At the rate he’s going, it won’t be long before Kurt Busch runs out of things to check off his bucket list. He checked off quite a few this past week.
During the Sprint Cup break, Busch visited Lithuania and traveled to take in the European Grand Prix in Baku, Azerbaijan.
While there, he had sat in a Haas F1 Team race car. Team owner Gene Haas, who also owns the team Busch drives for in NASCAR, has promised Busch he’ll get a chance to one day drive an F1 car provided he wins the Sprint Cup championship again.
For now, just sitting in the car was a thrill in-and-of itself.
MORE: Kurt Busch gets acquainted with Haas F1 car in Baku
Tuesday, while heading back to the United States for this weekend’s Sprint Cup race at Sonoma Raceway, Busch took a detour to climb behind the wheel of a GP2 style car – similar, but smaller and less powerful compared to an F1 car – and ran a number of hot laps at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. The predecessor to GP2 was the Formula 3000 series, which ran until 2004.
The track, which is the site of the season-ending F1 race, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Nov. 27, refers to the driving experience as Formula Yas 3000. Here’s a video of what Busch went through on Tuesday.
Here’s several tweets about Busch and his excellent overseas adventure:
.@ymcofficial opening up the full F1 GP circuit. Thx!!! #KB41 pic.twitter.com/VMJWBpKvrC
— Kurt Busch (@KurtBusch) June 21, 2016
Ready to roll here at @ymcofficial pic.twitter.com/Fp3yhNQpF6
— Kurt Busch (@KurtBusch) June 21, 2016
Can't wait to turn some hot laps here tomorrow. Thanks to @ymcofficial for the hospitality. #YasMarinaCircuit pic.twitter.com/ajN50NA50x
— Kurt Busch (@KurtBusch) June 20, 2016
The Abu Dhabi experience came just after his run in Baku, more tweets of which you can see below.
Two of the fastest men on the 🌎 @LewisHamilton and @KurtBusch hanging out in Baku for the @F1 #EuropeGP pic.twitter.com/nSd32JufBy
— Monster Energy (@MonsterEnergy) June 19, 2016
We crashed the post-race F1 press tour with @thebuxtonblog and @NBCSN @HaasF1Team #KB41 pic.twitter.com/OHiGzV1BUp
— Kurt Busch (@KurtBusch) June 19, 2016
It fit! @HaasF1Team @Haas_Automation @MonsterEnergy #bucketlist #BakuGP pic.twitter.com/rlwiL6M2tZ
— Kurt Busch (@KurtBusch) June 19, 2016
Follow @JerryBonkowski