Indianapolis Motor Speedway hosted its final major automobile race of the season this weekend and while the Brickyard 400 has gone from the more beloved younger brother to the Indianapolis 500 to a distant third-favorite day of the year at the track (Carb Day gets a bigger crowd than the Brickyard 400, think about that) it is a weekend that still gets our attention. The biggest story after this weekend, at least maybe the story that will stick with us longer this season and into the offseason, isn't another NASCAR overtime line fiasco nor is it aero packages and whether what was run in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Saturday could be introduced to the Cup race in 2018. Kyle Busch said he had an Indianapolis 500 seat lined up for this year. Then he was told no.
"I had it done last year, sold and everything ready to go, and I've got a boss that said no," the 2015 NASCAR Cup champion said during a Friday press conference. Let's stop and consider what Kyle Busch did for a second. He didn't say he was working on a deal and couldn't get enough funding. He didn't say he couldn't find an engine package. If he had everything ready to go that means he had a sponsor lined up to cover the cost and a team with an engine package ready for him to drive.
Marshall Pruett wrote in March that Indianapolis 500 seats were going for anywhere as low as $600,000 to as high as $1.2 million, depending on team and crash deposit. If Busch had everything ready to go you have to think he had a check closer to $1.2 million than $600,000. Regardless of how much Busch had raised it is still an extraordinary amount of money to get together and Busch wasn't the only guy trying to reach that total. Many aren't able to raise the money and don't get a ride. None of them have a name as resonate as Kyle Busch but it is still a difficult task. Busch has made a lot of money in NASCAR but I doubt he was writing a $1.2 million check out of his own pocket
Busch probably had over $1 million tied to an Indianapolis 500 ride and then it was flushed down the drain. Kyle Busch said boss. He didn't specify whom but he gave us options. "I've got two bosses," he said on Friday, "one's a male and one's a female," suggesting either his team owner Joe Gibbs or his wife put the kibosh on his Indianapolis 500 attempt. With the wrath and stupidity of people on social media, I don't understand why Busch would potentially set it up for his wife to face any unwanted and undeserved criticism. He could have just said boss and left Gibbs swinging in the wind. Bringing in a second party kind of protects Gibbs. I understand he is your boss and but who would look out for a boss over a spouse?
I understand the angst from either Gibbs or his wife that would keep Busch from taking part in this race but saying no diminishes all of the hard work Busch did to put this deal together. These deals you can't just pluck off a tree. There are plenty of talented drivers that were left on the sidelines because they couldn't put together a deal, Townsend Bell, Matthew Brabham, Dean Stoneman and James Davison just to name a few (yes, Davison would substitute for Sébastien Bourdais).
It was a complete waste of a deal. Just imagine a briefcase containing $1 million being lit on fire. I don't mean to make it seem like I am turning this against Kyle Busch because it seems anything the man does is turned into a negative by somebody (he heads to a local short track unannounced to compete and people find a reason to crucify him over it) but I wish Kyle Busch had taken the deal he had and convinced the sponsors to stick together and support another driver without a ride and it be something he put his name on. Imagine the good will Kyle Busch could have won had he helped put Bell, Brabham or Stefan Wilson in a ride to attempt to qualify for this year's Indianapolis 500. It didn't happen but hindsight shouldn't make Busch seem like a bad guy in this case.
Busch did admit some relief that he didn't get the green light to run Indianapolis this year but it wasn't because he didn't feel he would be able to drive the car. "I'm kind of glad it didn't come together because of Alonso kind of stole the headlines," he said. Fernando Alonso might have generated his fair share of attention but if Busch had done it he would have gotten plenty of attention as well. Limelight is not a limitless element. There is enough for every ego to share.
This Busch story isn't going away anytime soon. People are going to mention it every time we are counting seats this IndyCar offseason and trying to figure out where Indianapolis 500 one-offs will come from. I think 2018 will look just like 2017 in terms of a Kyle Busch-less Indianapolis 500. Gibbs has no interest in letting his drivers do anything outside of NASCAR and something in my gut tells me Gibbs doesn't care about any form of motorsports that is not NASCAR.
We can look at Busch not attempting the Indianapolis 500 as a loss for the entire motorsports world. It would have been something to have a two-time World Drivers' Champion and a NASCAR Cup champion on the same grid with a handful of Indianapolis 500 winners and IndyCar champions. Or we can look at his absence as reality and some fantasies best remain in our dreams.
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