Watkins Glen on Sunday and next week’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona mark the final regular-season Cup Series races.
With just two regular-season NASCAR Cup Series races left before the playoff period begins, one of the sport’s most notable names will not be competing at Watkins Glen or Daytona.
Kurt Busch shared that he will miss his fifth and sixth consecutive races as he continues to deal with concussion-like symptoms. The 44-year-old is still locked in for the playoffs thanks to a medical waiver, but the playoff picture as a whole remains muddled with 15 different winners so far this season.
Only 16 drivers compete for the playoffs.
“As much I want to be back in the car, the time is still not right. Over the last few weeks, I have focused all my efforts on getting better. And in order to fully focus my recovery on trying to be back for the playoffs, I will not be competing in the next two races at Watkins Glen and Daytona,” he said in a statement on Twitter. “This decision was not an easy one, but the right one. I need to be racing at 100%.
“I continue to be incredibly grateful for all the well-wishes and support. It truly means a lot.”
Ahead of Richmond last week, Busch released a statement saying, in part, “brain injury recovery doesn’t always take a linear path. I’ve been feeling well in my recovery, but this week I pushed to get my heart rate and body in a race simulation type environment, and it’s clear I’m not ready to be back in the race car.” Busch added that it “was by far the hardest week emotionally because I do feel the progression of recovery, but racing requires an extreme physical and mental effort, and my body is not 100% able to sustain the intense race conditions.”
Busch suffered a crash during qualifying at Pocono Raceway that left him with concussion-like symptoms, and since then, Ty Gibbs—the grandson of legend Joe Gibbs—has filled in the No. 45 car. He finished 16th at Pocono, 17th at the Indianapolis Road Course and even snagged a top-10 finish at Michigan. Ty did not finish Richmond due to an engine issue.
More Racing Coverage: