Kyle Thomas Busch (born May 2, 1985 in Las Vegas, Nevada) is an American race car driver. Currently, he drives the #5 Kellogg's/CARQUEST Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series as well as the #5 Chevrolet in the NASCAR Busch Series. He grew up racing at The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He is often nicknamed Shrub, since he is the younger brother of NASCAR driver Kurt Busch and a small bush is called a shrub.

At 16, Busch competed in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for Roush Racing as a replacement after the team's two drivers were released midway in the 2001 season, and earned two top-10 finishes in six starts what was scheduled to be a full-season campaign for 2002. (In 2000, NASCAR rules changed to permit a driver to make up to seven starts -- up from five -- in a season before becoming a full-time driver for rookie status.)

Busch was the fastest in practice for a 2001 Craftsman Truck Series race at California Speedway in Fontana, CA, when he was ejected from the track by CART officials because the American Racing Wheels 200 was part of a CART weekend featuring the Marlboro 500 CART FedEx Championship Series event. Marlboro threw Busch out of the garage because of an interpretation of the Master Settlement Agreement of 1998, prohibiting persons under 18 years of age in participating in events sponsored by tobacco companies. (The MSA also resulted in the benching in 2006 of then 17-year old Grand-Am Krohn Racing driver Colin Braun for three sportscar races held in conjunction with the Indy Racing League because Marlboro had an IRL sponsorship at the time.)

Six weeks after the incident, NASCAR imposed a minimum age of 18 years starting in 2002 to prevent future incidents from happening again, because Winston was the premier series sponsor. (For 2007, the rule has changed; Grand National (Busch East and AutoZone West) and Whelen Modified (North and South) Tours will now permit drivers as young as 16 to enter the races.)

When the age requirements were put in place, Busch switched from NASCAR to the American Speed Association (ASA) series, a Midwest based company that also aided in his success; in the 2002 season, Busch finished eighth in the championship points for the ASA series.

Busch ran 1 race in 2004 for Morgan-Dollar Motorsports in their #47 Acxiom Chevrolet Silverado.

Busch returned to the Craftsman Truck Series in 2005 for a limited number of races in Billy Ballew Motorsports's Chevrolet's, winning at Lowe's Motor Speedway, Dover International Speedway, and the fall race in Atlanta Motor Speedway, all 200-mile races. Busch became the youngest driver to win a Truck Series race, at 20 years 19 days.

Busch repeated his Lowe's victory in 2006 in a truck painted to resemble the Rowdy Burns car from Days of Thunder, in a tribute to Bobby Hamilton (who was the stunt driver for the character), who was in the midst of a cancer battle which would later take his life.

Upon turning 18, Busch partnered with Hendrick Motorsports to run a set of six NASCAR Busch Series races at selected tracks, running the #87 Ditech.com Chevrolet Monte Carlo for NEMCO Motorsports. During his seat time in that ride, Busch finished a Busch Series career-high second in his first NASCAR Busch Series race at the Lowe's Motor Speedway in May of 2003. He also teamed with Hendrick to run selected ARCA RE/MAX Series races, where he won races at the Kentucky Speedway and the Nashville Superspeedway, where he also started from the pole position (his other pole in 2003 was at Pocono). Kyle's first full-time season began in 2004, as he competed in the Lowe's car vacated by Brian Vickers, who had moved up to the NEXTEL Cup series. Busch easily clinched Rookie of the Year honors in the series, and clearly showed his stronghold on the Busch series with the start of the series-he received his first top-10 finish of the season at the second race in Rockingham, his first pole of the season in the fifth race, and claimed his first victory at the Richmond International Raceway at the Funai 250 in May. Busch went on to claim five wins in 2004, finishing second in the overall points to Martin Truex, Jr. and claiming the Rookie of the Year title. Kyle won the Carquest Auto Parts 300 at Lowe's Motor Speedway in 2005. Kyle won the Sharpie Mini 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2006. 2007 has been an interesting year for Busch. Two wins (Nicorette 300 at Altanta, Sam's Town 300 at LVMS) were in sight before mistakes put them out of contention. But on July 7, 2007, Busch finally capitalized and won his first ever race at Daytona with a win in the Winn-Dixie 250.He also won the Yellow Transportation 300 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas, his most recent Busch Series win.

