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Kurt Busch
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Kurt Thomas Busch (born August 4, 1978 in Las Vegas, Nevada) is a professional American race car driver. He drives the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. He is the older brother of Kyle Busch, also a professional driver, and the two have raced against one another on many occasions. He has a trademark cow hide seat cover.
In 2004, Busch finished eight points ahead of Jimmie Johnson to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship in the first ever season using the "Chase for the Cup" points format.
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Encyclopedia
Kurt Thomas Busch (born August 4, 1978 in Las Vegas, Nevada) is a professional American race car driver. He drives the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. He is the older brother of Kyle Busch, also a professional driver, and the two have raced against one another on many occasions. He has a trademark cow hide seat cover.
In 2004, Busch finished eight points ahead of Jimmie Johnson to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship in the first ever season using the "Chase for the Cup" points format. At the time, he drove the No. 97 Sharpie/Irwin Industrial Tools Ford for Roush Racing. Busch departed Roush at the end of 2005, moving to Penske Racing and replacing the retiring Rusty Wallace in the No. 2 Miller Lite sponsored Dodge Charger. With a 2006 win in the Nationwide Series, Busch became one of only 18 drivers with a win in all three of NASCAR's top divisions (Sprint Cup, Nationwide, and Camping World Truck Series).
Busch is a second-generation NASCAR driver his father Thomas also raced. He was the runner-up finisher in the closest finish in NASCAR history at Darlington Raceway on March 16, 2003. After an exciting and near-explosive two-lap side-by-side battle with Ricky Craven around the tight and tricky 1.366-mile track, Craven crossed the finish line only 0.002 seconds ahead of Busch in the photo-finish.
Entry to NASCAR
Busch was the first competitor in the NASCAR AutoZone Elite Division, Southwest Series and gained his first national exposure while competing against Ron Hornaday, Matt Crafton, Greg Biffle, Chris Trickle, and Kevin Harvick among others in the 1998 Winter Heat Series at Tucson Raceway Park.
Busch earned his big break after a tragedy. Chris Trickle was wounded in a mysterious shooting (Trickle would die of the injuries over a year later and to this day the murderer has never been found), and the Star Nursery team looked for a new driver to replace Trickle for the No. 70 team. Busch inherited the ride for the team and won the 1998 AutoZone Elite Division Southwest Series Rookie of the Year. He followed up by winning the series championship in 1999.
That led to a tryout in a Roush Racing "Gong Show", which he won and earned a Craftsman Truck Series ride. He caused controversy when Jack Roush invited him to race in the Winston Cup Series, without any experience from the Busch Grand National Series, while overlooking Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch's more experienced teammate.
Busch began racing on the Winston Cup circuit in 2000, at the age of 22. He replaced Chad Little in the No. 97 John Deere Ford. His first race in the Winston Cup Series was in Dover in September 2000, 1 month after his 21st birthday. He drove in 7 races, with no wins, top 5's, or top 10's, and finished 48th in the standings that year, with Jeff Hammond as crew chief.
Busch ran for rookie of the year honors in 2001, starting 35 of 36 races with no wins, although he scored three top fives and six top tens that year. He made contact with Dale Earnhardt's car in the Daytona 500 and Earnhardt stuck his hand out the window at Busch to give him the finger. To this day Busch recalls this as the only time he encountered Earnhardt on the track. Kurt finished with a 27th place finish in the championship standings, was the runner-up for the Rookie of the Year award, earned more than $2 million in winnings. He won the pole at the Southern 500, finished third at the Talladega 500 and fifth at the Brickyard 400. He also won his first pole position for the Mountain Dew Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
2002-2005
2002 was Busch's breakout year in the Winston Cup Series. He won his first race at the Food City 500 in Bristol in the spring. Busch added a second win at Martinsville in October, then won at Atlanta the next week and Homestead in the season finale. All in all Busch scored four wins, 12 top fives and 20 top tens, with one pole, and finishing third in the final standings. He finished the season particularly strong, winning three out of the final five races and finishing third and sixth and leading many laps in the other two. He also collected $5,105,394.
