racing is to win Daytona. To hoist up a trophy and to have that with us at Stewart-Haas, it’s equivalent to winning a championship.”
Busch has a trophy, just not the winning No. 41 Ford.
The car has been on display for the last year at Daytona International Speedway’s Daytona 500 Experience Museum.
Busch wanted the car— he had a failed negotiation at keeping the Ford in his recent contract talks—but it’s headed to the Stewart-Haas Racing shop where it goes on display with Kevin Harvick’s 2014 Cup series title winner and team co-owner Tony Stewart’s 2010 championship car.
“Hopefully, we’ll push one in next week and then I’ll have that car the year after,” Busch said.
Again, Busch will be a longshot.
There have been repeat NASCAR champions and drivers who swept multiple races on the same track in the same season, but none who could solve Daytona two straight years in the 23 seasons since Marlin went back-to-back at “The Great American Race.”