A Las Vegas short-track racer who won the inaugural Chase, the Daytona 500 and 34 Cup races before retiring from full-time competition.
Busch raced in the NASCAR Cup Series from 2000 to 2022 and won 34 races. His 2004 title came in the first Chase season, and he won the 2017 Daytona 500. Born in 1978, he is the brother of Kyle Busch.
Kurt Busch is a retired American stock car driver who won the NASCAR Cup Series championship in 2004 and the Daytona 500 in 2017. He raced full time in the Cup Series from 2000 until 2022, collecting 34 wins with several organisations. His career combined sharp short-track instincts with a reputation for confrontation that followed him through several teams.
Who is Kurt Busch?
Kurt Thomas Busch was born on 4 August 1978 in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is a retired NASCAR Cup Series driver whose last full-time car was the No. 45 Toyota Camry for 23XI Racing. He won the 2004 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series championship and the 2017 Daytona 500, and he is the older brother of the late Kyle Busch.
He is one of a small group of drivers to have won races in all three of NASCAR's top national divisions: the Cup Series, the Xfinity Series and the Camping World Truck Series. He also raced at the Indianapolis 500 and the 24 Hours of Daytona, and in 2023 he was named one of NASCAR's 75 Greatest Drivers.
A short-track racer who became a Cup champion, Daytona 500 winner and one of the few drivers to win in all three national series.
How did Busch start his racing career?
At 14 Busch was already racing a dwarf car at Pahrump Valley Speedway, a start his father had made possible. His first big opportunity came after Chris Trickle, a promising driver, was critically injured in a shooting that was never solved. Busch stepped into Trickle's No. 70 team and earned national attention in the 1997 Winter Heat Series at Tucson Speedway.
Success followed in the NASCAR AutoZone Elite Division's Southwest Series, where he was Rookie of the Year in 1998 and champion in 1999. That run earned him a place in the Roush Racing development programme, which gave him a Craftsman Truck Series ride in the No. 99 Ford F-150. He won four races there and finished second in the standings to teammate Greg Biffle, earning Rookie of the Year honours.
What did Busch achieve in his early Cup years?
Busch moved to the Cup Series in 2000 with Roush Racing, replacing Chad Little in the No. 97 Ford. His first full season in 2001 brought a best finish of third at Talladega and fifth in the Brickyard 400, and he finished second to Kevin Harvick in the Rookie of the Year standings.
The 2001 Daytona 500 is remembered for a door-to-door clash with Dale Earnhardt at 185 mph, which led to a gesture from Earnhardt and a famous broadcast remark. Busch said later that it was his only on-track contact with Earnhardt, who died in a crash on the final lap of that race.
The breakthrough came in 2002. He won the Food City 500 at Bristol, then added Martinsville, Atlanta and the Homestead finale, which gave him four wins that season. He also recorded twelve top-five and twenty top-ten finishes and finished third in the points, with US$5,105,394 in prize money. He became the first driver to win the most races in a first winning season, a record later matched by Carl Edwards in 2005.
The 2003 season produced four wins and a sweep at Bristol, although a slide down the points left him eleventh. That year he was also part of the closest finish in NASCAR history at the time, at Darlington. He and Ricky Craven exchanged the lead repeatedly, and Craven edged him by just .002 seconds.
How did Busch win the 2004 NASCAR championship?
Busch took the 2004 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series crown in the Chase's debut season, with three wins and two poles. The title was settled at Homestead, where a loose wheel on his car nearly ended his hopes when it came off on lap 93, but he recovered to take the title.
His Bristol form that season was strong. He won the Food City 500 in March, his third straight victory at that event, and he also became the second driver to sweep both New Hampshire races in a single season. He finished the year with ten top-five and 21 top-ten finishes, a consistency that proved decisive in the new format.
Why did Busch leave Roush for Penske Racing?
Midway through 2005, Busch announced he would leave Roush Racing at the end of the year to replace Rusty Wallace at Penske Racing. Roush was at first unhappy, but the picture shifted once Chip Ganassi Racing said Jamie McMurray wanted to move to Roush. Roush released Busch once it was clear he had already signed with Roger Penske.
At Penske, Busch won at Bristol in 2006, a race celebrated when he made a snow angel on the track after a snowy weekend. He also won at Watkins Glen that year and added a Busch Series win at Texas in his first race for the team. The 2007 season brought two wins and a place in the Chase, and his performance improved once Pat Tryson joined as crew chief.