Busch had an up and down year in 2003, earning four wins (including a season sweep at Bristol, making him the first driver to do that since Dale Earnhardt accomplished the feat in 1987), nine top fives and 14 top tens but finishing only 11th in the standings (thanks to a late season slump that knocked him out of the top ten), although he collected US$5 million+ dollars again that year. It was a season marred by an ongoing feud with fellow driver Jimmy Spencer. After some car-to-car bumping at a race at the Michigan International Speedway, Busch brake tested Spencer causing the latter to collide with him. Spencer reached into Busch's car, grabbed him, and punched Busch in the nose. Kurt first claimed that his car stalled out in front of Spencer's garage, though audio later revealed that he stopped the car, revved the engine, and threatened Spencer from his car. Spencer was forced to sit out the next week's race, and both drivers were fined and placed on probation for the rest of the year. The altercation harmed Busch's relationship with fans significantly. He has since attempted to repair this image through charitable donations and many public appearances where he interacts with fans.
In 2004, Busch won three races, two poles and the inaugural NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship. He won his fourth consecutive race at Bristol after winning the Food City 500 in March (winning that race for the third consecutive year), and became the first driver to sweep both races at Loudon in a single season. He scored ten top five and 21 top ten finishes that season.
Midway through the 2005 season, Busch announced that he would be leaving Roush Racing at the end of the season and would replace Rusty Wallace in the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge for Penske Racing South. Busch won three races during the 2005 season, along with nine top five and 18 top ten finishes in 34 races. He finished 10th in the final standings after being released from his contract before the final two races. Kurt had been falsely issued a DUI before the Phoenix race (More information on this incident is provided later in this article).
Feuds with rival drivers
In the February 2006 edition of GQ Magazine, he was selected number three on their list of the top ten most hated athletes, behind Barry Bonds and Terrell Owens.
Aside from Jimmy Spencer, Busch has had notable run-ins with Greg Biffle, Kevin Harvick,Robby Gordon, and Tony Stewart. On June 4, 2007 in the Autism Speaks 400 at Dover International Speedway, after a crash with Stewart he drove beside Stewart's car on pit road, and gestured through his window netting. Busch was penalized 100 championship points, fined $100,000, and placed on probation until the end of the year.
But Busch would tangle with Stewart again only months later. During practice for the 2008 Budweiser Shootout at Daytona, Stewart clipped the back end of Busch's car sending Busch into the wall. After sustaining major damage Busch drove towards Stewart's car and rammed Stewart's car three times before attempting to return to the garage after the practice was called. Stewart had stopped his car in an effort to block Busch from going back into the garage area but Busch went around Stewart. After NASCAR ordered both drivers to the NASCAR hauler, rumor has it that Stewart and Busch got into a shouting match in which Stewart allegedly punched Kurt.
2005 Phoenix incident
Initial Reports
Busch's 2005 season was cut short by two races after a confrontation during the Phoenix, Arizona race weekend with Maricopa County Sheriff deputies on November 11, 2005, when he was pulled over for suspicion of drunken driving and cited for reckless driving. At first, the Sheriff's department claimed that their equipment for sobriety testing had failed and they could not release results of his drunk driving tests. This claim later proved to be false, but the damage was already done - Roush Racing responded two days later by suspending Busch for the remainder of the season and replacing him with Kenny Wallace for the final two races; team president Geoff Smith famously declared they were "officially retiring as Kurt Busch's apologists." Busch was 8th in the Cup Series Chase for the Championship at the time of the incident. He was sentenced to perform 50 hours of community service which was to be completed within one year. In November 2006, one year after the incident, Busch was declared an honorary deputy in Maricopa County.
