Eight Memorable Kyle Busch Victories
by Tom Jensen June 26, 2026
In all three NASCAR National Series, Kyle Busch set a winning standard.
Las Vegas native Kyle Busch was a dominant force in all three NASCAR National Series for more than two decades, setting numerous records, including a combined 234 victories across the NASCAR Cup, O’Reilly Auto Parts and Craftsman Truck Series.
Busch, who died May 21st at the age of 41 after his bacterial pneumonia developed into sepsis, left a legacy of winning on the track. He set the record for race victories in the O’Reilly Auto Parts (102 wins) and Craftsman Truck Series (69 wins), as well as capturing 63 Cup Series races. Busch also set a Cup Series record by winning at least one race in 19 consecutive seasons and earned two championships in the Cup Series and one in what is now the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.
Following are eight memorable Kyle Busch race victories:
The first of Kyle Busch’s 63 NASCAR Cup Series victories came at Southern California’s Auto Club Speedway in 2005. Photo courtesy of Darrell Ingham/Getty Images
1. First Cup Series Win
At the 2.0-mile California Speedway (now Auto Club Speedway), Busch was just 20 years old when he held off Greg Biffle during an overtime restart to win the Sony HD 500 on September 4, 2005. Busch led 95 of 254 laps in his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to secure his breakthrough first victory. At the time, Busch was the youngest winner in Cup Series history. “It takes so much effort to get here and we finally got here,” Busch said in Victory Lane.
An iconic pose from Kyle Busch, who waved the checkered flag at Bristol Motor Speedway after winning the 2007 Food City 500. Photo courtesy of Harry How/Getty Images
2. First Generation 5 Win
In 2007, NASCAR took the highly unusual step of introducing its Generation 5 race car – then dubbed “The Car of Tomorrow” or COT for its advanced safety and technology features – in mid-season. The first COT race was the March 27 Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, where Busch led 29 laps to win in his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. “I'm still not a very big fan of these things,” Busch said after his victory. “I can't stand to drive them, they suck.”
Kyle Busch delivered Toyotas first NASCAR Cup Series victory when he won at Atlanta in the spring of 2008. Photo courtesy of Jamie Squire/Getty Images
3. First Win With Joe Gibbs Racing
The 2008 season was a huge turning point for Busch’s career. He moved from Hendrick Motorsports to Joe Gibbs Racing for the team’s first season with Toyota and the change paid immediate dividends. Busch set a career high with eight Cup Series race victories in 2008, the first coming March 8 in the Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway (now Echo Park Speedway). The win was doubly significant because it was the first Cup Series victory for Toyota. Busch’s Kobalt Tools 500 trophy is on display in the NASCAR Hall of Fame’s Heritage Speedway.
Kyle Busch (left) and crew chief Jason Ratcliff hoisted a celebratory flag in Victory Lane at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2011 after Busch won his record 50th NASCAR Nationwide Series race. Photo courtesy of Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR
4. Setting An All-Time Record
On August 26, 2011, at Bristol Motor Speedway, Busch won his 50th race in the NASCAR Nationwide Series (now O’Reilly Auto Parts Series), breaking the record of 49 wins set by Hall of Famer Mark Martin (Class of 2017). Busch led 185 of 250 laps in the Food City 250, drubbing the competition as he did so often. And Busch kept winning big after that, ending his career with a record 102 victories in NASCAR’s No. 2 series. In NASCAR’s three National Series combined, Busch won 23 times at Bristol, a track record.
A victory on the challenging Sonoma Raceway road course in 2015 set Kyle Busch off on his first NASCAR Cup Series championship run. Photo courtesy of Tim Bradbury/Getty Images
5. Comeback Victory
In the 2015 season-opening NASCAR Xfinity Series (now O’Reilly Auto Parts Series) race at Daytona International Speedway, Busch had a hard, head-on crash into a concrete infield wall. The impact left him with a double compound fracture of his right leg and a broken left foot. The devastating leg injuries caused Busch to miss the first 11 races of the Cup season, seemingly putting him out of title contention. But in just his fourth race back, Busch won the June 28th Toyota/Save Mart 350 on the Sonoma Raceway road course in Northern California. Busch then won three of the next four races, kicking off a second-half hot streak that would culminate in his first of two Cup Series championships.
Accompanied by his wife Samantha, Kyle Busch savored his second NASCAR Cup Series championship in Victory Lane at Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2019. Photo courtesy of Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
6. Another Championship Run
The 2019 season saw Busch end the 26-race Cup Series regular season with the point lead. The championship was determined over the final 10-race playoff stretch, culminating in a winner-take-all battle among the top four contenders in the season-ending Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 17. At Homestead, Busch led 120 of 267 laps to take the checkered flag ahead of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Martin Truex Jr. and Erik Jones to earn his second Cup Series championship.
Kyle Busch bowed to the Auto Club Speedway crowd in 2023, after winning a Cup Series race in just his second start with Richard Childress Racing. Photo courtesy of Logan Riely/Getty Images
7. New Team, Another Victory
After 15 years with Joe Gibbs Racing, in 2023 Busch went to drive for old rival Richard Childress (Class of 2017). And it didn’t take long for the pairing of a NASCAR Hall of Fame team owner and a multi-time championship driver to produce results. In just his second race behind the wheel of the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, Busch won the Pala Casino 400 at Auto Club Speedway. Busch’s victory would be the final Cup race run at the Southern California track.
The final triumph for Kyle Busch came at Dover Motor Speedway on May 15, 2026. Photo courtesy of Sean Gardner/Getty Images
8. One Last Time
Although he had raced full time in the Cup Series since 2005, Busch continued to occasionally race in the O’Reilly Auto Parts and Craftsman Truck Series. Busch’s final race victory came on May 15, 2026, just six days before his untimely passing. Driving a Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado sponsored by Rick Hendrick’s HendrickCars.com, Busch won the Ecosave 200 Truck Series race at Dover Motor Speedway. And he did it the same way he had so many times before, by dominating the event, leading 147 of 200 laps. Afterwards, Busch saluted the Dover crowd as he always did when he won, holding the flag while taking a bow towards the grandstands. Jubilant in Victory Lane, Busch thanked the crowd and said of his victory, “You never know when the last one is.”
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