FANTASY NASCAR Racin

an American NASCAR and occasional NHRA driver. He is a second-generation racing driver; his father, Tom, won several NASCAR-sanctioned events. He is the older brother of 2015 NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch. Busch was born to Thomas and Gaye Busch in Las Vegas, Nevada. At the age of six, Busch was accompanying his father to the track and driving go-carts himself. As an underage teenager, he competed in Dwarf competition winning in just his second race, at the Las Vegas Speedway Park. This father and son team competed at western tracks from Southern California to Utah. In 1994, his first full year as a driver, Busch won ten consecutive races at ten different tracks. His father eventually sold their dwarf equipment and purchased a powerful car for the Legends Series, which Busch began driving in 1996 at age 18. Busch earned his big break after Chris Trickle was wounded in an unsolved shooting. (Trickle would die of the injuries over a year later. Chris was the nephew of

NASCAR Cup driver Dick Trickle). The Star Nursery team looked for a new driver to replace Trickle for the #70 team. Busch gained national exposure while competing against Ron Hornaday, Jr., Matt Crafton, Greg Biffle, Kevin Harvick and others for the first time in the 1997 Winter Heat Series at Tucson Raceway Park. Busch's team went on to win the 1998 Auto Zone 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 NASCAR

Ford at Dover in September 2000. Busch ran seven of the final eight races (Little drove at Talladega) with crew chief Jeff Hammond. Busch's best finish was a 13th-place finish at Charlotte. Busch took over the #97 full-time in 2001, and ran for Rookie of the Year honors. After John Deere left the team, the #97 began the 2001 season unsponsored. After the team signed Rubbermaid to a multi-year contract later in the spring, Busch scored three Top 5's and six Top 10 finishes that year. Sharpie /RubberMaid would remain as Busch's sponsor through 2005. Busch's best finish was third at the spring Talladega race, which was three weeks after scoring his first career Top 5 finish at Texas (fourth), and he added a fifth-place in the Brickyard 400 at Indy. 2002 was Busch's breakout year in the Cup Series. He won his first victory in the Food City 500 at Bristol, after battling hard with rival Jimmy Spencer

on worn tires. Busch added a second win at Martinsville in October and then won at Atlanta the next week and in the season finale at Homestead. This gave Busch four wins, twelve Top 5's, and 22 Top 10 finishes, and one pole, all of which would allow him to finish third in the final standings for the year. Busch had an "up and down" year in 2003, finishing eleventh in the season's points standings, earning four wins (including a season sweep at Bristol, making him the first driver to do that since Rusty Wallace accomplished the feat in 2000) Busch was the runner-up finisher in what was the closest finish in all of NASCAR history – this was the Carolina Dodge Dealers 400, held at Darlington on March 16 of that year. The race in this old race track was decided with a two-lap side-by-side battle between him and

that race for the third consecutive year), and became the second driver to win both races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in a single season. He scored ten Top 5's and 21 Top 10 finishes. 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 Dodge for Penske Racing South. Initially, Roush was unhappy with Busch's decision to leave his team but when Chip Ganassi Racing announced that Jamie McMurray wanted to join Roush Racing in 2006, Roush agreed to let Busch go. Busch won three races during the 2005 season, along with nine Top 5's and 18 Top 10 finishes in 34 races. He finished tenth in the final points standings. 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, due to snow that had fallen at the track that weekend. He also won six poles and had seven top fives and twelve top ten finishes but finished 16th in the final standings. He also made his Xfinity Series debut Penske in the #39 Dodge at Texas Motor Speedway, winning in his first race. 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 midway through the season. At the 2008 Daytona 500, Busch was contending to win and had a fast car on the final lap capable to win. He and his teammate Ryan Newman got

win less streak at New Hampshire Motor Speedway when the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 was called due to rain on lap 284. It was his first win since Michigan's late summer race in 2007, and his fourth win since joining Penske Racing and 18th overall. He began his 2009 season at the 2009 Daytona 500, he was involved in a wreck on lap 124. At Las Vegas he and his younger brother Kyle had a touching moment when Kyle Busch won at Las Vegas, their hometown. In victory circle, Kurt came in and shared a big hug with Kyle. Legendary driver and NASCAR announcer Darrell Waltrip called it "The most touching thing I have ever seen". He remained in the top five in points for the rest of the season. He qualified for the

