March 17, 2022 | By Lee Spencer

With new car and new team, Kurt Busch is feeling rookie-like enthusiasm

The introduction of the new Cup car has magnified a changing of the guard in NASCAR.

No driver older than 29 has won a race since last September when Denny Hamlin, 41, found Victory Lane at Las Vegas.

Defending Cup champion Kyle Larson, 29, is responsible for five of those 10 wins. Thirty-somethings Joey Logano, Daniel Suarez, Austin Dillon and Kyle Busch all scored top-five finishes during the West Coast swing.

But since the 2022 season began, Kurt Busch is the only driver in his 40s to score a top-five result. His fifth-place run at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday came after a masterful restart where he vaulted from eighth to fifth.

“It was a surprise--I thought we could race our way to 10th, and then the restarts at the end, our strategy, and our game plan execution for restarts was perfect,” Busch said. “With the spotter, the crew chief calling to stay out on old tires and just the data and everything that we review, it all turned out really well for us. 

 “The confidence to know where to go, the set up in the car, the track, it's like the track came to us late in the race. We were really loose all day and then late in the race, a lot of guys were complaining (of being) tight. And that helped our car. So when all those things add up as a veteran driver, I go, ‘This is the best opportunity we have. Let's go now.’” 

Busch’s average finish of 11.3 ranks third only behind Aric Almirola (7.3) and his brother Kyle Busch (7.8). While the former Cup champion admits the new car favors the younger set, Busch, 43, believes experience will benefit the veterans in the end.

“It's free game for everybody,” Busch told RacinBoys.com “I do agree that it's a young driver's game. (Kevin) Harvick and I were talking as old teammates and as veterans of the sport, like there’s things that we're approaching it from the veteran angle. And maybe it'll unfold months from now on our approach, but that's the game we're going to play. So we'll see how it plays out. 

“I really do like the newness of everything. Going to the racetrack and driving right now feels like this is my second or third year with everything being new again.” 

For the 23-year Cup veteran, everything is new. In addition to the seventh-generation car which debuted last month at Daytona, Busch is driving for a new team—23XI Racing with new owners Hamlin and Michael Jordan. And for the first time in his career, Busch has partnered with Toyota. 

Since establishing the No. 45 team just four months ago, 23XI is starting to feel like home. 

“It's a blast,” Busch said. “That's the easiest way to explain it. It's a blast, and with everybody there that came from different teams to start anew and to go in on this adventure together, you can feel that spirit within everybody that committed to expanding 23XI and to race for Denny, Jordan and Toyota. 

“It's everything I wanted it to be. And so each week is a learning process with boxes that we're trying to check off the list as quick as possible. And to now have that feeling of this is home and we've gotten the newness worn off of the beginning of the season, now we can grab another gear.” 

Busch was instrumental in testing the new car while still in the Chevrolet camp last year. Along with Chris Buescher and his former Ganassi Racing teammate, Ross Chastain, Busch was one of three Cup drivers to test the new car and track configuration at Atlanta Motor Speedway in January. 

Although Busch leads all Cup drivers with four wins at Atlanta and is one of the few competitors to have logged laps on the track, he still doesn’t know what to expect in this Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500.

“It's the same as what this season is brought up in 2022 already—it’s the unknown,” Busch said. “It's the fun factor. It’s the challenge of what is different, what is new and what's fun. So, yes, I expect this to be more of a plate race. We’ll be wide open all the way around by ourselves and then once we get in the draft, the pace will pick up and then we'll see who can hang onto the draft. But it's happening at a mile-and-a-half, not a two-and-a-half mile.” 

Before construction began on the 1.5-mile track last July, the surface hadn’t been repaved since 1997—three years before Busch’s Cup debut at the track. Banking on the track increased from 24 to 28-degrees and the turns have been narrowed from 55 to 40-feet across.

“Yes, the groove and the width of the race track is narrow through (Turns) 1 and 2, the back straightaway and three and four and then the front they paved the apron like three lanes wide. I don't know if they will allow us to race down there or not. 

“That's a big concern of mine—as well as Buescher, Chastain, John Hunter Nemechek tested there in the trucks, and I think (Justin) Allgaier in Xfinity, all raised questions of ‘OK, are we going to race down here or are we not?’ Because it's a funnel effect if you have five lanes to choose from down the front and only three in the back, that’s a problem. So we'll see how things play out.”