At 39-years-old, Kyle Busch is hardly past his prime as a championship caliber race car driver even if the Richard Childress Racing equipment currently isn’t matching his level of performance.
With that said, it’s hard to imagine the two-time Cup Series champion racing for another full decade either.
So when he appears on commentary in the broadcast booth or in an analyst role on shows like NASCAR Inside the Playoffs, is that tipping his hand a little bit?
Jeff Gluck of The Athletic pondered that same question in a Q&A this week.
“Maybe. I haven’t really given it a whole lot of thought. I’m just dipping my toe into this and giving it a shot and seeing what the networks think, what the producers think and everybody behind the scenes to see if I have a voice and an opinion later on down the road,” Busch said in the Q&A. “I see Harvick doing it, I’ve seen Darrell Waltrip do it and have seen plenty of other ex-drivers go into that role. One really good thing about that is how much you can talk up the drivers and how hard it is and about the things you love. I’ve made a great living here, so you’d love to be able to give back, where some of the other guys just disappear off into the sunset and you never really hear from them again.”
Busch spends practically all of his free time guiding nine year old son Brexton, who is a developing race car driver in open wheel dirt competition, and he is no doubt NASCAR bound someday too.
From that standpoint, Busch also says he wants to remain involved in NASCAR as well, so TV might be the best avenue.
“But I also enjoy Brexton racing, and I want to be a part of that as well,” Busch said. “I enjoy the dirt track aspect of that, being able to get out there and go race at the tracks where he’s racing. So as long as it fits within a schedule — I don’t want to stretch myself too much and put myself out there where I over-commit.”