Chase, and ended up fourth in the standings, the highest-ranked car that was not under the Hendrick Motorsports banner. On May 22, 2010, Busch won the 26th Annual NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race. He then followed it up by winning the Coca-Cola 600 the following weekend, becoming only the seventh driver to win both in the same year. Busch eventually made the Chase being seeded fifth in points. Busch would finish out the season eleventh among the Chase contenders. Brad Keselowski had been added to Roger Penske's team in 2010 and in 2011, Busch and Keselowski swapped teams and crews. Busch won the pole for and led most of the race at Kansas, for 152 laps. However, a fuel pickup issue late hurt his chances of winning. Teammate Brad Keselowski took the win. However, a few weeks later on June 26, Kurt finally got an elusive road course victory at Infineon Raceway. Not only

limited Xfinity Series schedule for the team, while running additional Xfinity Series races for Kyle Busch Motorsports, sharing the #54 car with his younger brother. At the 2012 Aaron's 499 at Talladega, Busch paid homage to the 2006 racing comedy "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" by running his #51 car with the paint scheme of RickyBobby's #62 "ME" Cougar car from the movie, causing NASCAR on Fox commentators Mike Joy, Larry McReynolds and Darrell Waltrip to jokingly refer to Busch as "Ricky Bobby" throughout the race, and Busch also dropped movie lines into radio chatter with his spotter and crew chief. Busch's girlfriend spent months getting permission from Sony and Will Ferrell as well as other trademark and license holders. At Darlington, Busch was turned with Ryan Newman, and both drivers' days were ended. On pit road Busch gestured and did a burnout in

front of Newman, leaving one of Newman's pit crew members to have to jump to avoid being hit by Busch's car. Busch was fined $50,000 and put on a five-race probation for driving recklessly through Newman's pit stall. Newman was not penalized. On June 4, 2012, Busch feuded with Justin Allgaier at the Xfinity event at Dover and after talking to his boss and brother Kyle. When asked by Bob Pockrass about being on probation, Busch said, "It refrains me from not beating the shit out of you right now because you ask me stupid questions. But since I'm on probation, I suppose that's improper to say as well. If you can talk about racing things, we'll talk about many things, Bob. It is not racing, you're here just to start stuff, you know that's you're all out here for!" NASCAR immediately suspended Busch from the Pocono race as a result for violating their policy

that 2012 had - driving with a new team, in this case, Furniture Row Racing. During his stint driving for Barney Visser; Busch's best finish would come at Richmond when he finished second. He would be competitive in the car as he posted 11 top five finishes; including finishing in the top three on five occasions. Tony Stewart and Gene Haas teamed together to form Stewart-Haas racing beginning in 2014 and Kurt Busch was one of their first picks as a driver. Busch had his outbreaking race for his new team at Fontana. He led a bit of the race after Jimmie Johnson blew a tire with 7 laps to go. He led on the restart against teammate Tony Stewart but lost the lead on the final lap after allowing Kyle Busch to slip past and win. The next week at the STP 500, on lap 43, Busch collided with Brad

Keselowski on pit road during a caution, causing massive damage to Keselowski's car. There would be several instances of beating and banging between the two drivers after Keselowski car was repaired and came out of the garage. By the end of the race, Busch was battling Jimmie Johnson for the lead in the final 27 laps. Busch took the lead with 11 laps remaining, and kept it to win his first race since 2011, and first at Martinsville since 2002. On Memorial Day weekend; Kurt became one of the few drivers to "do the double". Race at both the Indy 50 and Coke 600 on the same day. He would show his raw talent as a race car driver showing how smooth and fast he could be at the tricky track of Indianapolis. He qualified 12th and ran at the front all day. It even looked like he had a good enough