Busch ran 6 races in 2004 in the #84 Carquest Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. His highest finish was 24th at California Speedway.

After the announcement that long time Hendrick NEXTEL Cup series driver Terry Labonte would be running a limited schedule in 2005 and 2006, Busch was picked to take over the #5 Kellogg's/Carquest Auto Parts Chevrolet Monte Carlo for Hendrick Motorsports.

He won his first Cup race at the Sony HD 500 at California Speedway in Fontana, California in September 2005, and is the youngest-ever winner in the NASCAR Cup Series, at 20 years, 125 days. He followed that up with another win two months later in November 2005 at Phoenix International Raceway. Busch clinched the 2005 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Rookie of the Year title before the end of the 2005 season.

A strong victory in the Lenox Industrial Tools 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway led to a strong showing during the last race before the 2006 Chase at Richmond International Raceway, in the Chevy Rock & Roll 400, where he finished second after leading the most laps. He entered the Chase for the NEXTEL Cup fourth in Cup points.

Kyle started mid-pack in the first race of the Chase at the New Hampshire International Speedway but got caught up in an incident on lap four when he made contact with #66 Best Buy Chevrolet of Jeff Green, and knocked the front suspension out of line, eventually spinning out and wrecking the car. Kyle followed up the next week at Dover International Speedway with an initially strong run before an engine failure took him out of the race. Kyle then went to the Kansas Speedway and led several laps before being caught for speeding on pit road and finished in the bottom half of the top-ten.

Kyle finished the season in tenth place in the 2006 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series standings, 448 points behind champion Jimmie Johnson. His winnings for the 2006 season totaled $5,537,337. Kyle is currently the youngest driver to make the NASCAR NEXTEL Chase for the Cup. He is also the youngest pole sitter in NEXTEL Cup history.

With his milestone win at the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, on March 25th, Kyle became the first NASCAR NEXTEL Cup driver to win in NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow. He also scored Hendrick Motorsports their 200th NASCAR win (in all series), and also scored Chevrolet's 600th NASCAR victory, the first by the Chevrolet Impala since Wendell Scott's historic 1963 win in Jacksonville, Florida. At the Aaron's 312 Busch Race at Talladega, Busch went on a wild ride down the backstretch when he got turned into teammate Casey Mears' car by Tony Stewart, which was similar to the bump Brian Vickers gave to Jimmie Johnson in the 2006 UAW-Ford 500. The car spun towards the outside wall and flipped onto its roof. The car then slid down the track and hit the turn 3 grass, flipping side over side. The car flipped a total of seven times, but Busch walked away unscathed. In the Nextel All-Star Challenge at the Lowe's Motor Speedway, he and older brother Kurt Busch got together, knocking them both out of the race.

On June 13, 2007, Kyle announced his plans to leave Hendrick Motorsports after the 2007 season. The two sides had been working on a contract extension but eventually agreed mutually to part ways. It was announced the same day that Dale Earnhardt Jr. would be replacing Kyle Busch at Hendrick Motorsports. However, days later Kyle Busch stated that he had no idea he was going to be released.. It was announced on August 14, 2007 that Busch has chosen Joe Gibbs Racing for his team in the 2008 season. He will replace J.J. Yeley in the #18 car. . In September 2007, it was announced that in 2008 Joe Gibbs Racing will switch from Chevys to Toyotas in the Cup Series.. M&M's has signed on as the sponsor of the car for three years..

Busch has two dogs that are West Highland White Terriers named Kelly and Suzie. Kyle is currently single. Kyle enjoys riding dune buggies, following the University of Michigan football team, and also surfing in his spare time.

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*Kyle Busch's Official Website *Drivers statistics at racing-reference.info *Kyle Busch at NASCAR.com *Official team website at hendrickmotorsports.com *Joe Gibbs Racing