Kyle Busch Memorial

 Absolutely shocking news from NASCAR today. Early this morning they said Kyle Busch would be missing this weekend's race due to sickness, later in the afternoon, he had died. The entire NASCAR world is in shock. I am in shock. Kyle was 41 years old, a few months younger than me. His son just had his 11th birthday party on Monday and his daughter is only 4 years old. He was a GREAT father to those two and it's hurting most of all to think that they are not going to have their father. 

I have to admit I was not his biggest fan on track but I respected him, and there is NO question that the sport itself will miss him. He's been all over the sport in it's entirety since he was 15 years old. NASCAR even put in the age rules that are in place now to prevent him from dominating as a kid. 

He was very popular with the card manufacturers, which is not surprising considering his record and popularity. My records show that I have 410 cards of him, of which I have gotten 307 scanned. That ranks him 24th overall in my NASCAR collection. While that's too many to fit into a post I will post a selection that documents his career. 

There are hero cards from his brief time at Roush in the Truck series as a teenager, but I don't have them. 

His earliest card I do have is this one, from Racing Champions, where he got his start in Busch series driving the #87 for NEMCO Motorsports which significant backing from Hendrick Motorsports. (Joe Nemechek was with Hendrick at the time)

He ran a full season in the #5 Hendrick car in the Busch series, winning Rookie of the Year easily. 

In 2005 he moved to Cup full time replacing the semi-retired Terry Labonte in the #5 car and would find early success, winning as a rookie. 

Rookie wins are fairly unusual but he got two during the season. He would win one more race each in 2006 and 2007, including the first COT race at Bristol in 2007...

Then in 2008 he moved to Joe Gibbs Racing and would go from a rising star to one of the all-time greats in the history of the sport. 

He would stay with JGR until 2022. 

He took home the 2015 and 2019 Cup championships. 

In 2023 he moved to Richard Childress Racing, where he scored the final 3 wins of his career, 63 in total, which is 9th on the all-time list. 

He would continue to race in the Busch/Xfinity and Truck series, including winning as most recently as this past weekend, just 6 days ago...

With 102 Busch/Nationwide/Xfinity and 69 Truck series wins, he is the all time record holder in both of those divisions. 

In addition to his driving career, he also owned Kyle Busch Motorsports which gave many drivers active today their big break in the sport.

Despite only living 41 years, he competed in NASCAR for 25 years and is unquestionably in the conversation for the best who ever did it.