Denny Hamlin has known Kurt Busch for what seems like forever, and it was bittersweet to watch him officially announce his retirement on Saturday.
Busch, who last raced for Hamlin’s 23XI Racing team, has been dealing with a slew of injuries that have prevented him from getting behind the wheel for awhile now. Many had hoped he’d make one last run at it, but after consulting with his team of doctors, Busch relented that it was simply unattainable.
Hamlin has a massive amount of respect for Busch, and that showed through as he touched on the new development regarding his now-former driver.
“I love it and I hate it for Kurt,” Hamlin started, via his Actions Detrimental podcast. “Certainly, he had his career cut short, shorter than what he wanted, for sure. Really happy for him though, to be able to announce this and kind of get the pressure of, ‘Are you going to come back, are you going to come back,’ off of his shoulders. He’s been a great asset to 23XI.
“As you know, he’s still been working with the team this year. He will be working with the team again next year. So we have him under contract still, to be our ‘Chief Fun Director.’ So he’s been a valuable asset. He’s around the race-track. You’ll see him still, here and there. Interacting a lot with our Cup drivers.”
As Hamlin mentioned, while Busch may not be driving for Hamlin’s team any longer, he’s still more than valuable to have around 23XI Racing.
“He’s just valuable because he’s a great manager of races,” added Hamlin. “He’s the veteran that can help our young guys, continue to help with their learning curve, and he sees things now from the outside perspective, so he can certainly be a valuable asset, to not only them, but to us as well. You know, he can say, ‘You know, I see this car doing that.’
“We’re so focused at 23XI, our engineers and our crew chiefs and our drivers on our cars, that sometimes you overlook other cars. So he’s checking out all that stuff.”
Evidently, Kurt Busch is staying around 23XI Racing and NASCAR, even if he won’t be winning races for them on the track. Nevertheless, Denny Hamlin is smart to keep the former NASCAR champion around, picking his brain and having him contribute to winning races in other ways than wheeling his car.
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