Fast Facts: 2015 Sprint Cup Series champion Kyle Busch

Kyle Busch takes a bow as champion
credit: NASCAR via Getty Images/Jared C. Tilton

And the Chase for the Sprint Cup goes to…Kyle Busch. It was a Hollywood-worthy finish to a whirlwind season that saw Busch out of action for 11 races with an injury, return to the track, become a father, qualify for the Chase and win a championship. Here’s a look at the new Sprint Cup Series champion, who also became a championship team owner on Friday night when Erik Jones won the Camping World Truck Series championship.

• Kyle Thomas Busch was born May 2, 1985. He is a native of Las Vegas, Nevada and graduated a year early with honors from Durango High School in Las Vegas in 2002. His older brother is 2004 Cup champion Kurt Busch.
• Busch’s racing career started at age 13 in 1998 in the Legends Series at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s Bullring, and he won 65 races and two titles between 1999 and 2001. He also raced Late Models at the Bullring.
• Busch made his NASCAR debut in the Craftsman (now Camping World) Truck Series at age 16 in 2001. Due to a NASCAR rule change making the minimum age to race 18, Busch went back to race in the American Speed Association (ASA) in 2002, and also made his debut in the ARCA Racing Series.
• In 2003, upon turning 18, Busch made his Busch (now Xfinity) Series debut with NEMCO Motorsports. He made his Cup Series debut in 2004, driving for Hendrick Motorsports. Busch spent three full-time seasons with Hendrick Motorsports before moving to Joe Gibbs Racing in 2008.
• Busch was the 2009 Nationwide (now Xfinity) Series champion, and his Kyle Busch Motorsports operation was the Truck Series owner’s champion in 2010 and 2013-2015; the team won its first driver’s championship in 2015. On Feb. 21, 2009, he became the first driver to win two national series events on the same day, and in August 2010, he became the first driver to win all three national series events in one weekend at Bristol. That season, Busch won 24 NASCAR events – three Sprint Cup, 13 Nationwide and eight Truck Series.
• Always one to jump in a race car, Busch was competing in the Feb. 2015 season opener for the Xfinity Series at Daytona International Speedway when he was involved in a multi-car accident that sent him into a concrete wall with no SAFER barriers. Busch sustained a compound fracture of his lower right leg, a small fracture in his left foot and a sprained finger on his left hand, subsequently missing 11 Cup Series races, including the Daytona 500. He returned to action nearly three months later at the Sprint All-Star Race in May. In June, he won his first race of the year at Sonoma – the first of five wins on the season, including the finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway that resulted in the championship. Busch ended the season with five wins and 16 top-10 finishes in 25 starts.
• Busch became a first-time father on May 18, 2015 as Brexton Locke was born to Busch and his wife, the former Samantha Sarcinella. The couple married on Dec. 31, 2010 in Chicago.
• Find out more about Kyle Busch at http://www.kylebusch.com/, and more about Kyle Busch Motorsports at www.kylebuschmotorsports.com.

Kyle Busch celebrates with son Brexton and wife Samantha
Credit: NASCAR via Getty Images/Jared C. Tilton