Kurt Busch has yet to announce where he’ll race next season and said he had hoped to do so this week but not everything came together.
“No announcement,” Busch said Wednesday after the Myers Brothers Awards in Las Vegas. “I was hoping to have things for this week because this is an important week ... for our industry to be gathered together and it’s my hometown but just nothing came together in the right way yet. So, hopefully we’ll have an announcement soon.”
Asked if expects to be in a car in 2019, Busch said: “I expect to be in a car, but yet there are other ambitions I have, there are other people in my life that are very important, such as my wife Ashley, and things we want to do together as a family, but we’ll see how things play out.”
Asked how soon it could be before an announcement, Busch said: “There’s a few people in the works still that haven’t committed and we’ve got to get those things lined up. It is late, but I still feel confident on where things will go.”
Asked about what he’s looking forward to in 2019, Busch said: “Just the opportunity to have a competitive team, to try to race for big wins. I haven’t had a chance to win at Darlington over the years even though it’s been close a few times. Indianapolis, I want to try to win there. To be in that garage area, it’s a fun world to live in, it’s been my life for 20 years, so we’ll see how it plays out.”
Busch, 40, signed a one-year contract with Stewart-Haas Racing last December, leaving him a free agent after this season. Reports have him as the favorite to take over the No. 1 car at Chip Ganassi Racing with Monster Energy following him as a sponsor for some races.
Busch finished seventh in the points this season - the third time in the last four years the 2004 champ has finished in the top 10 in points. He won the night race at Bristol Motor Speedway for his 30th career Cup win. He also had five poles, the most in his career since he had six in 2006 when he was at Team Penske.
“What makes it that much better this year for us is that we did it on all variety of tracks,” Busch said in Las Vegas of the five poles this year. “To set a track record at Texas that I think will stand for a long time, Michigan another fast track and then we got to the pole at the Roval, that was very special to me. Talladega was great, that showed all the teamwork at SHR, and Loudon was a nice pole on a short track in the middle of July.”