By Caleb Whisler, Staff Writer
Kurt Busch finds himself in the all-too-familiar position of becoming a free-agent for the second year in a row
In 2017, the 2004 champion was told on August 1 that the option in his contract was not going to be picked up by Stewart-Haas Racing. After months of negotiating, Stewart-Haas and Busch announced that they struck a one-year deal in mid-December.
“Last year, it went long just because I felt like I deserved more, but the landscape is changing in NASCAR on primary sponsorship values, teams with the purse and the guarantee that they get off the historical performance. There are a lot of things that move, so we’ll see how it all comes together,” the veteran driver stated about the process.
Although the possibility of becoming a free agent is there, Busch is focused on racing and continuing on building a repertoire with crew chief, Billy Scott.
“For me, I’ve just been racing, driving, performing and doing all the things that I can do to exceed in all categories and so whether it’s teammate things, things on the track with performance, communication with Billy Scott, and then I don’t know many drivers that have a primary sponsor with them,” Busch said on Friday after winning the pole at New Hampshire.
“So Monster Energy has been very loyal to me and that’s what they’ve told me, so it’s just a matter of when the time is to start talking about contract.”
Busch has been racing at NASCAR’s premier level full-time since 2001. He has collected 29 wins, 134 top-fives, 268 top-10’s and 24 poles. The veteran driver has competed with Roush-Fenway Racing, Team Penske, Furniture Row Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing