Asking Kyle Busch to rank his 222 NASCAR victories is a fool’s errand. It’s like asking Tom Brady to rank his seven Super Bowl victories or asking a new mother which of the newborn twins is her favorite.
Each is special in its own way… unique and unforgettable for all time.
In Busch’s case, the first of his 59 Cup Series victories in the 2005 S0ny HD 500 at California Speedway will land somewhere among his top-25. “There have been so many,” the two-time Cup champion said, and not in a boastful way. “The first ones (in each of NASCAR’s top three series) are special because they’re the first. Fontana was extra sweet because of what had happened there before, but it’s hard to actually give it a ranking. It was special, for sure.”
In November of 2001, as a 16-year-old short-track hotshot from Las Vegas, the younger Busch brother was banned from Fontana’s 100-lap, 200-mile Camping World Truck Series race. Team owner Jack Roush had to pull Busch because he was too young (18 was the minimum) for a “big-track” race. With his Truck team already on hand, Roush replaced Busch in the No. 99 Ford with California native Tim Woods.
Three years later, in September of 2004, Busch was back at Fontana, this time driving the No. 84 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. In just his third career Cup start, the 18-year-old future superstar started 18th and finished a lap-down 24th with crew chief Gary DeHart.
In February of 2005, now fully entrenched as a Cup regular, Busch won the pole, but finished a lap-down 23rd in another 500-miler for Rick Hendrick and crew chief Alan Gustafson. It was a tiny improvement over Busch’s previous Fontana runs, but nevertheless a sign of things to come.
Later that same ’05 season, in September, Busch finally broke through. In his 31st career start, he qualified 25th, then led 95 of the 254 laps (the race went overtime) for his first Cup victory with Gustafson calling the shots. Ten starts and less than three months later, Busch led 63 laps to win at Phoenix and lock up Rookie of the Year over winless Travis Kvapil.
“There was a lot of redemption with that first win at Fontana,” said Busch, a four-time winner at the two-mile southern California track that will become a half-miler in 2022. “You know, from not being allowed to run the Truck race because I was too young to coming back and winning in just my third time there. As it’s turned out, I’ve had pretty good success there. I enjoy going out to California.”
“Pretty good” is an understatement. Busch has 11 top-5 finishes, 17 top-10’s, and only one DNF in his 22 Fontana starts. He’s completed 99 percent of the available laps en route to an average finish of 9.6. (In addition to that first Chevy victory with Hendrick, he has three victories in Toyotas for Joe Gibbs Racing). He’s been top-10 in nine of his last 10 starts there (including three victories) and had nine consecutive top-10 finishes during another 10-race stretch early in his career.
He surprised himself with that first Cup victory on Labor Day weekend of 2005. His No. 5 Carquest Chevrolet was nothing special in the early stages, but got better as the warm afternoon moved into a slightly cooler night. He had a comfortable lead and was virtually home-free until a debris caution in the final laps let the field catch up.
After calling for four tires under caution, Gustafson calmly switched to rights-only because Busch had stopped too close to the wall for a left-side change. He restarted third with 14 laps remaining, and despite the two-tire handicap, easily passed Jeff Green and Robby Gordon and into the lead for good.
“I didn’t think we had a winning car at first,” Busch recalled. “But it suddenly got better about halfway through the race. It was outrunning some of the guys who were the superstars of the series at the time. I was ahead of (spring race winner) Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth, two of Roush’s guys back when that was a powerhouse team.”
When a late caution bunched the field again and forced overtime, Busch never flinched. “I started feeling good with five laps to go, when the guys weren’t catching me (before the last caution),” he said. “But I didn’t know I had it won until I came off Turn 4 on the last overtime lap and nobody was there.” (Biffle was close, but not nearly close enough; the MOV was a half-second). “It was really cool to be able to do my first burnout and celebrate with all the flashbulbs and lights and the speedway’s fireworks.”
At 20 years, 4 months, and 2 days, Busch at Fontana became NASCAR’s youngest Cup winner. At 19 years, 1 month, and 4 days, Joey Logano took that distinction by winning the rain-shortened race at Loudon, New Hampshire in June of 2009. At 20 years and 1 day, Trevor Bayne became NASCAR’s second-youngest winner at the 2011 Daytona 500.
Busch’s overall NASCAR resume' is nothing short of sensational. He’s won 59 Cup races, 102 Xfinity races, and 61 Camping World races. There were years when Busch ran two or three races almost every weekend—sometimes at different venues—and generally won at least one of them. His 222 victories might be closer to 250 if NASCAR hadn’t limited full-time, experienced Cup drivers to a few lower-series races each season.
There once was talk that Busch’s private goal was 300 NASCAR victories over three series, a goal that now seems unattainable. No surprise here: he’s not happy about the rule limiting Cup drivers to five Xfinity and Truck races a year. Busch says it’s important for him to run more races to help fund Kyle Busch Motorsports as it fields cars and trucks for young drivers hoping to move up. Also, no surprise here: NASCAR seems disinclined to soften that rule.
But Wait … There’s More
• Kyle (2015 and 2019) and Kurt Busch (2004) are among two sets of brothers to win Cup Series championships, along with Terry (1984 and 1998) and Bobby Labonte (2000). Kyle (2009) and Bobby (1991) also won Xfinity Series championships.
• Kyle holds the NASCAR record for Xfinity Series victories (102) and Camping World Truck Series victories (61). He’s 53 ahead of Mark Martin (retired) in Xfinity and 10 ahead of Ron Hornaday (also retired) in Camping World. He’s “only” 141 behind Richard Petty (retired with 200 victories) in the Cup Series.
• Jimmie Johnson (2002) and Kyle Busch (2005) are the only Cup Series drivers to record their first career victory at California (Auto Club) Speedway. All told, 18 different drivers have been to victory lane in the 31 races since it opened in 1997.
