During his media availability earlier today, Kyle Busch mentioned he’d like a try at the Indianapolis 500.
“Sure, I’d give it a shot and see what it’s all about, but obviously you’ve got to have funding to go run that race,” he said. “It’s a big race for all those teams that come here to run that race and putting on a good effort for myself means that you want to get with a top-tier team that has success here and that you know can run well and you can have good stops on pit road because it seems as though pit road is a big deal in those car here at Indy and just being able to learn as much as you can, so trying to get a little bit of track time in the times that we’re not busy doing what we’re doing is awfully hard to do.”
He started off by saying, however, that plans would have to be made long in advance.
“Yeah, you definitely can’t do it a month before for sure,” he added. “There’s got to be planning involved and you’ve got to be ahead of the curve and probably this is about the start time in which you need to get some things started planning and definitely have all those plans solidified probably by the end of the NASCAR season in November.”
NASCAR drivers running the Indianapolis 500 isn’t new. Bobby and Donnie Allison, and Cale and Lee Roy Yarbrough all ran the Indy 500 in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Since 1994, four NASCAR drivers have run both the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day. John Andretti 10th in the Indianapolis 500 and 36th in the Coca-Cola 600 in 1993. Tony Stewart ran both races in 1999 finishing ninth in the 500 and finishing fourth in the 600 after starting from the rear of the field. He’s the only driver to run both races to completion when he did so in 2001 finishing sixth in the 500 and third in the 600. From 2002 to 2004, Robby Gordon ran both races. Kurt Busch attempted both races in 2014 finishing sixth in the 500, but losing an engine and finishing 40th in the 600.