The 2008 Daytona 500 was a notable team moment. On the final lap, he pushed teammate Ryan Newman past Joe Gibbs Racing drivers to win, giving Penske its first Daytona 500. A few months later he ended a 29-race winless streak at New Hampshire, his first win since 2007 and his eighteenth career victory.
The 2009 season was productive. He led 235 of 325 laps to win the Kobalt Tools 500 for his 19th Cup victory, and he finished fourth in the standings, the highest-placed driver outside Hendrick Motorsports. Steve Addington took over as crew chief in 2010, and that year Busch won the All-Star Race and the Coca-Cola 600 in the same season.
How did Busch's time at Penske end?
Busch's Penske tenure ended on 5 December 2011 after a difficult final season. He won the Dover race that October, his last win for the team, but his conduct across the year drew attention. NASCAR fined him US$50,000 after an incident with an ESPN cameraman during the finale, and the team later apologised for his actions.
During the 2011 season he had also been involved in a confrontation with a NASCAR.com reporter, and a profanity-laced rant on his in-car radio at Richmond had drawn criticism earlier that year. He later said he had been working with a sports psychologist to address personal issues. Penske described the parting as mutual, though many observers believed it was a firing.
How did Busch rebuild his career with new teams?
Busch joined Phoenix Racing for 2012 in the No. 51 Chevrolet, and at Talladega that year he ran a Ricky Bobby paint scheme from the film Talladega Nights. He finished twentieth in that race after spinning and driving backwards down pit road, and he was later fined US$50,000 and placed on probation following a Darlington incident.
Furniture Row Racing signed him for 2013, and he posted a strong season with a Richmond second place, a Kansas second in the Chase and a tenth-place finish in the standings. He moved to Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014 in the No. 41 Chevrolet, and at Martinsville that spring he won the STP 500, his first victory since 2011.
The 2015 season began with an indefinite NASCAR suspension in February after a Delaware family court found it more likely than not that he had abused a former girlfriend. The suspension was lifted in March after prosecutors found there was insufficient evidence for a criminal case. He returned to win at Richmond and Michigan that year.
What did Busch win with each team?
Busch's wins are spread across several organisations, with his biggest individual highlights at Roush, Penske and Stewart-Haas, and a longer stay with Chip Ganassi Racing and 23XI Racing late in his career. The table summarises the notable points in each phase of his Cup career.
| Team | Seasons | Notable results |
|---|---|---|
| Roush Racing | 2000 to 2005 | 2002 four wins; 2004 Cup title with three wins and two poles |
| Penske Racing | 2006 to 2011 | 2008 Daytona 500 push for Ryan Newman; Dover win in 2011 |
| Phoenix Racing | 2012 | Ricky Bobby tribute at Talladega; No. 51 Chevrolet |
| Furniture Row Racing | 2013 | Richmond second; tenth in the standings |
| Stewart-Haas Racing | 2014 to 2018 | Martinsville win in 2014; 2017 Daytona 500; seventh in 2018 |
| Chip Ganassi Racing | 2019 to 2021 | Kentucky win in 2019; Las Vegas win and 32nd career victory in 2020 |
| 23XI Racing | 2022 | Kansas win, his final Cup victory |
The Stewart-Haas years included a Bristol night race win in 2018 that ended a 58-race winless run, and a Round of 8 run that ended at Phoenix. At Chip Ganassi Racing he claimed a Kentucky win over his brother Kyle, and in 2020 his Las Vegas victory was his 32nd in the Cup Series.
What has Busch done since leaving full-time racing?
Busch stepped away from full-time Cup competition after 2022, when a Pocono crash left him unable to race the final five regular-season events. He missed the playoffs for the first time since 2012. He first announced he would retire from full-time racing in October 2022, then confirmed on 26 August 2023 that he was done with full-time Cup racing.
He has continued in other disciplines. He began NHRA training in January 2011 with Allen Johnson and made his drag racing debut at the Gatornationals on 10 March 2011, losing to Erica Enders by 0.004 seconds in his first elimination round. He became only the fourth driver to move from NASCAR to NHRA. He also competed in the Race of Champions for Team USA in 2014 and 2017, and returned to that event in 2025 after medical clearance.
In 2026 he was elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, the Class of 2026. The same year brought the death of his brother Kyle, who died on 21 May 2026. The Busch family was honoured before the Coca-Cola 600, and Kurt marked his brother's final number with eight flowers in the infield.
