Kurt Busch sends a special message on 23XI Racing completing five years in NASCAR

NASCAR veteran Kurt Busch congratulated 23XI Racing on their fifth year of operations in the NASCAR Cup Series. Busch has been with the team for four years now, with his last race as a full-timer being the 2022 Ambetter 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Busch joined 23XI back in 2020 as the driver of its No. 45 entry. He drove the car to its first playoff appearance by winning a race at Kansas during the 2022 season.

However, Busch stopped competing in the NASCAR Cup Series after he suffered a concussion in a crash at Pocono Raceway on July 23, 2022. He remained at 23XI as a consultant and mentor to Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick.

Busch is also a brand ambassador for Monster Energy, one of the most long-standing partners of 23XI Racing, as well as Busch himself. Lauding the three-car race team on their fifth anniversary, Busch took to X (formerly known as Twitter) and said,

“Hey everyone at 23XI. Congratulations and happy fifth-year anniversary. What an amazing journey in just such a short amount of time. It was prideful for me to help build that No. 45 car from the beginning. Thanks to Michael Jordan, Curtis (Polk), Steve (Lauletta), Denny (Hamlin).” “Denny’s the most important one, he’s the one that called me and said ‘I need you’,”Busch smiled. “It’s been an incredible journey to help that small part at the beginning and to crews that winning culture. Let’s keep it going.”

23XI Racing made the playoffs this year with Wallace and Reddick, but neither of them made it past the Round of 12. But they can still contend for wins. Next up for the drivers is the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway.

Scheduled for this coming Sunday, October 26, the 500-lap event will be televised on Peacock (from 2 pm ET onwards) with live radio updates on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

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Kurt Busch reflects on his Hall of Fame-worthy NASCAR career

Kurt Busch was battling an array of emotions sitting at the front while the names were being called for the newly elected NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2026. Calling himself a “blue-collar kid out of Vegas”, Busch never thought something like this would be possible.

Things happened fast for a young Kurt Busch. He wasn’t sure how to reach the top tiers of NASCAR, so it was all trial and error. Thankfully, Busch just happened to be at the right place at the right time.

“I'm running a Legend Car in 1999 at the (Las Vegas) Bullring in September of 1999. September of 2000, I'm in Jack Roush's Cup car qualifying at Dover,” Kurt Busch recalled. “Jeff Gordon's next to me. Dale (Earnhardt) Senior's behind me. I mean, that's how fast things happened for me.” “I don't know how. I don't know why,” he continued. “There was no template. There wasn't the ladder that you see a lot of the kids these days that have a system where it's 'we're gonna do this, we're gonna do this.'“

Throughout his NASCAR Cup Series career, Kurt Busch has run 776 races and claimed 34 victories, 28 poles, and 339 top-10s in 23 years. He owns 30 starts in the Xfinity Series and 28 starts in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series as well.

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Edited by Tushhita Barua