Kurt Busch
Kurt Busch was born in Las Vegas, Nevada on August 4, 1978 and is well known as a NASCAR driver. In the Nextel Cup Series he pilots the #2 Miller Lite Dodge and on a part time basis drives the #39 Penske Truck Rental Dodge in the Busch Series. The first NASCAR championship that Kurt won was in 2004, and in 2005 he drove the #97 Sharpie/Irwin Industrial Tools Ford for Roush Racing. With a win in the Busch Series he became one of sixteen drivers to win the top three NASCAR divisions.
Kurt Busch gained his first national exposure in 1998 at the Tucson Raceway Park during the Winter Heat Series, and following the tragic death of Chris Trickle who was killed in a drive-by shooting, Busch was accepted into the team where he proceeded to win the 1999 AutoZone Elite Division Southwest Series championship.
In 2000, at the age of 21 years, Busch started racing on the Winston Cup circuit. Here he drove in seven races but had dismal year-ends with no wins, no top five’s or top ten’s, finishing 48th altogether. In 2001 Kurt Busch ran for rookie of the year honors but won no races, however he did receive 3 top 5’s and 6 top 10’s. Kurt also achieved his first pole positioning when he gave the quickest qualifying lap in the Mountain Dew Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway and finished the year in 27th position. Busch almost won the 2002 championship finishing 3rd that year. The next year was inconsistent with good wins and bad losses, and was made worse with his continuing feud with fellow driver, Jimmy Spencer.
In 2004 Busch became the second driver to sweep both races at Loudon in one season. His achievements for the season included three wins, two poles, 10 top-fives, 21 top-tens and winning the inaugural NASCAR Nextel Cup Championship. Midway through 2005, Busch made known that he would moving from Roush Racing to drive the #2 Miller Lite Dodge for Penske Racing South (now Penske Championship Racing). He claimed three wins during 2005, with nine top-fives and 18 top-tens, finishing 10th in the final standings.
Driving for Penske in the 2006 season, Busch scored one win at Bristol Motor Speedway, being his fifth win at the track. He also earned six poles, 7 top-fives and 12 top-tens, finishing 16th in the final standings. In 2007 he qualified for the Chase for the Sprint Cup, as well as clocking up two wins, one pole, 5 top-fives and 10 top-tens. 2008 saw some reshuffling of points in the Penske team to ensure Busch’s rookie team-mate Sam Hornish Jr clinched a starting spot in the first five races of the season. Busch claimed his fourth win for Penske Racing when he was in the lead of the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 that was called on lap 284 due to rain.
2009 got off to a bad start with a multi-car wreck at the 2009 Daytona 500 in which Busch’s car was damaged. He nevertheless managed to finish tenth. He went on to qualify fourth for the second race of the season at Fontana’s Auto Club Speedway, where he ran in the top five for most of the race, finishing fifth. Later in the year he claimed victory at the 2009 Kobalt Tools 500 after leading 235 of the race’s 325 laps. By March 2010, Kurt Busch had achieved four starts, one win, one pole, one top-five and 2 top-tens for the season, as he continues to drive for Penske Racing alongside team-mates Brad Keselowski and Sam Hornish.