Sept. 24, 2012
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
Kurt Busch has agreed to
drive the No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series
in 2013, replacing Regan Smith, the 2004 Cup Series champion confirmed
Monday during an appearance
on SPEED's Race Hub.
Busch signed a one-year
deal with the Denver, Colo.-based organization owned by Barney Visser,
co-founder of the furniture company that also serves as the No. 78
Chevrolet's primary sponsor.
Busch has spent the 2012
Cup campaign driving for Phoenix Racing, with a best result of third
coming in the road-course race at Sonoma in June. He has also posted two
victories in the Nationwide
Series this year, one for Phoenix in the July race at Daytona and one
for brother Kyle Busch at Richmond in April.
Kurt and Kyle have split the Nationwide schedule, sharing the No. 54 Toyota, which Kyle owns.
Busch has 24 Cup
victories to his credit and has a 10-year streak of at least one victory
per year on the line with eight races left in the current season. Busch
has scored top-10 finishes
in 171 of his 427 career starts.
The move marks the
second step in a comeback for Busch, who parted with Penske Racing at
the end of the 2011 season after several incidents -- including an angry
confrontation with an ESPN
camera crew at the season finale at Homestead -- made his position
there untenable.
Smith claimed his lone
victory in 159 Cup starts at Darlington last year. To date, that is the
only victory in 191 starts for Furniture Row Racing, which made its Cup
debut in 2005.
No comments:
Post a Comment