With his move to Chevrolet in NASCAR, there was hope that Kyle Busch would do what few have done before him and race the Indianapolis 500-Coca Cola 600 double.
Kyle Larson is preparing in 2023 to race in the 2024 and 2025 Indy 500, but Busch may not get his shot at Indy. And that’s partly due to Larson.
Fox Sports’ Bob Pockrass asked Busch about his Indy 500 prospects. Busch revealed that Larson got the Arrow McLaren ride he was looking to have. Because of that, it’s looking less and less likely he’ll be racing at Indy in the month of May.
Kyle Busch says he’s no longer making calls to teams trying to land an Indianapolis 500 ride in future years. Busch: “I don’t know if it will ever happen.” pic.twitter.com/8G6b9MAsYf
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) May 16, 2023
“Yeah, no”, Busch said. “Unfortunately, I think Larson got the ride that I was slated to get. So he’s got that locked up for two years. So I don’t know if it will ever happen but just unfortunate for me wanting to be able to go there and run that race and had a sponsor lined up in order to do it with and been told no everywhere. We don’t have room or whatever it might be. So, that’s really frustrating, but it is what it is, par for the course.”
Pockrass followed up and asked Busch if he’s given up on racing at Indy. Busch hasn’t totally closed the door on that venture, but it’s up to someone to reach out to him.
“Yeah, no, I’m not going to be making calls and pushing for it,” Busch said. “If somebody calls me and says that they’re ready to go and it all lines up right, then so be it, we’ll go do it.”
Seeing this news is a bit disheartening, but it’s not a total surprise either. For one thing, Busch is manufacturer-tied with Chevrolet. That eliminates half the teams. Next, a team must be willing to have an additional car just for the Indy 500. Not every team is equipped to do that; some teams choose not to do that for fear of spreading resources from their full-time teams.
Arrow McLaren is the one big Chevy team doing that with Tony Kanaan racing this season. And that’s the car Larson will be in for the next two years.
Maybe something opens up, and Kyle can try and beat his brother Kurt’s sixth-place Indy finish. Until that happens, Busch seems cool with letting go of that Indy 500 dream.
