Former NASCAR star Kurt Busch has been named alongside Travis Pastrana as part of Team U.S.A. for the unique Race Of Champions stadium spectacular at Sydney’s Accor Stadium, March 7-8.
Busch, who won the NASCAR Cup Series championship in 2004, will join global racing and action sports superstar Pastrana to create an American “Super Team”, which will start among the favorites for the highly-prized Nations Cup trophy.
A qualifying accident at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway in 2022 brought an end to Busch’s full-time NASCAR career, but this week the Nevada native was provided a medical clearance to compete in front of an Australian crowd in March.
Busch was the IROC champion in 2003 and has claimed the biggest prizes in NASCAR including the Coca-Cola 600, All-Star Race (2010) and Daytona 500 (2017).
He was named as one of NASCAR’s 75 greatest drivers in 2023 and was also inducted into the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame, being born and bred in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In 2014 Busch put his oval open-wheel skills to test at the Indianapolis 500 and was named rookie of the year after qualifying 12th and finishing sixth for Andretti Global.
Later that year Busch had his first start in the Race Of Champions when he teamed with IndyCar Series driver Ryan Hunter-Reay in Barbados.
Three years later he joined younger brother and two-time NASCAR Cup champion Kyle “Rowdy” Busch and the pair made the final of the Nations Cup before losing to Team Germany’s Sebastian Vettel (his teammate Pascal Wehrlein was injured the day before) in front of a home crowd at Marlins Park in Miami, Florida.
The Race Of Champions comes two weeks after the Supercars opener at Sydney Motorsport Park (Feb. 21-23) and one week before the opening round of the F-1 World Championship in Melbourne (March 13-16), creating a massive month of motorsports in Australia.
In Sydney, Busch and Pastrana will be going head to head with no less than four-time Formula 1 World Champion, Sebastian Vettel; current F-1 ace Valtteri Bottas; seven-time Supercars champion Jamie Whincup, reigning Supercars champion Will Brown, Extreme champion Molly Taylor, nine-time FIA World Rally Champion, Sébastien Loeb; 7-time FIA World Rallycross Champion, Johan Kristoffersson; former FIA F-2 champion and F-1 driver, Mick Schumacher, two-time European Rally Champion, Kiwi, Hayden Paddon and two-time Dakar winner Toby Price.
The Race Of Champions will run over two nights with a purpose built 1km tarmac track taking centre stage at Accor Stadium, Sydney’s Olympic Stadium.
