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Posted on 05/20/2026 7:07:24 AM PDT by WhiteHatBobby0701
Kurt Busch will compete in the 2026 Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR) NASCAR Classic at Circuit de la Sarthe, near Le Mans, France. The event runs from July 2-5, and will celebrate 50 years since NASCAR’s first attempt in the 24-hour race.
Busch, who collected 34 victories throughout his NASCAR Cup Series career, including the 2017 Daytona 500 and the series championship in 2004, will drive the No. 1 Monster Energy Chevrolet in his HSR debut. The car, a former Chip Ganassi Racing chassis, was used when Busch won at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 2020. Ganassi later gifted Busch the car as an additional trophy from the victory.
Since then, the car has received a fresh engine from Hendrick Motorsports and undergone a complete overhaul to prepare it for road-course competition rather than its original oval-track setup. The field is expected to include 40 entries.
“Having this opportunity to race at Le Mans is a dream come true,” Busch said. “There are only a few places in the world with the allure, prestige and pageantry of a motorsport venue like Le Mans. I’ve been fortunate to win the Daytona 500, compete in the Indianapolis 500, tour Nürburgring, experience Fuji Speedway, and now race at Le Mans. The kid racer in me gets to live out another dream.”
In preparation for the event, Busch participated in a shakedown session at Road Atlanta last month. Following the session, the car was loaded into a shipping container and transported to the Le Mans paddock ahead of the event.
The HSR NASCAR Classic will run over three days during the 2026 Le Mans Classic weekend. Serving as a support series.
“What makes this event even more special is that this is the 50th anniversary of NASCAR sending a car to compete at Le Mans,” said Busch. “This is a one-and-only opportunity to race on the historic track with my race-winning Monster Energy Chevrolet from Las Vegas in 2020.”
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Now retired, Kurt is entering vintage races with the cars he raced in various disciplines. Now the car will be driven in full song at La Sarthe with fans in the tribunes.
Not Kyle?................
That ain’t NASCAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NASCAR is the worst form of racing. Don’t know why people see the thrill in it.
Real vintage Cup cars being raced. It’s becoming popular for now former Cup drivers to own their own vintage winners and race them. Drivers will race cars which they won races in these events for fun. Bill Elliott owns a few former Evernham Dodges he races. The more these drivers own them to race in HSR races, the less likely they will be used in ARCA and wasted in crashes.
The “real” NASCAR has been gone for quite a while...
I worked in the pits for Elmo Langley back in the early ‘70”s...
NASCAR ain’t NASCAR any more.....
The “real” NASCAR has been gone for quite a while...
I worked in the pits for Elmo Langley back in the early ‘70”s...
NASCAR ain’t NASCAR any more.....
I agree. I can’t tell you the exact time the real NASCAR died, but what we have now isn’t real NASCAR.
“NASCAR is the worst form of racing”
Fortunately, you don’t have to watch it.
they started their woke and BLM coddling crap AND the moronic ‘Stages’, then lyin bubba wallace came out lyin about racism and all nascar got behind him DESPITE it being proven that there was NO racism- and I quit watchin-
a 2020 car is a vintage racecar?
KURT SUFFERED A CAREER ENDING INJURY SOME YEARS BACK-—
WHY IS HE BEING ALLOWED TO RACE AGAIN?
I DO ADMIRE BOTH THE BUSCH BROTHERS-—BUT THIS DOESN’T SEEM RIGHT
Historic Sportscar Racing where he can drive demonstration laps. He is not legally racing at this level. He’s been cleared to race only in vintage racing on road courses. No speedway racing, just driving vintage cars for show. Vintage racing prohibits contact.
He raced against Jeff Gordon and Bobby Labonte in the recent Vintage IROC race at Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Alexander Wurz-designed Ten Tenths Motor Club (a 1.7 mile road course). Scott Joy (Mike’s son) won a Vintage Trans-Am race there.
A Gen 6 car is already qualified for vintage racing because of expiration of homologation.
Busch will race in the SC/A class, which is for “Cup Series chassis and body work up to the 2021 season”.
HSR is a NASCAR-owned series that races any number of vintage series. If you have a vintage F1 car that was raced, you are allowed to race it in HSR. HSR cars must be five years old at minimum or homologation has expired. Any GT3 or Prototype whose homologation has expired is also eligible (five year rule waived). For example, the Porsche 991 GT3 R is legal as of January 1, 2026, when the homologation expired. Any Nissan GT-R GT3 produced in 2025 and raced in Super GT or any GT3 series this season will allowed in HSR as of January 1, 2027 because of homologation expiration that makes these cars no longer eligible to participate in GT3. Kenny Habul owns Peter Brock’s Group A 1987 Bathurst winner in Charlotte. That could be driven in vintage racing.
https://www.hsrrace.com/car-eligibility/
I was hoping they meant cars from the 70s and 80s - Monte Carlos, Torinos, Chargers. Ones that could win on Sunday and be bought on Monday.
Guess not.
Yes, you can race those in HSR. They are classified as SC/GN. If Dale Earnhardt, Jr. races his dad’s 1980 Monte Carlo, that is classified as SC/GN. If someone races DW’s 1971 Mercury Cyclone he owns (an ex-Mario Andretti 1967 Daytona winning Ford Fairlane, a Holman & Moody mistake that they didn’t keep the car in that trim but it was sold numerous times and it was a car that won with every driver except one), then it’s SC/GN. Any vintage Petty car could go SC/GN. But even by 1970 it wasn’t a stock car anymore.
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