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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
ALL-STAR: Take No Prisoners - Kurt Busch
Kurt Busch is still seeking his first win in NASCAR's Sprint All-Star Race...
Jared Turner  |  Posted May 18, 2010   Charlotte, NC
Kurt Busch is worried about Dover. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Kurt Busch, No. 2 Penske Racing Dodge Charger
First All-Star start: 5/18/2002
Best finish: 2nd (2003)
How he made the race: Cup series champion in last 10 years

Editor’s note: Eighteen drivers are guaranteed to start in the May 22 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, which will be televised live on SPEED, starting at 7 pm Eastern. Following is profile number 16 of 18 of those drivers locked into the field.

Kurt Busch has experienced the good, the bad and the ugly in NASCAR’s Sprint All-Star Race.

Could this be the year that the 2004 Cup champion finally bags an All-Star win?

Busch has been close before, finishing an All-Star best second in 2003 and coming home a solid third last year behind race winner Tony Stewart and runner-up Matt Kenseth.

As much as Busch certainly covets a victory in the popular exhibition event, he doesn’t seem too bitter about his shortcomings – which also include a fourth-place finish in his 2002 All-Star debut.

“You jump into the All-Star and it’s just a whole different atmosphere and attitude,” the Penske Racing driver said. “This race is just an entirely different animal. It’s a 10-lap shootout at the finish, with a cool million dollars on the line. You can bet that things will surely get heated up and there will be fireworks for sure.”
Kurt Busch (Left) and brother Kyle (Right) tangled in the 2007 Sprint All-Star Race. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Busch has certainly contributed to his share of fireworks in the $1-million to win affair, most notably in 2007 when he and younger brother Kyle tangled and crashed while battling for second in the final segment.

Kurt Busch had just taken over the runner-up position when Kyle made a bold move to the inside near the start-finish line, and carried the momentum into Turn 1. The two touched for the second time entering the corner, with Kyle spinning and sliding up the track straight into his brother’s path.

Both were done for the night, their dreams of victory dashed in a short-lived sibling scrum now entrenched in All-Star lore.

“I was waiting for the day when we got together,” Kurt said after the wreck. “We did, and we were racing for a million bucks. … That was a bummer to have my little brother pull that move on me, and maybe I should have given an inch instead of taking an inch from him but, hey, that’s what the All-Star Race is all about.”

But when the elder Busch now looks back on that night, he doesn’t see much that he could have done differently.

"If I had the opportunity to do it all over again, I'd be every bit as aggressive as I was then," said Busch, who has failed to finish in three of his eight All-Star appearances.


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Jared Turner

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