Monster Energy ends NASCAR sponsor drought for Las Vegas’ Kurt Busch
Apparently, Kurt Busch isn’t as toxic as everybody said he was when details of a stormy relationship with his former girlfriend got out.
The Las Vegas leadfoot, who essentially had been driving around in circles in an unsponsored car fielded by Tony Stewart and partner Gene Haas, has picked up Monster Energy as a co-primary sponsor (along with Haas Automotive) for the 2016 NASCAR season.
It also was announced Wednesday that Busch has agreed to a multi-year contract extension to drive for the Stewart-Haas team.
“I feel very blessed and privileged to have this opportunity,” Busch said after the announcements were made. In many cases, that might have sounded like rhetoric. In Busch’s case, it rings true, given his myriad trials and tribulations both on and off the track.
The most serious of these occurred last year and earlier this year when Busch was accused of and ultimately found to have committed domestic violence on former girlfriend Patricia Driscoll by a family court judge in Delaware. He was suspended for three races, including the season-opening Daytona 500. After it was ruled there was not enough evidence to bring criminal charges against Busch, NASCAR reinstated him.
Car owner Haas and then-associate sponsor Monster Energy were among the few who supported Busch during this time. People in and around NASCAR thought he might be finished as a driver as sponsors immediately cut ties or tried to distance themselves from the 37-year-old former Cup series champion.
“This was something that was really Kurt’s project,” Stewart said. “This is something he worked really hard at getting over. This is a really good example of Kurt and how good of relationships he has with companies.”
Busch has 27 wins in 535 Cup starts and still is considered one of NASCAR’s top drivers.
“I never wavered,” he said. “I felt like the truth would be told and I stayed focused in the car, that every time I put that visor down, that’s my safe haven, that’s my comfort zone, and that’s where I’m able to do my best and be able to enjoy it out there.”
So next year if and when he wins, Kurt Busch will have a sponsor to thank, along with his crew and car owners. Like a rookie driver in the rear-view mirror, that’s something hardly anybody saw coming.
Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski
