Kurt Busch

He closed the season with a 21st-place finish at the postponed event at New Hampshire, finishing 27th in points and second behind Kevin Harvick for Cup rookie of the year.

Kurt Thomas Busch (born August 4, 1978) is an American auto racing driver.

He last competed full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2022, driving the No. 45 Toyota Camry TRD for 23XI Racing.

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 NASCAR 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 raced the No. 99 Ford F-150.

He won four races and finished runner-up to teammate Greg Biffle in the championship standings, as well as winning Rookie of the Year honors.

Busch has driven for Chip Ganassi Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing, Furniture Row Racing, Phoenix Racing, Penske Racing, and Roush Racing in his Cup career, which began in 2000.

He is the winner of thirty-four Cup races and won his championship in the first season using the "Chase for the Cup" points format.

Roush Racing announced during the 2000 season that Busch was being promoted to the Winston Cup Series to replace Chad Little in Roush's No. 97 Ford for the 2001 season.

Little ended up being released early, and Busch took over the No. 97 John Deere-sponsored Ford at Dover in September 2000.

Busch ran seven of the final eight races (Little drove at Talladega) with crew chief Jeff Hammond.

Busch began the 2001 season driving an unsponsored car after John Deere pulled out of sponsoring the 97 following the 2000 season.

Roush would eventually sign Rubbermaid to a multi-year sponsorship contract later in the year, with its Sharpie marker brand carried as Busch's primary sponsor.

scored three Top 5's and six Top 10's that year.

During the 2001 Daytona 500, he and Dale Earnhardt made door-to-door contact on lap 85, and Earnhardt responded by giving Busch the finger out of his driver's side window at 185 mph; the Fox Sports replay cameras caught this, leading broadcaster Mike Joy to remark "Kurt, you're number one."

To this day, Busch recalls this as the only time he encountered Earnhardt, who was killed in a crash on the last lap of that race, on the track.

Busch was the last remaining driver to compete against Earnhardt in a Cup race when he retired.

Busch scored his best finish of 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 Indianapolis.

He also had some unlucky breaks over the course of the year, especially in the second half where he crashed out of the Southern 500 at Darlington, where he led 74 laps; at Martinsville, where he let 38 laps before cutting a tire in heavy traffic, which ended up causing significant damage to the race car; at Rockingham, where he battled overheating issues despite leading 45 laps; and in the penultimate race at Atlanta, where he failed to qualify.

The 2002 season was Busch's breakout year in the Winston Cup Series.

He claimed 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, 12 Top 5's, 20 Top 10's, and one pole, all of which would allow him to finish third in the final standings for the year.

He finished the season particularly strong, winning three of the final five races and finishing third and sixth, and leading many laps in the next two.

He is the 2004 NASCAR Cup Series champion and the 2017 Daytona 500 winner.

He is the older brother of two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Busch.

With a 2006 win in the Busch Series, he became one of only 36 drivers to win races in all three of NASCAR's top divisions: the Cup Series, the Xfinity Series, and the Camping World Truck Series.

His early career received significant media attention as his aggressive driving style led to incidents with other competitors, while also having confrontations with his team members and members of the media itself.

His later career saw him gain a reputation for helping his race teams improve their programs over time, and is the only driver to have won at the Cup level for the four manufacturers (in order) Ford, Dodge, Chevrolet and Toyota.

In addition to his stock car racing career, Busch has also raced in the Indianapolis 500, the 24 Hours of Daytona, and in the National Hot Rod Association.

In 2023, he was named to NASCAR's 75 Greatest Drivers.

Busch's first racing experience was in a Dwarf car at age 14 at Pahrump Valley Speedway.

He was put in the Dwarf car by his father.

Busch also dabbled in IMCA Modified racing.

Busch earned his big break after Chris Trickle was wounded in an unsolved shooting.

(Trickle would die of the injuries over a year later.) The Star Nursery team looked for a new driver to replace Trickle for the No. 70 team.

Busch's best finish was a 13th-place finish at Charlotte.