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Kurt Busch, NASCAR\u2019s 2004 Cup Series champion, thought he was on his way to the playoffs before this year\u2019s Pocono race. Then the driver of 23XI Racing\u2019s No. 45 Toyota Camry TRD had a big crash in qualifying for the Pocono race and, even with his physical conditioning, the concussion and resulting brain injury suffered in that accident has kept him out of the race car and will keep him from this year\u2019s championship playoffs, the team announced.<\/p>\n
Busch hasn\u2019t been in a race car since that crash and it\u2019s unknown when or whether he\u2019ll return in 2022. In deference to its driver\u2019s health, 23XI Racing has announced that Busch will miss the start of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs and the team will withdraw its medical waiver, requested for Busch to remain eligible for the playoffs.<\/p>\n
While their driver earned a spot in the playoffs with his dominant win at Kansas Speedway in May, marking Busch\u2019s ninth consecutive year with a win, his place in the playoffs was secured for the 10th straight season. This accident and the car\u2019s withdrawal from the medical waiver, means that Busch will no longer be eligible for the Driver\u2019s Championship. The No. 45 team, however, continues to compete for the Owner\u2019s Championship with substitute driver Ty Gibbs.<\/p>\n
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\u201cKurt has elevated our entire organization this year,\u201d noted Steve Lauletta, 23XI team president. \u201cAlthough Kurt will not be competing for a championship this season, he will continue to play a vital role in the organization as he works with our competition group to keep improving and strengthening the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gibbs has been the substitute driver for Busch since the July 23rd accident and will be driving the No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota Camry TRD this weekend at Daytona International Speedway, where the regular season for NASCAR\u2019s Cup Series draws to a close.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs much as I wanted and hoped to be able to get back in the Now 45 car to make a playoff run with our team, it\u2019s still not the right time for me,\u201d Busch admitted. \u201cIn addition to not being cleared to return to racing, I know that I am not ready to be back in the car.<\/p>\n
\u201cI respect the sport of NASCAR, my fellow drivers and the fans too much to take up a playoff spot if I know I can\u2019t compete for a championship this season. The decision was not an easy one, but I know it is the right thing to do,\u201d Busch continued. \u201cI will continue to take time to heal and strengthen as I prepare to be back in the car, and will do I can to help 23XI continue the success we have had this season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some Cup Series drivers have expressed to NASCAR their qualms about heavy hits with the new Next Gen car that was introduced at the start of the 2022 campaign. NASCAR spent a good deal of time developing the Next Gen cars with inherent safety being an important aspect. While drivers have stated the car hits harder in wall and car-to-car impacts, the series has stated, \u201cWe\u2019re going to make a safe car. We\u2019re going to make a car that puts on a good race. We\u2019ve had some accidents; we\u2019ve done a lot of testing. We\u2019re not going to have an unsafe car on the race track,\u201d Mike Helton, NASCAR vice chairman said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not yet known whether Kurt Busch will be able to race any of the upcoming contests following this weekend\u2019s Saturday night regular season finale. Toyota\u2019s priority for Busch, \u201cHas been his health and recovery,\u201d according to David Wilson, president of TRD U.S.A. (Toyota Racing Development). \u201cNot his recovery to get back in a race car but his recovery overall. TRD has been working directly with Kurt to support him, but ultimately this decision was Kurt\u2019s. We support him completely.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kurt Busch, NASCAR\u2019s 2004 Cup Series champion, thought he was on his way to the playoffs before this year\u2019s Pocono race.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":87123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17,3470,22],"tags":[682,127,41,2843,1632],"class_list":["post-87121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guest-column","category-news","category-event-coverage","tag-kyle-busch","tag-nascar","tag-news","tag-pocono-raceway","tag-racing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Kurt-Busch-action-e1661475058444.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-mFb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87121"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87124,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87121\/revisions\/87124"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}