Kyle Thomas Busch (born May 2, 1985), is an American race car driver and team owner in NASCAR. He drives the #18 Mars/Interstate Batteries/NOS Energy Drink Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Sprint Cup Series, the #18 Z-Line Designs/NOS Energy Drink Toyota Camry for Gibbs in the Nationwide Series, and the #18 Toyota Tundra for his own team, Kyle Busch Motorsports, in the Camping World Truck Series.
He currently has the record for most wins in a season between the three series with 21 wins, which he got in 2008. He also is the only NASCAR driver to win races in two of its national touring series on the same day by winning the Camping World Truck Series and Nationwide Series races held on February 21, 2009. He is only the second driver to ever win on their birthday, winning on May 2, 2009, his 24th birthday, in the Crown Royal Presents the Russell Friedman 400 at Richmond International Raceway. He is the younger brother of 2004 Nextel Cup champion Kurt Busch.
Early life
Busch’s first driving lessons came at the age of 6 when he drove around the cul-de-sac of his family’s Las Vegas home in a makeshift go-kart. Although he was too small to reach the throttle, Busch still was able to pick up the basics from his father Tom, who controlled the gas pedal as his young son steered the kart. Throughout his childhood, Busch spent many hours as an apprentice to his father and older brother Kurt in the family garage learning to build and repair race cars. By the age of 10, he was a full-fledged mechanic and served as crew chief of his older brother’s dwarf car team.
In 1998, shortly after his 13th birthday, Busch’s driving career officially began. From 1999 through 2001, Busch earned more than 65 wins in legends cars as he racked up two track championships at Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s “Bullring” before moving to late models. He captured 10 victories in late model competition at the Bullring in 2001.
Early career
At the age of 16, Busch competed in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for Roush Racing as a replacement, while Nathan Haseleu (#99) and Chuck Hossfeld (#50), the two drivers, were released midway in the 2001 season. He made his debut at Indianapolis Raceway Park and impressed people with a 9th place finish. In his second race at Chicago Motor Speedway and was about to win the race, until 12 laps to go when he ran out of gas. He earned two top-10 finishes in six starts in the #99 Eldon Ford F-150 in 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 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 17-year old Grand-Am Krohn Racing driver Colin Braun for three sportscar races held in conjunction with the Indy Racing League because Marlboro sponsored both of Penske Racing's Indy Racing League efforts. In 2008, four full-time USAR Hooters Pro Cup drivers were banned from participating in the Sears Auto Center 150 at the Milwaukee Mile because they were under 18, and the race was held in conjunction with an IndyCar race with Marlboro sponsorship on the Penske cars.)
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 at the time. When the age requirements were put in place, Busch switched from NASCAR to the American Speed Association (ASA) series, a Midwest based racing series. He finished eighth in the championship points for the ASA series.
In 2002, Busch graduated a year early with honors from Durango High School in Las Vegas, Nevada to focus on his driving career. That same year, he made his debut in the ARCA RE/MAX Series at Lowe's Motor Speedway, finishing twelfth in the #22 WP Motorsports Chevrolet. In 2003, Busch signed a driver development contract with Hendrick Motorsports, and drove seven races in ARCA in their #87 ditech entry. He won his first two races at Nashville Superspeedway and Kentucky Speedway. He won his most recent ARCA race the following year at Daytona.
He is often nicknamed Shrub , since he is the younger brother of NASCAR driver Kurt Busch and a small bush is called a shrub.Mike Joy coined the nickname Wild Thing as he is always making daring and bold moves on the track.
NASCAR career
2003-2007
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 2003.
Busch'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 clinched Rookie of the Year honors in the series, receiving 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, making him the record holder of most races won by a driver in their rookie season., and finished second to Martin Truex, Jr. in the overall points. Busch also qualified for six Nextel Cup races out of nine attempts in 2004 in the #84 Carquest Chevrolet for Hendrick, his highest finish being 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 Company/Carquest Auto Parts Chevrolet Monte Carlo, crew chiefed by Alan Gustafson. He won his first career NASCAR Nextel Cup race (now known as Sprint Cup) on September 4 in the Sony HD 250 at Fontana , driving for Rick Hendrick. At the end of the season Busch won the 2005 Nextel Cup Rookie of the Year with 2 wins and a 20th place points finish.. The earlier win at Fontana made Busch eligible to become a part of the 20 NASCAR Triple Threats, a group of drivers who have won a race in NASCAR's top three divisions. At the time, he was the youngest-ever winner in the NASCAR Cup Series, at 20 years, 125 days (a mark that has since been eclipsed by current teammate Joey Logano).
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. He won his first career Craftsman Truck Series race on May 20, 2005, at Lowe's Motor Speedway, driving for Billy Ballew Motorsports, becoming the youngest driver to win a Truck Series race, at 20 years 19 days. In addition, he ran a limited schedule in the Busch Series driving the #5 and #57 for Hendrick. He won at Lowe's Motor Speedway but did not qualify for the race at Texas Motor Speedway, a track he had won the pole at one year earlier.
In 2006, he took the victory in the Lenox Industrial Tools 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway, and qualified for the Chase for the Cup 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. Busch started the first race of the Chase mid-pack in the 43 car field 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. Busch followed up the next week at Dover International Speedway with an initially strong run before an engine failure took him out of the race. Busch 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. As a result, he finished the season in tenth place in the 2006 NEXTEL Cup standings, 448 points behind champion Jimmie Johnson. His winnings for the 2006 season sum edup to $5,537,337. Busch is currently the youngest driver to make the NASCAR NEXTEL Chase for the Cup. He also became the youngest pole sitter in NEXTEL Cup history.
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. In addition, he ran nearly the entire 2006 season in the #5 Lowe's/Shop-Vac Chevy, winning one race and finishing seventh in points despite skipping one race.
Busch became the first NASCAR NEXTEL Cup driver to win in NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow at the 2007 Food City 50
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