Kyle Busch Biography

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Biography
Kyle Thomas Busch (born May 2, 1985 in Las Vegas, Nevada) is an American race car driver. Currently, he drives the #18 Interstate Battery for Joe Gibbs Racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series as well as the #18 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.

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. (In 2006, Marlboro ejected Grand-Am Daytona Prototype driver Colin Braun, 17, from three sportscar races held in conjunction with the Indy Racing League because they have an IRL sponsorship.)

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 returned to the Craftsman Truck Series in 2005 for a limited number of races in Billy Ballew'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 in "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.

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.

Source: Wikipedia (GNU)

Awards

• 2004 Busch Series Rookie of the Year
• 2005 NEXTEL Cup Rookie of the Year

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Sprint Cup Career Statistics