Defending Cup series champion Kyle Busch said Thursday he will be running all seven NASCAR national series races over the next 11 days at Darlington Raceway and Charlotte Motor Speedway.
A Cup race Sunday at Darlington Raceway will mark NASCAR’s return from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and will be followed by an Xfinity race May 19 and another Cup race May 20.
NASCAR then moves to Charlotte Motor Speedway for Cup races May 24 and 27, an Xfinity race May 25 and a truck race May 26.
“I’m running all of those, every one that’s scheduled I’m in,” Busch told Adam Schein in an interview on SiriusXM Radio. “It’s going to be getting thrown to the wolves, that’s for sure.”
NEXT PHASE: NASCAR unveils its June schedule
Running multiple series is old hat for Busch. At Bristol Motor Speedway in August 2010, he became the first driver to sweep a race weekend tripleheader of NASCAR’s top three national series (and has done it again since then).
Though his starts have been curtailed by NASCAR rules the past few years, Busch has 209 victories across Cup (56), Xfinity (96) and trucks (57).
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver thinks these seven races will be less taxing because of their abbreviated schedules.
“With this, all you can do is show up, you get in the vehicle and you run the race,” Busch said. “I feel as though it sounds really labor intensive and heavy and man, that’s a lot. But in my mind, I’m kind of like, ‘Man, I don’t know if it’s really going to be that bad.’ But I’ll let you know when it’s all said and done.”
ICYMI: @KyleBusch detailed to @AdamSchein NASCAR's health protocols to keep everyone safe this weekend at Darlington & says he's planning on running all 7 races in 11 days pic.twitter.com/ckTg9BZFsC
— Mad Dog Sports Radio (@MadDogRadio) May 14, 2020
Busch also talked extensively about how NASCAR will handle health screenings at Darlington Raceway.
“They want all the documentation of what you’ve done, what you’ve been doing, who you’ve been around for the past 14 days, and then they also want you to take an antibody test and get some testing done which won’t get back in time for that same day,” Busch said. “They’re doing the forehead checks of your temperature and one other new test that I think is out on the market. I don’t know if we’re getting that yet or in a week or two.
“They’re going through a vigorous process to make sure everybody stays safe, and then they want everybody to stay isolated. All of the same team members that work in the shops and come from Joe Gibbs Racing. They want everyone to stay isolated and separate as much as possible.”
A NASCAR spokesman clarified that there will be no COVID-19 anitbody testing Sunday at Darlington Raceway.
Timmy Hill, one of the dominant drivers of the Pro Invitational iRacing Series, also confirmed to NBCSports.com’s Daniel McFadin via text that he will be racing in all seven races, too.
Same 🙃
— Timmy Hill (@TimmyHillRacer) May 15, 2020