Kurt Busch on Hamlin, playoffs and the way things were

Kurt Busch’s first NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix Raceway came in November 2000. 25 years later, Busch looks back fondly on his Cup debut at the one-mile dogleg oval.

“I was ready for it, man!” says Busch. “I was digging. At one point I was up I the top 10 and I got dumped by Jimmy Spencer in that race. Ryan Newman had nowhere to go and T-boned me and I ended up 29th in that race. But man, I was running good. I probably should have won there three or four times over the years."

Now retired from Cup and newly installed in the NASCAR Hall of Fame, Busch is nevertheless on site in Phoenix for this weekend's championship finale.

“Rooting on my buddy Denny Hamlin!" says Busch. “He’s been slaying it all year. I’ve been working with him and Michael Jordan and 23XI Racing and I was hoping for more for our cars, but I would say that Denny found another gear this year with how competitive he has been and how sharp and he’s been on track.

"Who knew that just a small crew chief change would have brought him to another level. I mean I’ve had a couple of crew chief changes here or there and it seemed like we strengthened in some areas and we weakened in others. For Denny, he just went to the stratosphere with everything. Whether it was pit strategy or qualifying or being that guy to pick up stage wins, he has been right there.

"This group, though, the Championship 4, I see it as one of the most competitive fields ever. It just seems like Ford has had the advantage since the beginning of the Next Gen car. And to see two Chevys up against two Toyotas at this point, it’s really a wide-open race. I think the favorites going in are Denny and William Byron, but that’s almost juvenile to say because Kyle Larson is one of the best in the business right now, and Chase Briscoe has been that guy that’ll show up and get the job done at any moment. This Championship 4 has an equal opportunity of winners.”

Given the chatter surrounding potential changes to NASCAR's playoff format, we were curious about his take on it.

“As a racer, whatever system is put in place, you learn to craft it and then apply it to your favor," he says. "And if the system says that you have to have bonus points to get through certain rounds to cover you on a bad finish, then you go get bonus points or you get race wins. It’s whatever the system is, you know?

"If there is a shorter playoff system, I’d like to see that. I’d like to see a five-race run with a superspeedway, a road course, a short track and an intermediate. I love the fact that the championship race will be moved next year back to Homestead. But why can’t it move and go to different locations with decent weather at this time of year every year. Why can’t Las Vegas host the finale? Texas? If our season was shorter, could we finish it off in Michigan? There are so many options.

"It just seems like everyone is up in arms about this whole three-race cutoff system and then this one-race, winner-take-all deal. But that’s what everybody wants to see in sports in this day and age. Everyone wants to see the Game 7 and ninth inning and the fourth quarter with a couple minutes to go. They want to see the Hail Mary in football, but that doesn’t work in motorsports. It’s a tough call.”

Kurt Busch, Hall of Famer. Krista Jasso/Getty Images

Busch says his induction earlier this year into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, earned from a 23-year Cup career that brought 34 wins from 776 starts, was a memorable process that is still bringing new pleasures.

“You know it’s a blessing,” Busch answers when asked what the inclusion meant to him. “I’m very blessed to have had two decades at the top level of NASCAR. I just started out as a blue collar kid from Las Vegas with my dad and a hobby. We didn’t expect it to get serious. Things go serious quick with racing.

"Racing in the Southwest Tour, that was a huge opportunity for me to go from the local tracks to the regional tracks. And then to get a shot with Roush Racing. I mean my first-ever competitive race, I was 16 years old in 1994. I am then in the Cup Series and qualifying 10th at Dover in the September of 2000. That is how fast things went. That is part of my Hall of Fame journey.

"It has been fun. You know, a trip down memory lane with opening up old boxes and finding some old photos is a lot of fun. I even found an old VHS tape of winning Milwaukee in the Truck Series. I had to get on eBay and go buy a VCR so that I could watch this old tape. It has been a fun ride all the way down and through. I feel very satisfied with how things have gone and where things stand. It has been a damn cool ride.”

Speaking of damn cool rides, Busch thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the IROC Series Unser Cup event, run as part of the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca over the summer.

“IROC was so sweet, man,” Busch remembers with a smile. “I had not touched my championship IROC car from 2003 in over 20 years. I got a call from Ray Evernham, Jeff Gordon’s legendary crew chief who has the rights to IROC, and he said, ‘Hey, we’re getting all the champions we can find and we’re getting all the cars we can find and we are headed out to Laguna Seca to have some fun.’ I said, ‘Man, I’ve never been to Laguna Seca. Let me get my car ready.’ We show up and there is Jeff Gordon and Bobby Labonte and Mark Martin and Scott Pruett from the road racing world. Dario Franchitti showed up and late and he jumped in a car. It was like kids being kids again at the racetrack. All of us were smiling and putting on a good show and having some fun with it. That was definitely an adrenaline cool feel to be behind the wheel and to go out there with my friends.”

What did Busch make of the 2003 Pontiac Firebird he climbed into?

“Oh man! The nostalgic feel of the IROC car was awesome!” he says. “The analog gauges and the way the car felt just sitting in it was awesome. It was raw. It was like, ‘Where is the safety? Where is the seat and rollbar padding?’ It just felt raw. It was like, ‘This is the way we did it 20 years ago.’ Could you imagine taking that to the 1980s and feeling what those guys went through, belting in and saying, ‘You know what? I’m not even worried about the safety side of this. I just want to go out there and drive and beat the other guy because the other guy is the best of the best in his industry.’ I definitely felt the nostalgic vibe all the way through.”

That IROC run was one of many stops Busch made over the summer months. Also highlighted was Kurt Busch serving as Grand Marshall for the NASCAR Cup race at Pocono Raceway in June.

“It was nice to go back and close that chapter at Pocono,” says Busch of the venue that helped put an end to his racing career. “The track president, Nick Igdalsky, and the Pocono family, the Mattioli family, asked me to come out. To walk by Turn 3 and to see that area when I backed it in the fence and couldn’t pass concussion protocol, it was like burying the hatchet. It was like, ‘You know what? I made a mistake. It’s not the track’s fault. It’s not the car’s fault. It happens.’

"To go through the process and to go through rehab and to feel good about myself again, it's great to go these vintage races or to these gentlemen races. Who knows? Goodwood could be in the future. It’s great to go around the world and have some fun and to walk into garages or into different paddocks and to just vibe with the competitors there. That’s the best feeling in the world right now.

“Another big trip this summer was to go out to Finland to see the Solberg family and root on Oliver Solberg in the World Rally Championship. It was so cool to sit down with him and coach him a little bit. It was cool to be a mentor on different things in motorsports and to echo what his dad Petter has taught him. It has been fun to balance it all.”

This weekend, though, Kurt is happy just to be prowling the NASCAR garages again at Phoenix Raceway.

“It’s fun to go to the track and to know everybody and to walk through the pits and to see the fans and take pictures and sign autographs," he says. "I’ll be hanging out in a suite this Sunday, thanks to NASCAR. This all comes from the time that I’ve spent in the sport and it’s great to receive the benefits coming back to me now. I feel like everything has smoothed over. There are no regrets or me thinking, ‘What could I have changed?’ I feel like I am passed it all.

"The icing on the cake was being a first-ballot NASCAR Hall of Fame member. To get that nod on the first attempt, it’s definitely an honor.”