Statement from Phoenix Racing Thanking Kurt Busch

Kurt Busch’s run with Phoenix Racing ended on lap 98 while leading at Talladega. A spin into the wall after running out of gas brought the #51 Phoenix Racing Chevy to the garage for the remainder of the race.

Busch said he had climbed from his car and checked the damage and believed he could drive it back to the garage when he pulled away from the safety workers.

After being checked at the infield care center and released, Busch rejoined his team and thanked his crew. He exchanged hugs with team members while they worked on his now-former car.

Thus ends the relationship between Kurt Busch and James Finch, owner of Phoenix Racing. Together the pair ran 29 Sprint Cup races together. Busch certainly had his moments in the No. 51, like gunning for a top-five finish in Darlington, ninth at Fontana, and challenging for the victory at Sonoma.

Clearly, it was a bittersweet parting with the team he was leaving behind. “It’s pretty tough, man. It really is,” Harrison admitted. As good as Phoenix cars have historically been on restrictor-plate tracks, they were hoping for one last grand hurrah together — but it wasn’t to be.

Kurt comments on the race:

“That was more of an emotional hug of thanks and all the hard work this year. It just came to an end short. We ran out of gas, ran out of gas while leading. A miscalculation or our fuel cell wasn’t picking up all the fuel. That is just small team blues. You work as hard as you can to keep up with the big teams and sometimes little itty bitty numbers will take you out.”

“I remembered with these engines they will run at 20 percent of fuel pressure to get it back to the garage. So I tried like heck. That is the competitor in me, which is the desire that I have and that is what gets misconstrued all the time. This is the way my life works. Today is a perfect example. I am leading, I wreck, I run out of gas, I’m still that competitive guy that tried to get back in the race and now NASCAR is yelling at me because I don’t have my helmet on and I’m trying to get it to the garage so the guys can work on it. Now I’m in trouble, now I have this little storm right here. This is my life. I’m not complaining I put myself in a lot of these situations, but it’s on to good things now moving forward. I got all the bad luck out of the way. This year has been a great year to test me in every way.”

Thank you Kurt for the memories, the determination, and the willingness to put 110% into each and every week. Your successful accomplishments in Nascar have been well deserved and we wish you the best moving forward. We’ll see you, our friend, at the track.

Phoenix Racing PR