Johnson with nine laps to go. He went below the yellow line by accident and improved his spot. He was given a stop-and-go-penalty by officials which sent him to the back of the field for the final results. On February 20, Busch was indefinitely suspended by NASCAR after a Delaware family court cited "more likely than not" that Busch had abused his ex-girlfriend, Patricia Driscoll. Regan Smith replaced him for the Daytona 500 along with the races held at Atlanta and Las Vegas. On March 11, NASCAR lifted Busch's indefinite suspension, making him eligible to compete again, starting with the CampingWorld.com 500 at Phoenix. Additionally, Busch was granted a waiver by

NASCAR, making him still eligible for the Chase if he won a race between then and the autumn Richmond event. When it was all said and done; it was proven that Driscoll had made false allegations; and in fact she was indicted for stealing from a military charity she used to run. An 11 page indictment handed down charged Driscoll with "misappropriation of more than $599,000 for the years of 2006-2014". It stated she had "used the Armed Forces foundation's money to pay for her personal bills, diverted foundation funds to her personal bank account and lying to the Internal Revenue service". Busch would finish 8th in 2015 championship points despite missing the first three races of the season, scoring 21 Top 10's and 3 poles. Busch started off the 2016 season bringing home a 10th-place finish in the Daytona 500 and winning two

ten in points throughout the year and finished 7th in the championship standings. In 2017; Busch went to drive for Stewart-Haas and wheel the Monster Energy #41. He kicked off the season on a high note. He swept past Kyle Larson on the final lap to lead his only lap and collect the Daytona 500 win. His win automatically qualified him for the Chase; but he only posted six Top 5's all season. In the Chase he was eliminated in the first round and finished 14th in the points. 2018 saw the marriage between Busch and Stewart-Haas continued to bear fruit in 2018. Busch won at Bristol securing his spot in the Chase. He also posed six Top 5 finishes along with 22 Top 10's. In the Chase he had a chance to make it to the finals at Homestead; but a dust-up between he; Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott ended all their chances. Busch would go on to finish seventh in the points. At seasons end, he chose to

step away from his ride at Stewart-Haas and go to drive the Chevy at Chip Ganassi Racing for 2019 in the ride vacated by Jamie McMurray. Busch seemed to bring renewed vitality to the Ganassi race team. He ran well and he seemed to be able to help his team mate Kyle Larson step up his game. An improvement that really showed in the second half of the season. Kurt finished 25th in the 'crap shoot' that is Daytona; but after that ran off a string of strong runs. He had three Top 5 finishes and eight top 10's in the next eleven events; with his worst finish being 13th. He posted two second place results before breaking through to win at Kentucky in July. That put him in the

run and only have one finish worse than ninth over the next nine races. The team posted solid runs the rest of the season, outside of when they got caught up in an accident. He managed to make it to the Chase via points; and ran well in the Chase. He broke through for his first win at Las Vegas; his home track where he had been wanting badly to win for years. In the third round of the Chase, he blew a motor at Kansas; which cost him any chance of advancing to the Championship race. For the season he had the lone win; but posted seven Top 5 and 19 Top 10 finishes. He was back with Ganassi in 2021 and Ross Chastain was his new team mate as Matt Kenseth had decided to retire. 2021 was an interesting season. He only had two Top 10 finishes in the first 15 races. He had

good runs; but had issues posting good finishes. He broke through and won in Atlanta’s second race of 2021. This was eight years in a row Kurt has won at least one race. During the season; Chip Ganassi made a surprise announcement that he was getting out of NASCAR racing. He sold his entire team; charters; and all equipment to Track House Racing. Track House Racing kept Ross Chastain to drive for the following season and chose Daniel Suarez to fill the other seat. Busch was picked up by new team 23XI Racing to drive their second car. He was team mates with Bubba Wallace. Busch began his 2022 season with a 19th-place finish at the 2022 Daytona 500. Despite a promising start with top-five finishes at Phoenix and Atlanta, he suffered from poor finishes at COTA, Richmond,

