{"id":12049,"date":"2014-03-04T11:47:37","date_gmt":"2014-03-04T16:47:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/?p=12049"},"modified":"2014-03-04T11:49:18","modified_gmt":"2014-03-04T16:49:18","slug":"kurt-busch-to-run-indy-500-then-coca-cola-600-on-memorial-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/2014\/03\/04\/kurt-busch-to-run-indy-500-then-coca-cola-600-on-memorial-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Kurt Busch to run Indy 500, then Coca Cola 600 on Memorial Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_12051\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12051\" style=\"width: 594px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12051\" alt=\"kurtbusch41\" src=\"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/files\/2014\/03\/kurtbusch41.jpg\" width=\"594\" height=\"441\" srcset=\"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/files\/2014\/03\/kurtbusch41.jpg 594w, http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/files\/2014\/03\/kurtbusch41-563x418.jpg 563w, http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/files\/2014\/03\/kurtbusch41-300x222.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 594px) 100vw, 594px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12051\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">getty images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Kurt Busch will compete in both the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Coa 600 on Memorial Day becoming the first driver since 2004 to attempt the 1,100 mile double header.<\/p>\n<p>Busch will drive one of five cars for Andretti Autosport in the 500 mile race held at the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The process was set in motion when the 35-year-old Busch completed a test day at Indianapolis last year and then passed the Rookie Orientation program.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is really to challenge myself within motorsports,\u201d Busch said in a news release. \u201cPerhaps I am a bit of an old-school racer; a throw-back I guess. I enjoyed the era of drivers racing different cars and testing themselves in other series. It is tough to do now for a variety of factors, but when the opportunity is there, I want to do it. \u2026 It\u2019s literally a dream come true. To go to the famous Brickyard with the iconic Andretti name, it doesn\u2019t get much cooler or better than that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After racing in the Indianapolis 500, Busch will fly to Charlotte where he will drive the No. 41 Chevrolet SS for his Sprint Cup Series team, Stewart-Hass Racing.<\/p>\n<p>By completing the double Busch will join teammate Tony Stewart, Robby Gordon and John Andretti as drivers who have run both Memorial Day races.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I\u2019m really excited to have Kurt come onboard for the Indy 500,\u201d said Andretti Autosport owner Michael Andretti. \u201cHe did a great job for us when he tested last year. He\u2019s obviously a natural talent and we feel he is going to take to the Indy car quickly and have a competitive month with us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Kurt Busch will compete in both the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Coa 600 on Memorial Day becoming the first driver since 2004 to attempt the 1,100 mile double header. Busch will drive one of five cars for Andretti Autosport in the 500 mile race held at the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,786,788],"tags":[789,372,708],"coauthors":[675],"class_list":{"0":"post-12049","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cup-series","8":"category-nascar-topstory","9":"category-news","10":"tag-front","11":"tag-kurt-busch","12":"tag-nascar"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12049"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nascar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=12049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}