Penske Championship Racing
Busch left Roush Racing and joined Penske Championship Racing (at the time, Penske Racing South) in 2006. Busch had asked team owner Jack Roush to let him out of his contract at the end of the 2005 season to replace the retiring Rusty Wallace in the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger, but Roush initially refused. However, after Chip Ganassi released Jamie McMurray from his 2006 contract, Roush decided to release Busch. McMurray, who was originally slated to join Roush in 2007 to drive the #6, instead replaced Busch in the #97,, which was then renumbered to #26. In the 2006 season, driving for Penske, Busch scored one win at Bristol Motor Speedway in the Food City 500, his fifth win at the track. Busch celebrated the victory by getting out of his car and making a "snow angel" on the track (in response to the snow that had fallen at the track that weekend), to the displeasure of the fans. He also won six poles and had seven top fives and twelve top ten finishes but finished a disappointing 16th in the final standings.
In the 2007 season, Busch had two wins, one pole, scored five top-fives, and ten-top tens through 26 races and qualified for the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Busch's on-track performance increased noticeably after the addition of Pat Tryson as his crew chief mid-way through the season.
In 2008, in order to make sure rookie Sam Hornish Jr. would be guaranteed a starting spot in the season's first five races the points from Busch's No. 2 car were transferred over to the No. 77 car driven by Hornish. This stripped Busch of his guaranteed starting spot for the season's first five races, but Busch was still assured of starting the first five races because he was the most recent former NASCAR Sprint Cup champion driver not in the top 35 of owner's points from the previous season.
On June 29th, Busch broke a 29-race winless streak at New Hampshire Motor Speedway when the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 was called due to rain on lap 284. It was his fourth win since joining Penske Racing and 18th overall. In August, it was announced that Ryan Newman, Kurt's Penske teammate, was to drive the No. 66 (renumbered the No. 39 in September) U.S. Army Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing.
His 2009 season began with a firm start, with an 8th place finish in the Bud Shootout. However, on Lap 124 of the 2009 Daytona 500, he was involved in The Big One when Dale Earnhardt Jr. swerved into Brian Vickers. Vickers shot up and hit the wall, ricocheting into Denny Hamlin, who came down into the older Busch. He then spun into the grass (along with 8 other drivers). Busch made numerous pit stops to repair the car, and amazingly finished tenth. Busch then qualified fourth for the season's second race at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. He ran in the top five most of the race and finished fifth. This vaulted him up eight spots in the standings to third. Busch crushed the field at the 2009 Kobalt Tools 500, leading 235 of 325 laps and getting his nineteenth Sprint Cup Series victory. The win, however, didn't garner as much attention for Busch as his postrace celebration did. Following the race Busch took the checkered flag from the flag stand and drove around the Atlanta oval in reverse, hanging the flag out of the side of the car while doing this.
Personal life
Busch became engaged to girlfriend, Eva Bryan, while attending the 2005 Hungarian Grand Prix. On July 27, 2006, during an off weekend following the Sprint Cup Pocono race. Kurt Busch and Eva Bryan were married in Virginia. The footage was taped and later aired on national television. The couple currently resides in North Carolina, and travels to racetracks each week together. Kurt's younger brother Kyle Busch also competes full-time in both the Sprint Cup Series, Nationwide series and runs part time in the Craftsman Truck Series. The Busch's have a dog, a Yorkshire Terrier named Ginger. They recently had another dog, a Cairn Terrier named Jim, who passed away in the summer of 2007. The Busch's and their dog are featured in the NASCAR Pets calendar. Busch is also an avid fan of the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago Bears.
Busch made a cameo appearance on America's Most Wanted with John Walsh. Busch was interviewed by Walsh in the episode.
Season statistics
|(2009 Season underway-4 races completed)
* - of 36 races
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Victories
2009
2008
- Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway - June 29, 2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
To date, Busch has won at Bristol five times (most recently in 2006). That ties him with Jeff Gordon for the most wins at that track among active drivers.
NASCAR Nationwide Series Victories
2006
Kurt Busch has two career Nationwide series wins and one pole in only seven career starts, all in 2006, and at Texas, Kurt continued his infamous snow angel celebration.
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Victories
2000
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