(born
May 2 ,
1985 in
Las Vegas ,
Nevada ) is a driver in the
2005 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series and is the youngest driver ever to win a race in Nextel Cup and Craftsman Truck history.
He grew up racing at The Bullring at
Las Vegas Motor Speedway .
At 16, Busch competed in the
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for
Roush Racing as a replacement after the team's two drivers were released midway in the 2001 season, and earned two top-10 finishes in six starts what was scheduled to be a full-season campaign for 2002.
Busch was the fastest in practice for a 2001 Craftsman Truck Series race at
California Speedway in Fontana, CA, when he was ejected from the track by
CART officials because the
American Racing Wheels 200 was part of a CART weekend featuring the
Marlboro 500 CART event.
Marlboro threw Busch out of the garage because of an interpretation of the
Master Settlement Agreement of 1998, prohibiting persons under 18 years of age in participating in events sponsored by tobacco companies.
Six weeks after the incident, NASCAR imposed a minimum age of 18 years starting in 2002 to prevent future incidents from happening again, because
Winston was the premier series sponsor.
,
2006 race at Mexico]]
When the age requirements were put in place, Busch switched from NASCAR to the
American Speed Association (ASA) series, a Midwest based company that also aided in his success; in the 2002 season, Busch finished eighth in the championship points for the ASA series.
Upon turning 18, Busch partnered with Hendrick Motorsports to run a set of six NASCAR Busch Series races at selected tracks, running the number 87 Ditech.com machine. During his seat time in that ride, Busch finished a Busch Series career-high second in his first NASCAR
Busch Series race at the Lowe's Motor Speedway in May of 2003. He also teamed with Hendrick to run selected ARCA RE/MAX races, where he won races at the Kentucky Speedway and the Nashville Super speedway, where he also started from the pole position (his other pole in 2003 was at Pocono). Kyle's first full-time season began in 2004, as he competed in the Lowes car vacated by Brian Vickers, who had moved up to the Nextel Cup series. Busch easily clinched Rookie of the Year honors in the series, and clearly showed his stronghold on the Busch series with the start of the series-he received his first top-10 finish of the season at the second race in Rockingham, his first pole of the season in the fifth race, and claimed his first victory at the Richmond International Raceway at the Funai 250 in May. Busch went on to claim five wins in 2004, finishing second in the overall points to
Martin Truex, Jr. and claiming the Rookie of the Year title. Kyle won the CarQuest Auot Parts 300 at Lowe's Motorspeedway in 2005. Kyle won the Sharpie Mini 300 at Bristol in 2006.
After the announcement that long time Hendrick Nextel Cup series driver Terry Labonte would be running a limited schedule in 2005 and 2006, Busch was picked to take over the #5 Kellogg's Chevrolet Monte Carlo (with CarQuest Auto Parts alternating in selected races) in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup series.Kyle Busch races for
Hendrick Motorsports who produced such recent NASCAR superstars as
Jeff Gordon and
Jimmie Johnson . Hendrick Motorsports is famous for picking top young talent.
Busch had already clinched the 2005
NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Rookie Of The Year title before the end of the season. He won his first Cup race at the
Sony HD 500 at
California Speedway in
Fontana, California in September 2005, and is the youngest-ever winner in NASCAR's highest level of competition at 20 years, 125 days. He followed that up with another win later in the year at
Phoenix International Raceway .
Kyle is the younger brother of
NASCAR driver
Kurt Busch .
On ,
2006 and could face up to a year in jail. This was five months after his brother, Kurt, was cited for reckless driving in
Arizona on
November 2005 ; he was suspended by
Roush Racing for the final two races of the year.
