(born
May 2 ,
1985 in
Las Vegas ,
Nevada ) is an
American race car driver. Currently, he drives the #5 Kellogg's/CARQUEST Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports in the
NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series as well as the #5 Chevrolet in the NASCAR
Busch Series . He grew up racing at The Bullring at
Las Vegas Motor Speedway . He is often nicknamed '''Shrub''', since he is the younger brother of NASCAR driver
Kurt Busch and a small bush is called a shrub.http://www.sportsline.com/autoracing/story/10224492
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. (In 2000, NASCAR rules changed to permit a driver to make up to seven starts -- up from five -- in a season before becoming a full-time driver for rookie status.)
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 FedEx Championship Series 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. (The MSA also resulted in the benching in 2006 of then 17-year old
Grand-Am Krohn Racing driver
Colin Braun for three sportscar races held in conjunction with the Indy Racing League because Marlboro had an
IRL sponsorship at the time.)
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. (For 2007, the rule has changed; Grand National (Busch East and AutoZone West) and Whelen Modified (North and South) Tours will now permit drivers as young as 16 to enter the races.)
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.
Busch ran 1 race in 2004 for
Morgan-Dollar Motorsports in their #47
Acxiom Chevrolet Silverado .
Busch returned to the Craftsman Truck Series in 2005 for a limited number of races in
Billy Ballew Motorsports 's Chevrolet's, winning at
Lowe's Motor Speedway ,
Dover International Speedway , and the fall race in
Atlanta Motor Speedway , all 200-mile races. Busch became the youngest driver to win a Truck Series race, at 20 years 19 days.
Busch repeated his Lowe's victory in 2006 in a truck painted to resemble the
Rowdy Burns car from
Days Of Thunder , in a tribute to
Bobby Hamilton (who was the stunt driver for the character), who was in the midst of a cancer battle which would later take his life.
,
2006 race at Mexico]]
Upon turning 18, Busch partnered with Hendrick Motorsports to run a set of six NASCAR Busch Series races at selected tracks, running the #87
Ditech.com Chevrolet Monte Carlo for
NEMCO Motorsports . 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 Series races, where he won races at the
Kentucky Speedway and the
Nashville Superspeedway , 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 Lowe's 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 Auto Parts 300 at
Lowe's Motor Speedway in 2005. Kyle won the
Sharpie Mini 300 at
Bristol Motor Speedway in 2006. 2007 has been an interesting year for Busch. Two wins (
Nicorette 300 at
Altanta ,
Sam's Town 300 at
LVMS ) were in sight before mistakes put them out of contention. But on July 7, 2007, Busch finally capitalized and won his first ever race at
Daytona with a win in the
Winn-Dixie 250 .
Kyle Busch may be in the works with RCR for a Busch Series Contract for 2008, not known if this could lead to a Sprint Cup Deal
Busch ran 6 races in 2004 in the #84
Carquest Chevrolet for
Hendrick Motorsports . His highest finish was 24th at
California Speedway .
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 /
Carquest Auto Parts Chevrolet Monte Carlo for
Hendrick Motorsports .
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 the NASCAR Cup Series, at 20 years, 125 days. He followed that up with another win two months later in November 2005 at
Phoenix International Raceway . Busch clinched the 2005
NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Rookie Of The Year title before the end of the 2005 season.
A strong victory in the
Lenox Industrial Tools 300 at
New Hampshire International Speedway led to a strong showing during the last race before the 2006 Chase at Richmond International Raceway, in the Chevy Rock & Roll 400, where he finished second after leading the most laps. He entered the Chase for the NEXTEL Cup fourth in Cup points.
Kyle started mid-pack in the first race of the Chase at the
New Hampshire International Speedway but got caught up in an incident on lap four when he made contact with #66
Best Buy Chevrolet of
Jeff Green , and knocked the front suspension out of line, eventually spinning out and wrecking the car. Kyle followed up the next week at Dover International Speedway with an initially strong run before an engine failure took him out of the race. Kyle then went to the
Kansas Speedway and led several laps before being caught for speeding on pit road and finished in the bottom half of the top-ten.
Kyle finished the season in tenth place in the 2006
NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series standings, 448 points behind champion Jimmie Johnson. His winnings for the 2006 season totaled $5,537,337. Kyle is currently the youngest driver to make the NASCAR NEXTEL Chase for the Cup. He is also the youngest pole sitter in NEXTEL Cup history.
With his milestone win at the
Food City 500 at
Bristol Motor Speedway , on March 25th, Kyle became the first NASCAR NEXTEL Cup driver to win in NASCAR's
Car Of Tomorrow . He also scored
Hendrick Motorsports their 200th NASCAR win (in all series), and also scored
Chevrolet 's 600th NASCAR victory, the first by the
Chevrolet Impala since
Wendell Scott 's historic 1963 win in Jacksonville, Florida. At the Aaron's 312 Busch Race at Talladega, Busch went on a wild ride down the backstretch when he got turned into teammate Casey Mears' car by Tony Stewart, which was similar to the bump Brian Vickers gave to Jimmie Johnson in the 2006 UAW-Ford 500. The car spun towards the outside wall and flipped onto its roof. The car then slid down the track and hit the turn 3 grass, flipping side over side. The car flipped a total of seven times, but Busch walked away unscathed. In the
Nextel All-Star Challenge at the
Lowe's Motor Speedway , he and older brother
Kurt Busch got together.
On ,
2007 that Busch has chosen
Joe Gibbs Racing for his team in the
2008 season. He will replace
J.J. Yeley in the #18 car. http://msn.foxsports.com/nascar/story/7099146.
Busch has two dogs that are West Highland White Terriers named Kelly and Suzie. Kyle has been dating 24-year-old Erica Dawn Dewey, a 2004 graduate of Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, since he entered NEXTEL Cup in 2005. During his speech in the 2006 banquet, Kyle accidently called her Eva, the name of his brother's wife. Kyle enjoys riding dune buggies, following the University of Michigan football team, and also surfing in his spare time.
