Roush Racing scrambles to find new driver

Kyle Busch

By Tim Packman, Turner Sports Interactive
December 14, 2001
11:11 AM EST (1611 GMT)

CONCORD, N.C. - Roush Racing is one of the teams most directly affected by NASCAR's ruling that all partcipants in its major series must be 18 years old.

Roush Racing fields the No. 99 Fords driven by 16-year-old Kyle Busch in the Craftsman Truck Series, one of the series affected by the ruling.

The rule forces 16-year old Kyle Busch out of the seat. Busch, the younger brother of Winston Cup regular Kurt Busch, drove in six races last year.

Kyle Busch Bio  Busch's 2001 Stats  Audio: New rules

Busch, a high school student from Las Vegas, scored one top-10 effort. However, with the new ruling in place beginning with next year, it looks like Busch will be driving Late Model.

"I am extremely disappointed that I have to wait to race," said Kyle Busch. "I'm an honor student and have worked hard to graduate from high school early so that I could get a head start on my career.

"At no point did my desire to race interfere with my school work and I am confident that I will have a successful future with Roush Racing once I am able to resume my career on the track."

With Busch sidelined for at least two years, that opens up the seat for someone else. The team has said that they will fulfill all contractual obligations to Busch.

"It's really unfortunate when the rule change really affects only one guy, and it happens to be yours," said Geoff Smith, president of Roush Racing. "Philosophically, we are in accordance the rule and what it is all about. We really have no complaints about it. Not like we have with other rules regarding aerodynamics, templates and things of that nature."

Smith said that education was at the forefront of the team's plans with Busch.

"We would not have hired Kyle unless he completed his high school education anyway," Smith said. "He was well on his way to graduating a year early as an honor student, no less. He wasn't going to miss that much school where he wouldn't have been able to graduate early, either. We fully support education and what it is all about.

"Yes, we do now have some distress as to what to do about the No. 99 ride. We don't have any real quick answers and it's something we will sit down and discuss over the next few weeks."