now, Larsons crew had gotten his car tuned up, and he also had a stout ride. Kurt hounded Larson lap after lap; closing the gap a little at a time. Larson led for 24 laps; but with nine laps to go; Busch caught Larson and the two raced side by side. Busch got by Larson and went on to claim the checkered flag. Busch finished third at Gateway; and had a second at Nashville. During qualifying at Pocono; his car spun and backed into the wall. Busch climbed out and made the mandatory trip to the infield care center. When race day rolled around he wasn't cleared to race because he had received a concussion in the crash. Ty Gibbs was picked as a last minute replacement and would drive Busch's car the remainder of the year as his concussion symptoms lingered. Since he had won a race; he was locked into the Chase; but since

he wasn't able to race, he withdrew his request for a playoff waiver, marking the first time since 2012 that he missed the playoffs. On October 16, he announced he would step away from full-time competition in 2023, with the possibility of running the season on a part-time basis. The impact didn't seem very bad at the time. As you can see from the photo's below, the car didn't seem to receive much damage. Only the rear was crumpled in somewhat. NASCAR later discovered the chassis on the new NextGen car was too ridged; and the force of the impact was transferred to the driver. They changed the configuration to allow it to crumple more when it crashed. If Busch would be able to return, only time would tell; and we all wished Kurt the best. However, with continuing issues; on

August 26, 2023, Kurt announced that he was retiring from NASCAR Cup Series competition for good. While in Daytona for the Cup race; Sitting on the same stage where he celebrated one of his most memorable Cup series win (2017 Daytona 500); Busch, 45, held back tears as he called it quits. "My body is just having a battle with Father Time," Busch said, adding he has dealt with arthritis and gout while trying to recover from a rear-impact collision he says rattled his brain. "I'm very happy, complacent," he said. "There's nothing I look back on and regret about having this opportunity at the top level of NASCAR." "It's time for a new journey, and I'm excited to get

started". Busch said at the announcement that he continues to show incremental improvements and intends to return to racing one day but has no timetable for getting back behind the wheel. "Racing at NASCAR's highest level requires every bit of focus, heart, stamina and determination," Busch said. "And I know right now I can't give what's required to compete at that level week in and week out." He landed as a consultant for his old 23XI Racing and Toyota. He counseled Travis Pastrana at last year's Daytona 500 and has thrown his arms around anyone in the garage who needs advice. For his career, Busch has made 28 starts in the Truck Series with four wins; all coming in 2000 piloting the #99 Ford for Jack Roush. This was his only full time season in the Trucks and finished second in points. He moved from the Trucks

directly to full time in the Cup Series the following year. He posted three Top 5 finishes. The following year he claimed four wins; with his first career Cup win at Bristol. Over the years, he has run only part-time in the Xfinity series making 30 starts. He Won his first Xfinity race in 2006 at Texas driving for Roger Penske. He finished with five Xfinity wins; with his last coming at Daytona in a James Finch owned Chevy at Daytona. Busch raced 23 seasons in the Cup Series. He was the Champion in 2004; and has 34 wins in 776 starts. Busch had a great interest in racing in the Indy

500 again and also in the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona driving for Ganassi. Busch, along with his venture into racing the Indy cars; also spent some time drag racing. Busch began training in January 2011 under veteran NHRA Pro Stock driver Allen Johnson and obtained his NHRA Pro Stock competition license. He made his drag racing competition debut on March 10 at the 42nd annual Tire Kingdom Gatornationals in Gainesville. On March 12, Busch qualified in the Pro Stock field, and made his first professional drag racing Elimination-round start on March 13, losing to Erica Enders by 0.004 seconds. Busch is only the third driver to cross over between NASCAR and NHRA, the other two being Richard Petty and John Andretti (and in 2022 Tony Stewart). Some info from Wikipedia.

Fantasy NASCAR Racing

KURT THOMAS BUSCH - 08/04/1978