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Kurt Busch Comment Unexpectedly Sparks Chorus of Boos From Pocono Crowd

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Kyle Dalton | Last updated Jun 22, 2025 3:06 PM ET

Kurt Busch and his fans will never forget Pocono Raceway. There are good memories from the 2.5-mile Pennsylvania track, including three wins in 2005, 2007 and 2016.

But there’s a really bad one that happened on July 23, 2022. That’s the last time the 2004 NASCAR Cup Series champion ever competed in the sport when he backed his No. 45 car into the wall during qualifying and suffered a concussion.

On Saturday, the 46-year-old returned to The Tricky Triangle for the first time since his accident three years ago and admitted during Prime’s coverage of practice and qualifying that it was a “cleansing/purging” experience.

The scheduled Grand Marshal for Sunday’s race then drew an unexpected response from fans when asked by analyst Corey LaJoie if he was going to wave the green flag as part of his weekend duties.

“I'm gonna be ‘Gentlemen, start your engines,’” the former driver said. “The governor wants to wave the green flag so I'm learning how to share with that.”

During an appearance on @SportsonPrime's @NASCAR coverage at @PoconoRaceway, @KurtBusch responded to a question about his grand marshal duties and unexpectedly heard some boos from the crowd. pic.twitter.com/brRDIoiUrE
— Kyle Dalton (@kdsportswriter) June 22, 2025

A chorus of boos rang out from those standing nearby, obviously expressing their displeasure with Governor Josh Shapiro.

“Whoops. Normally I'm the guy getting booed,” Busch joked. “No, you guys have been awesome.”

Busch rubbed plenty of fans the wrong way earlier in his career. However, in the later years, the tide had turned and many of those same fans were supportive of the 2017 Daytona 500 winner. And there was no better evidence of that than three years ago when his career came to an abrupt end at Pocono and he received so many well wishes from those fans and the industry as a whole.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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