July 15, 2019 | By Lee Spencer

Kurt Busch isn't contemplating retirement after Kentucky

For the skeptics who thought Kurt Busch’s career was over once he left Stewart-Haas Racing, think again.

Since 2002, Busch has been a consistent winner on the NASCAR Cup tour. Eighteen years after his debut, the 40-year-old Las Vegas racer is still winning at stock car’s highest level, as he proved again on Saturday night at Kentucky Speedway.

With a Cup championship and 31 victories in the series, Busch should be a first-ballot lock for the NASCAR Hall of Fame. But Busch’s stats really don’t tell the full story of his contribution to the sport.

Busch represents a dying breed in the NASCAR ranks. He's an old-school racer who worked on his own cars while climbing the motorsports ladder. His ability to understand the mechanics of the car has served him well for more than two decades behind the wheel. He has been able to elevate the level of performance of any organization that has hired him.

“You come in and you talk a game and you deliver it, and you do it with execution through team meetings, showing up early, staying late, and motivating guys to do a better job,” Busch said.

“And the way that I've won races in the past, I try to go after the weakness of a team and try to fix that first and then start to make things better as we go.”

Busch has now won with four different teams and nine different crew chiefs on 15 of the current 24 tracks on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series tour. Given his choice, Busch has preferred to work with veteran crew chiefs such as Jimmy Fennig, Tony Gibson and Pat Tryson.

In Matt McCall, Busch found a fellow racer who was desperate to find Victory Lane following four winless seasons with Jamie McMurray. Under McCall’s direction, Busch has led more laps (80) in the first 19 races of 2019 than McMurray did in 144 events with McCall (44). The 38-year-old Denver, N.C., native’s first Cup win came in his 164th race on the box.

“Matt McCall, I believe, is the reason for the success of the 1 car,” Busch said. “He’s been there for so long, salivating for that chance.”

But it was Busch that set the tone from the start of the season. He came to Chip Ganassi Racing without any preconceived notions, despite the organization having achieved just 11 wins over 14 seasons—not to mention that Kyle Larson, who was responsible for five of those victories, hadn’t won in a year. Busch was a winner and he expected nothing less of his team.

“He came in and that was the goal from the very beginning,” McCall said. “I think he has a lot of credentials, right, so when he starts talking, he tells you we're coming in, we're going to win.

“It's definitely a confidence booster, for sure. He's almost delivered and he delivered (on Saturday), so it's been pretty fun this first half of the season.”

Busch has quickly assumed the role of alpha driver at Ganassi Racing. Although Larson has led more laps (185) and has a pole this season, the driver of the No. 42 Chevrolet has struggled with closing the last two years. In addition to scoring the first win of the season for Ganassi, Busch leads the drivers in top fives (five), top 10s (11) and has an average finish of 9.6—the best average finish for any full-time driver since the organization was established in 2001.

Still, Larson and Busch have become solid teammates, as they proved on Saturday when the No. 42 Chevy pushed the No. 1 car past leader Joey Logano to the point. Busch was grateful for the assist.

“It's amazing what happened, for us to have that restart, to have Kyle Larson behind me in the sixth position,” Busch said. “Spotter said, ‘Teammate is going to go with you.’ I'm like, ‘Well, is he really?’ And he did, and he did a phenomenal job so that I didn't have to look in the mirror, and all's I had to do was play offense out in front of me.”

The last two laps of the Quaker State 400 provided the most epic battle ever at the 1.5-mile track since the Cup Series debuted there in 2011. It’s only fitting that the fight came down to both Busch brothers in overtime, with Kurt finishing on top as his career winds down.

“I'm really proud of the way that we finished this race 1‑2,” Busch said. “Put on one hell of a show, one of those old‑school type races where it's two guys duking it out. Just happened to be brothers, different manufacturers.”

Although Busch signed up with Ganassi for just one season and was contemplating retirement after this year, the competitiveness of the team could be a game-changer for the veteran.

“For me it's a matter of just having the dominoes line up and everybody fall together and to make it happen,” Busch said. “I guess the easiest way to move things forward is request for proposals are going out Monday with sponsors, with manufacturers, with the team owner.

“This 1 team is a powerful team, and it would be stupid not to keep this group together, and that's part of my leverage. But at the end of it, we just want to make it work for all parties.”