Kyle Busch is a driver who redefined world dominance in NASCAR and has a place in the Hall of Fame waiting for him one day. In the meantime, the Las Vegas native remains one of the sport’s most popular drivers and keeps accomplishing incredible things in the NASCAR playoffs.
Here are his five best playoff moments throughout his Cup Series career.
#5 Rowdy finishes 5th in points after only his third year at the Cup level
The NASCAR Cup Series is the top level of stock car racing in the US. That’s why drivers only have a limited amount of time to make an impact before losing their seat. Kyle Busch is a driver who always has made the most of his opportunities, and 2005 was a perfect example.
Busch started the year with a 29th-place finish in the Daytona 500 but followed it up with back-to-back 9th-place finishes at Fontana and Las Vegas. He then scored his first victory of the season at Bristol, giving him a good chance of making the playoffs. Between that and a string of great finishes that season, he ended up qualifying sixth for the postseason.
Despite working his way up to fourth in the standings, a few bad finishes ruined his chance at a championship. He finished fifth in his third year at the Cup level, setting a firm foundation for what he could do.
#4 Kyle Busch captures back-to-back wins to start the 2017 playoffs
Kyle Busch might have come up short in his bid to win the 2017 NASCAR Championship, but his playoff run was remarkable. He even won back-to-back races at New Hampshire and Dover to start the playoffs. Rowdy later scored a win at Martinsville, locking him into the four at Homestead Miami Speedway.
Everything came down to Homestead, where Busch battled it out with Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick, and Brad Keselowski for the title. Unfortunately for Busch, he was unable to run down Martin Truex Jr. and fell short of winning what would have been his second title.
#3 Kyle Busch takes home his second championship in 2019
While nothing can compare to Kyle Busch’s first Cup Series Championship, how he won his second title is close. It all started in the 2019 Daytona 500, where Rowdy finished second. It wasn’t the victory he wanted to add to his resume, but it was a great start for the season.
Things improved a few weeks later when he scored back-to-back wins at Phoenix and Fontana. This gave Busch some playoff points and a lot of momentum going forward. One of his best feats during this championship season, however, is when he scored 11 straight top-ten finishes.
Fast forward to the playoffs, and Busch started with a 19th-place finish at Las Vegas. The former champion then suffered a suspension issue at Charlotte that left him 37th. He still managed to make it to the second round due to his playoff points and rebounded quickly.
He eventually worked his way into the final four despite a slew of bad luck in the postseason and outran the field to win the title. It was a reminder of how just how dominant the man could be.
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#2 Kyle Busch winning the 2015 title after breaking his leg
There are a few things that top the storybook ending that is Kyle Busch’s first NASCAR Cup Series championship. The craziest part is it started in the most unbelievable way possible. Busch was injured while competing in an Xfinity Series race at Daytona and suffered two broken legs. He spent the next 11 weeks getting surgery and rehabbing his injuries in hopes of returning to competition.
Busch returned at Charlotte Motor Speedway, where he finished 8th in the season’s longest race. The Las Vegas native struck gold four races later with a victory at Sonoma Raceway that had many impressed. This was due to it being a road course, which puts a particular focus on footwork. However, Busch didn’t seem to mind that and pushed through the pain for his first win of the season.
Busch later topped that by winning three races in a row while injured. The biggest of the three is arguably the Brickyard 400, marking the first time he won there. Unfortunately for Busch, he suffered a winless streak after this that extended into the playoffs.
He survived the three rounds of the playoffs and made it to the championship race in Homestead, Miami. Rowdy then accomplished the unthinkable and outran the field to win his first title. Keep in mind that he was only ten months removed from suffering one of the worst injuries of his career. Some were quick to call him a paper champion for not completing the whole season, but he eventually became known as an iron man for what he accomplished.
#1 Kyle Busch makes five straight final-four appearances
Kyle Busch is a rare specimen. He is one of the few drivers who has dominated the top three series of NASCAR and etched his name in the history books. Busch also holds multiple wins at almost every track on the NASCAR circuit, sweeping race weekends on occasion.
His biggest accomplishment is advancing to the final four five straight times between 2015 and 2019. What makes that stat so unbelievable is how cutthroat the four-round, ten-race playoff format can be to drivers. This accomplishment is just unheard of in modern-day NASCAR and isn’t going to be replicated easily. Two of those appearances resulted in a championship, and he probably could have won more under different circumstances.
