Kurt Thomas Busch born in the city of Sin, Las Vegas, Nevada on August 4, 1978 is a second generation NASCAR driver. The Chicago Cubs fan was recently married in Virginia in 2006 and currently lives in North Carolina with their dogs. Like many other NASCAR drivers, Busch started off racing in go-karts but when he moved on to the Dwarf Car Series in Las Vegas that spurred him onto bigger things. In that period of time (1995-2000), Busch won championships in the Dwarf and Hobby Stock leagues in 1995 and 1996. In 1998 Busch was awarded Rookie of the Year in the Southwest touring Series and won the league's championship which gave him the opportunity for his debut to Trucks. Busch was then resourced by the Star Nursery team in 1999 when a tragedy happened to Chris Trickle who was shot mysteriously. Busch won the AutoZone Elite Division Southwest Series championship during the same year.
One of those bigger things that happened was when Jack Roush hired him to run a full Craftsman Truck Series schedule and a handful of cup races in 2000. It only took Kurt 6 years to go from Dwarf Car rookie of the year to competing with the big dogs of NASCAR. This caused a build up of tension when Roush invited him to race in the Winston Cup Series while bypassing Busch's more qualified teammate, Greg Biffle. He was named Truck Rookie of the Year the same year after his four wins and finishing in the top 20 in a limited Cup Schedule. With all those claims to victory under his belt, Roush placed Busch to NASCAR's top series full time in 2001. The year after that, Busch won his first Cup race at Bristol and won three more races that season. Fast-forwarding a couple of years later, Busch won the NASCAR's inaugural Chase for the Nextel Cup.
In 2002, Busch garnered more attention on the Winston Cup Series and finished the season exceedingly well with winning three out of final five races, finishing third and sixth. 2003 called for attention too but not all good publicity. Busch and driver, Jimmy Spencer, had a rough patch after a public throw down which caused both drivers to be fined and placed on probation for the rest of the year. The action caused a lot of damage to Busch's reputation and he was losing fans as a result of the fight.
The deep sea fishing enthusiast shares a friendly competitive streak with his brother, Kyle Busch. Though the both of them are close, they compete fiercely on the tracks. Kurt was quoted as saying during Tuesday's Jackson Hewitt Preseason Thunder testing "We don't really spend much time together but we do care for each other and we love each other to death.....yet, we want to beat each other into the ground at the racetrack, seeing who's going to come out on top". The younger Busch brother, Kyle, who is younger than Kurt by 7 years, also shares data with Kurt on techniques and the like but they never share their setup numbers. Kurt believes that's why the brother's relationship is strong and it gets stronger by the day.
Busch has since founded the Kurt Busch Foundation that aims to support organizations that are involved in the areas of health care, education, career training and rehabilitation. He founded the foundation to make a difference for people and programs in need. The foundation is currently in the works of building up a facility in venture with Victory Junction Gang Camp. The facility will hold a baseball field, swimming pool, golf simulator, archery range and tennis court for children. This philanthropist plans to be involved with the development and to be actively interacting with the children.
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