Busch, who won the first series championship under the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup format in 2004, has tallied 22 wins, 78 top fives and 148 top 10s over his 10-plus seasons.
The Las Vegas native’s career began in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in 2000 before joining NASCAR Sprint Cup competition full-time in 2001 with Roush Fenway Racing. Busch moved to his current team, Penske Racing, to start the 2006 season.
Below is a timeline of Busch’s career highlights on his way to 350 starts:
1 – Sept. 24, 2000, he made his first series start at Dover International Speedway, finishing 18th. Busch made seven starts in 2000, with a best finish of 13th at Charlotte on Oct. 8, 2000.
8 – In his first Daytona 500, on Feb. 18, 2001, Busch finished 41st.
48 – On March 24, 2002 at Bristol Motor Speedway, Busch nabbed his first career victory. It was Busch’s first of five career wins at Bristol, his most prolific track.
75 – On Oct. 27, 2002, at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Busch won consecutive races for the first – and thus far only – time in his career. The previous week, he won at Martinsville Speedway.
133 – Busch reached double digits in career wins with a victory at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on July 25, 2004.
150 – At Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 21, 2004, Busch finished fifth to win the 2004 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship by eight points over Jimmie Johnson, the closest championship margin in series history.
326 – Busch grabbed milestone victory No. 20, on Nov. 8, 2009 at Texas Motor Speedway. The margin of victory that race – 25.686 seconds – is the largest since the inception of electronic scoring in 1993.
341 – On May 30, 2010, he grabbed his most recent victory, at Charlotte Motor Speedway, becoming the seventh driver to win the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race and the Coca-Cola 600 in the same season.
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Photo: Kurt Busch, right, and crew chief Steve Addington in the garage during practice at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. (Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
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