We continue our ‘Kyle Busch Remembered’ series with memorable moments from a place very special to Busch — his home track in Las Vegas, Nevada. Busch won seven NASCAR races at his home track, where it all began for the racing legend on the bullring just outside the intermediate speedway.
Busch went on to earn a record 234 career NASCAR national series wins — more than any other driver in history, with his final victory just days before his unexpected passing at the age of 41 in May.
In honor of Busch, we’ve been highlighting his most impressive, memorable, or even infamous moments at whatever track is up next on the NASCAR Cup schedule.
Previously, we covered Atlanta, Sonoma, Nashville, Michigan, Pocono, Chicagoland, Indianapolis, Richmond, New Hampshire, Daytona, Darlington, Gateway, Bristol, and Kansas — which you can find by clicking the names of each track as mentioned.
Now, here’s a look back at Rowdy’s most memorable Las Vegas moments:
Kyle Busch Las Vegas NASCAR Stats
NASCAR CUP: 30 starts / 1 win / 2 poles / 12 top fives / 16 top tens / 332 laps led
O’REILLY: 16 starts / 2 wins / 2 poles / 6 top fives / 7 top tens / 623 laps led
TRUCKS: 8 starts / 4 wins / 3 poles / 6 top fives / 7 top tens / 419 laps led
2009 NASCAR Cup: KB’s only Cup win at home track
Busch made 30 Cup starts at LVMS, but only earned a single victory. That win came in 2009, and he really had to fight for it. Busch was supposed to start from pole position, but had to go to the rear of the field for the start due to an engine change. Busch wasn’t really in contention for the win, but when a caution flew in the middle of the final round of green-flag pit stops, he was suddenly running fifth. For the chaotic restart that followed, he was up in third, but there were a lot of cars in front of him. With the sport’s older wave-around rules, the wave-around cars restarted directly ahead of the race leaders, so they were all buried in traffic.
He quickly moved forward, passing veterans Bobby Labonte and Jeff Burton to take the lead with 57 laps to go. He led the next 30 laps until the next caution of the race. As strategies split on pit road, Busch was suddenly back in fourth. He quickly dispatched a wounded Jeff Gordon for third, and then set his sights on the Richard Childress Racing duo of Burton and Clint Bowyer. Ripping the bottom, he cut under both of them with relative ease and retook control with 17 laps to go. He then had to deal with two more restarts in the final 20 laps, but he never relinquished control again. Busch was finally — and for the only time in Cup — a winner at his home track.
“I’ll tell you what, this is pretty cool,” Busch said when asked what it meant to win at home. “I didn’t know exactly what it would mean, but coming to the checkered flag, there was knots in my stomach. This is probably as big as the Daytona 500.”
2007 NASCAR O’Reilly: Full-contact photo finish with Jeff Burton
Busch suffered a brutal but memorable loss in the NASCAR O’Reilly race at Las Vegas in 2007, competing at the secondary level of the sport. Busch had the lead in the closing laps, but Jeff Burton was rapidly closing. On the last lap, he was all over Busch with a legitimate shot at the win. Busch tried to use up as much of the track as he could, but Burton still squeezed to his outside as a side-by-side photo finish began to play out. Desperate to slow Burton down, Busch doored him down the frontstretch, only to spin across the line in second and then crash into the wall after finishing the race. The best part? After climbing from his car, Busch went over to Burton and shook his hand after the epic battle.
2017 NASCAR Cup: Throwing punches in Joey Logano brawl
Not one of Busch’s finest moments, but certainly a memorable one as emotions boiled over between him and long-time rival Logano. At the end of the Cup race, Logano and Busch were battling for a spot inside the top five. Logano slid up into Busch, sending him spinning as the checkered flag waved just ahead of them. Instead of a top five, Busch placed 22nd as the last car on the lead lap. Of course, he was furious, and marched over to the No. 22 Penske car. There was no discussion, and in full view of Logano’s crew, he immediately started swinging. A brief brawl ensued and Busch emerged from the fight bloodied, and still mad as hell.
2019 NASCAR Cup: A very memorable media scrum
Another moment when Busch was feeling particularly annoyed after a race, giving us one of the most memorable (if not useless) interviews of KB’s career. He was not interested in offering anything insightful after a frustrating race. He went two laps down early after wall contact, but managed to fight his way back to the top five, only to tangle with the lapped car of Garrett Smithley and finish 19th.
(What happened with the #53?) “#52, get it right. Don’t know” … (How did that impact your car) “Killed it” … (Were you happy to be able to fight back) “No” … (How about the heat?) “It felt great” … “Don’t care” … “I’m just here so I don’t get fined.”
However, he did fulfill his TV duties where he offered a bit more, but with the same edge. He lamented how a top five turned into a 19th-place finish, saying: “We’re the top echelon of motorsports and we got guys who have never won late model races running out here on the race track. It’s pathetic. They don’t know where to go.”
2018 NASCAR Truck: 50th NASCAR Truck Series win
Busch earned a milestone win at Las Vegas in 2018, collecting his 50th career NASCAR Truck Series win. It was also his first-ever Truck win at Vegas, and began a streak of three consecutive spring Truck races at LVMS won by Busch. It was a fairly straightforward edition of the ‘Kyle Busch Show,’ as no one could challenge him at the end.
2005 NASCAR Cup: The first sign of greatness (in Cup), and kudos from brother Kurt
While Busch earned just one Cup win at Vegas in 30 attempts, he was always fast at his home track. In his second career Cup start at Vegas and his first as a full-time driver in 2005, Busch piloted the No. 5 Hendrick Chevy to a runner-up finish when he was just 19 years old. That race also marked Busch’s first top five and first top ten as a Cup Series driver. He ended his remarkable career with 254 top fives and 394 top tens in the Cup Series, but the very first in each of those categories appropriately came at home.
Moments after climbing out of the car, Kyle got a hug from the driver who finished third that day — his older brother, Kurt Busch. “To see the 5 car in front of me, that was tough to swallow,” Kurt told NASCAR on FOX with a smile. “But he did great today. I’m so very proud of Kyle … And this officially starts, uh, no more advice to Kyle. We’re gonna cut him off. He beat me fair and square.”
Watch: A closer look at Brad Keselowski’s departure from RFK Racing
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
– The Motorsport.com Team
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: motorsport.com
