USA TODAY International Edition
BUSCH BROTHERS SAY DAD KEY TO SUCCESS
Family proudly watches as Kurt, Kyle pursue title
Tom Busch is the only father in America with two sons among the final eight drivers eligible to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship.
Of course, they are Kurt, 37, and Kyle, 30 — talented drivers who, despite careers touched by calamities only a writer of fiction could imagine, stand tall as brothers chasing each other — and six others — for stock car racing’s biggest prize.
The extended Busch family has had a parade of unusual seasons but perhaps none stranger than this one. That neither driver raced in the season- opening Daytona 500 and they missed a combined 14 races but are within arm’s reach of the Cup championship is testament.
“I was lucky enough to be able to go to the first Daytona 500 ( in 1959) with my parents,” Tom Busch told USA TODAY Sports. “Once we got started with racing and both of the boys were running at Daytona in February, it seemed like it wouldn’t be interrupted. To have neither of them in the show that day was something that took some getting used to.”
Kurt was suspended by NASCAR for the first three races of the Sprint Cup season after a claim of domestic abuse by his exgirlfriend, Patricia Driscoll. Many thought his career — pockmarked by issues of questionable behavior and anger management — was over. The Delaware attorney general’s office declined to file charges, and NASCAR reinstated Kurt in March. Two months later, he won at Richmond International Raceway to punch his ticket for the Chase.
Kyle broke a leg and a foot in a crash in the Xfinity Series opener at Daytona International Speedway the day before the season’s biggest event — the same day
Kurt lost his appeal to be reinstated in time to race. Kyle missed the first 11 Cup races, but NASCAR granted him a waiver, and he easily qualified for the Chase.
Kyle is second in points among the eight drivers remaining in the Chase for the Sprint Cup and is in prime shape to advance to the Nov. 22 championship finale at Homestead- Miami Speedway. Kurt, ranked seventh, likely needs a win Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway to secure a spot in the four- driver championship field. Jeff Gordon, who won at Martinsville Speedway, is the only driver to have secured a final four spot.
Newly engaged Kurt, who won the title in 2004, is trying to add a second in another iteration of the Chase. Meanwhile, Kyle — long snakebit in the Chase and considered by many the most talented driver without a title — is searching for his first.
HARD- CHARGING STYLE
The Busch brothers started racing under the tutelage of their father, who was once a short- track racer. Kurt and Kyle raced on short tracks in and around Las Vegas, where they grew up, in cars owned and maintained by their father, who watched them race each other as aggressively as they raced everyone else.
“I like it now a lot better than in the old days when I owned both cars,” Tom Busch said. “They raced each other so hard. Basically, Kyle had my old car, and Kurt had Kurt’s car. There were no spare parts. We didn’t have enough parts to race two cars.
“They were both out there on my dime racing each other. They raced each other hard but clean, but if there was one slip — well, let’s just say we used to have a lot of fun racing.”
The boys got the motor sports bug honestly. Tom was a mechanic at a Ford dealership in Las Vegas when a colleague sparked his interest in racing at an area short track. Soon, Busch was building his own cars and winning, and it seemed only proper that first Kurt and, several years later, Kyle follow suit.
Both made their racing names on the Bullring, a three- eighths- mile asphalt track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Running against local hobbyists sometimes three times older, Kurt and Kyle became desert devils on the track, pushing and shoving and making their way to victory lane, running through, past and sometimes into the competition along the way.
They took no prisoners, building reputations as aggressive drivers and upstart kids who didn’t mind barking at their elders for shortcomings, real or perceived. No retreat. No surrender.
Kurt graduated to Cup in 2000, and Kyle followed in 2004.
“If I told you how many car owners came up to me saying they wanted to be the first to race with the third one ... ,” Tom said.
But there would be no third child for Tom and Gaye Busch. “Two of them almost killed me, so there ain’t going to be a third one,” he said.
Kurt and Kyle praise their dad for building the foundation that made them stars in one of the world’s top auto racing series.
“I think a lot of credit goes to Tom Busch for giving us the opportunities throughout life to be in the positions that we’ve been in and to have two championship- caliber sons each and every year go into championship contention, and hopefully one of us can win it,” Kyle said.
Kurt said his father’s instructions from the days when the family raced together still ring true.
“He saw one of the races where I had a problem with the car, and I didn’t get the best finish possible,” Kurt said. “He wanted to teach me that you’re not going to win every race, you’re not going to finish good or perfectly every race, and you’re going to have mechanical things you’re going to have to diagnose within the car.
“Could be an electrical issue. Use your nose to smell it. Is it a wire or a rubber tire burning because you have a tire rub? You have to use other things and other smarts to figure out how to advance. What he said at the end of this was to learn how to get the best finish possible with whatever cards you’ve been dealt with for the day.”
ENJOYING LIFE
As their sons scored quick success in NASCAR, Tom and Gaye moved from Las Vegas to Mooresville, N. C., in 2008 to be closer to them. Tom works at Kyle Busch Motorsports and spends much of his time restoring a 1956 Chevrolet pickup, a vehicle he bought for Kyle when he was 8.
“We talked about fixing it up if we ever got caught up,” Tom said. “It’s been moved from building to building over the years. Now it’s finally in the shop and getting worked on.”
Tom Busch has watched his sons race and succeed at all levels. He agrees that they’re different but much the same.
“They’ll get the same speed out of the same car, but, sure, they’re different one way or the other,” he said. “But when the chips are down, are they going to get all they can get? Will they help the crew get the car better? Will they win if they possibly can? Yes, yes and yes.”
Will one of them win the Cup championship? They have more chances than any other family.