Tom and Gayle Busch are the only parents with two sons in the top-ten of the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup championship. Defending Champion and younger brother Kyle is currently leading the point’s race while brother Kurt, who won the title in 2004, is in seventh place.
Like the majority of racers, the Busch brothers started racing under the tutelage of their father. Kurt and Kyle raced on short tracks in and around their Las Vegas home in cars owned and maintained by Tom Busch. Both brothers made their racing names at the Bullring, a three-eighths-mile asphalt track located at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (LVMS). Kurt graduated to Cup in 2000, and young Kyle followed in 2004.
Kurt reported last November that 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.”
Last year both brothers were dealt extremely difficult hands. They each missed last year's Kobalt 400; Kyle was injured and Kurt was suspended. Therefore it will be interesting to watch how they do on their return to their hometown track. Only Kyle has won in Las Vegas. He did so from the pole position in 2009. Kurt's best finish in came in 2005 in the form of a podium (third) place finish in 2005.
Tom and Gayle must be extremely proud of their sons’ accomplishments – as a race mom I can only imagine how difficult it is to watch both kids on track for a race at the same time! Where do you look?
LVMS’ 2016 NASCAR Weekend begins Thursday, March 3, with a free practice session that runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Pacific Time, and Stratosphere Pole Day follows on Friday, March 4, with NASCAR Sprint Cup Series qualifying beginning at 4:45 p.m.
The Xfinity Series’ Boyd Gaming 300 takes place at 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 5, and the weekend’s crescendo comes on Sunday, March 6, in the form of the Kobalt 400 at 12:30 p.m.
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