NASCAR: Getting to Know Kyle Busch
This weeks installment in the “Getting to Know” the drivers series will be NASCAR’s reigning Sprint Cup Champion and perhaps the most controversial figure in the sport, Kyle Busch.
Kyle Thomas Busch, the man with many nicknames throughout his NASCAR career, including “Shrub,” “Wild Thing,” and “Rowdy,” was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada (born May 2, 1985). Kyle was exposed to racing at a young age because of the growth and success of his brother Kurt at the lower levels of racing while the Busch brothers grew up. Kyle’s first experience behind the wheel was riding around in a go-kart around his Las Vegas home at 6 years old. He helped his father Tom build legends cars for Kurt as a child as well, learning early on the mechanics of racing vehicles.
This was an important facet of the Busch brothers’ development. Their parents taught them accountability by giving them the responsibility of helping to work on, pay for, and fix their race cars. Kyle learned the costly nature of racing where wrecked equipment equated to not racing the next week. This garnered a pride and respect for his racing equipment and his fellow competitors.
At a mere 10 years old, Kyle was serving as Kurt’s crew chief while Kurt was racing dwarf cars. “Rowdy” got his first shot behind the wheel in competition at 13 in a legends car. He dominated competition at Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s bullring winning two track championships and amassing over sixty wins in legends competition. He continued to race at the Bullring winning 10 late model races during the 2001 season.
Kyle got his big break by being asked to fill in in Jack Roush’s No. 99 Ford in the Camping World Truck Series that same season, at just 16 years old. He made his debut at IRP, finishing in the top 10 and gaining notability. An interesting scenario during the Truck Series weekend at California Speedway, where Kyle was informed that he was not allowed to participate in the event because of the CART race also occurring at the racetrack the same weekend, which was sponsored by Marlboro. The Master Settlement Agreement of 1998 forbid minors from participating in events sponsored by cigarette companies.
Later that year NASCAR instituted a rule that all participants in the three top series in NASCAR must be at least 18 years old because of the title sponsorship of the Winston Cup Series (this rule has since been retracted with the removal of “Winston” as title sponsor in 2004). Kyle was forced to resort to other racing for at least another two years.
In the time being, Kyle managed to graduate from high school a year early with honors and compete in ASA competition. In 2003, Hendrick Motorsports signed Kyle to a driver development contract and gave him a part-time ride in the ARCA series during that season. He would go on to win at Nashville and Kentucky in 2003 ARCA competition. Kyle turned 18 during the 2003 season and was permitted to return to NASCAR action, driving the No. 87 Chevrolet for NEMCO Motorsports, earning a pair of runner-up finishes.
The 2004 season for Busch submitted his mark as a serious racing talent in NASCAR. He drove the No. 5 Chevrolet in the then-Busch Series to five victories, the first coming at Richmond International Raceway. He would win Rookie of the Year honors and finish runner-up in the championship standings. He made his Nextel Cup debut in 2004 in the No. 84 for HMS at Las Vegas, and would race in six events.
Kyle Busch was hired to compete full time in the then-Nextel Cup Series behind the wheel of the No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. He gained consistency as the season progressed, along with new crew chief Alan Gustafson, and broke through for victory in the Sony HD 500 at California, becoming at the time the youngest winner in Cup competition at 20 years, 4 months, and 2 days old. He would add a second win at PIR, finish 20th in the standings and seal up the Rookie of the Year Award.
Kyle would earn a win each in the following two seasons in the No. 5 Chevrolet, including in the first race with the Car of Tomorrow at Bristol in 2007. He also qualified for the Chase for the Sprint Cup in both 2006 and 2007.
With J.J. Yeley failing to succeed at the Sprint Cup level, Joe Gibbs needed to find a viable suitor for the No. 18 Toyota in 2008, and he chose Kyle Busch, along with new sponsor M&Ms. Kyle would fit in extremely well with JGR, winning an incredible eight races that season, including the first for Toyota in Sprint Cup competition. Despite the high win total, Kyle would struggle in the Chase and finish tenth.
This started a trend for Kyle, as he would continue to accumulate wins in the Cup Series during the regular season but would perpetually struggle in the Chase, failing finish in the top five in points in all but two seasons (’07 and ’13) until the 2015 season.
Kyle not only racked up wins in Cup competition, but also in the Truck Series and the Xfinity Series as well. He has become the career leader in wins in both of these series’, accumulating 76 wins in in the Xfinity Series and 44 wins in the Camping World Truck Series. His own team Kyle Busch Motorsports has brought Kyle and other drivers wins in NASCAR competition. He also added an Xfinity Series championship in 2009.
Kyle Busch has certainly been a polarizing figure in NASCAR, having been one of the most controversial figures on the Cup circuit. Examples of his controversial nature include scorning NASCAR for the Car of Tomorrow while being interviewed after his win at Bristol, smashing the trophy after an Xfinity win at Nashville, and being caught driving 128 mph in a 45 mph zone in North Carolina in 2011. His most infamous incident was intentionally wrecking Ron Hornaday in a Truck race at Texas under caution after the two tangled. Busch was parked for the remainder of the weekend including the Cup race, ending his title chances.
Kyle has begun to mellow his brash attitude and behavior, becoming more open to interviews and more cautiously aggressive on the racetrack. Kyle’s philanthropic efforts include creating the Kyle Busch Foundation in 2006 and a program with Pedigree in 2008 helping shelter and safe breeding efforts. Kyle married Samantha Sarcinella on December 31, 2010.
The 2015 season for Kyle Busch was perhaps the most roller coaster season a driver could have both on the Sprint Cup circuit and in his own personal life. Busch was involved in a wreck in an Xfinity Series race at Daytona in which he pounded an exposed concrete barrier on the inside
of the track. He was rushed to a local hospital where he was diagnosed with a massive compound fracture in the lower right leg, a small fracture in the left foot, and a sprained left finger. Kyle would miss the Daytona 500 and ten other races because of the injury and the ensuing recovery. NASCAR issued Busch a Chase waiver if he one at least one race and entered the top 30 in points before the cutoff at Richmond.
Around the time of returning to the Cup Series in May, his son Brexton was born on May 18th. The Chase requirements were easy for Busch to tackle, as he and his No. 18 team went on a tear with new crew chief Adam Stevens. He broke through with a win at Sonoma in June and would win four races in a five race stretch from Sonoma to Indianapolis. Busch entered the top 30 after a runner up finish at Watkins Glen and entered the Chase after the Richmond cutoff.
He would use consistency to survive the first three rounds of the Chase and enter the Championship 4 at Homestead with a fourth place finish in the penultimate race at PIR. Kyle was a top three car throughout the Ford Ecoboost 400 at Homestead and would fend off Kevin Harvick after a late restart to win the race and the title, marking his first Sprint Cup Championship triumph after a topsy-turvy 2015 season.
More racing: NASCAR: The 2016 Big Prediction Page
In total, “Rowdy” Busch has amassed 34 wins in the Sprint Cup Series and a whopping 154 wins across NASCAR’s top three series and enters 2016 as the reigning Sprint Cup champion looking to build on an extremely successful, yet controversial NASCAR career.
Look for the driver of the No. 19 Toyota in the next installment of the “Getting to Know” Series.