Kurt Busch focused on Daytona 500 repeat, not possible retirement

During a time when veteran drivers are being squeezed out in favor of younger and cheaper replacements, and at an age when many of his contemporaries are choosing to step away, Kurt Busch knows the questions about when he may call it a career are inevitable.

Just don’t expect Busch to know definitively when he is going to retire. The 39-year-old acknowledges he is closer to the end than the beginning, but also that he enjoys what he does, and as evident by his Daytona 500 win a year ago, that he remains competitive in the Monster Energy Cup Series.

“I like to have options and that is an option for me,” Busch said of possibly retiring. “[But] is that drive and desire to win races still for me,” Busch said. “I want to win more.

In preparation for his post-NASCAR career, Busch signed with Livewire Entertainment, a management company, and ICM Partners, a Hollywood agency. Both moves were designed to help him find television opportunities. Those new partnerships led to television gigs last month that saw Busch serve as a guest commendatory at Supercross race on Fox Sports and on ESPN’s coverage of the X Games.

Among the notables who’ve recently retired, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. are two former competitors of Busch’s who’ve moved into the broadcasting booth. Gordon retired from full-time driving after the 2015 season and joined Fox Sports, while Earnhardt is now with NBC after he retired from driving after last season.

“There are many balls in the air, but you have to be smart this day in age and you can’t just have one plan because things change quickly,” Busch said. “To me, I am just trying to learn more about the whole product that happens with racing and that is to work with guys like Fox or NBC.”

Another potential option for Busch is to switch disciplines. He’s previously raced in the Indianapolis 500, the Rolex 24, the twice-around-the-clock endurance race, and even competed in NHRA’s professional class behind the wheel of a pro stock.

Or Busch could remain in NASCAR. He signed a one-year contract this offseason to continue driving Stewart-Haas Racing’s No. 41 car, a deal which came together after SHR bought out Busch’s contract due to sponsorship uncertainty. Complicating matters is that Busch’s anchor sponsor, Monster Energy, is also the Cup Series entitlement sponsor and determining whether it wants to continue in that role. The prolonged negotiations involving the three parties prompted speculation whether Busch would return to the team he’s been with since 2014.

“At the end of the day, there are so many parts and pieces to the sponsorship and NASCAR’s entitlement sponsorship,” Busch said. “We all agreed that we should do a one-year deal and look to revisit things once we get the season back underway.”

Before he any decisions are made regarding his future, Busch’s immediate focus is on the 2018 season-opening Daytona 500. A win in the Feb. 18 race would make him the first driver to win consecutive Daytona 500s since Sterling Marlin in 1994-95, and just the fourth driver to do so overall in the race’s 60-year history.

“It was an amazing win,” Busch said. “The prestige, history and value of that race and just being part of it over the years was special. Now to go back there as the defending champion of the Daytona 500 gives me that much more motivation to do it again and make sure nobody shares in all the glory.”