Kurt Busch NOT cleared to race at Indianapolis: Ty Gibbs selected to pilot No. 45 car

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    It has been announced this evening (07/27/2022), NASCAR Cup Series veteran driver Kurt Busch will miss his second consecutive race after suffering concussion-like symptoms from a crash during qualifying at Pocono Raceway. NASCAR has not cleared Busch to race in the 2022 "Verizon" 200 at the Brickyard due to health pre-cautionary reasons.

As expected, Ty Gibbs will pilot the No. 45 Toyota Camry at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, carrying the Monster Energy colors for the first time at the NASCAR Cup Series level. Gibbs, who filled in for an injured Kurt Busch last week, crossed the line in 18th and on the lead lap. His finished would be re-adjusted to 16th after NASCAR disqualified the top-2 finishers. So, we can say his debut on the "Tricky Triangle" was a success. It will be intriguing though, to see how well he will compete in a NASCAR Cup Series Road course event.

Here is the original announcement on the decision from Kurt Busch's social media page:

pic.twitter.com/ua9gyHOQ7m

— Kurt Busch (@KurtBusch) July 27, 2022

The entire situation has been slightly downplayed. However, there are a few concerns on how this injury could play into Kurt Busch's future in NASCAR. 

• First of all, concussions have been the downfall to many great race car drivers and could force yet another one into an early retirement. 
• The 2022 Playoffs are a big topic at the moment, as Busch is still currently eligible to compete for the NASCAR Cup Series championship later this season. That is, if he doesn't miss a crazy number of races. We do know that a waiver was issued for his missing the race at Pocono Raceway, just depends on NASCAR's ruling to keep Busch eligible from this point forward. 

I am sure most these concerns are being taken care of and/or will be taken care of in a short matter of time.

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