Kyle Busch may have wrecked out early at Atlanta. He may be on the longest winless streak of his NASCAR Cup Series career. He may be buried in a deep free agent class this winter. But he does have couple of good things going for him.
Not only did the 40-year-old continue his streak of winning at least one race in a NASCAR national series (Cup, O'Reilly or Truck) when he took victory in Saturday's Truck Series race at Atlanta, he also broke the record for the most NASCAR starts of all time.
Yep, while Busch is still 432 starts (nearly 12 full seasons) from equalling Richard Petty's long-standing record for the most Cup Series starts, 'Rowdy' now has single possession of the record for most starts across the three national series.
When the green flag flew on Sunday at Atlanta, it marked Busch's 1,300th start – 752 in the Cup, 367 in the O'Reilly Series (under various different names) and 181 in Trucks. That puts him one ahead of Kevin Harvick's previous record of 1,299, and the gap will only get bigger from here.
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Busch makes NASCAR history
The Richard Childress Racing star has also racked up the most wins across all three series, passing Petty's mark of 200 (all in the Cup Series) some time ago. He currently sits on 233, with 63 in the Cup, 102 in the O'Reilly Series and 68 in the Truck Series.
| Pos | Driver | Starts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kyle Busch | 1,300* |
| 2 | Kevin Harvick | 1,299 |
| 3 | Joe Nemechek | 1,197 |
| 4 | Richard Petty | 1,185 |
| 5 | Mark Martin | 1,143 |
| 6 | Michael Waltrip | 1,072 |
| 7 | Morgan Shepherd | 1,027 |
| 8 | Terry Labonte | 1,017 |
| 9 | Jeff Burton | 1,005 |
| 10 | Dale Jarrett | 998 |
Busch appears to have entered the 'kids these days' phase of life now he's passed his 40th birthday, even using that exact phrase to bemoan Noah Gragson wrecking him at Atlanta on Sunday.
He told FOX Sports: “I didn’t get the best of exits off of two there, but when I drifted out to the wall I was trying to get back straight and he never checked up, just rammed me as hard as he could to get me back going, to get my momentum back going again.
“But when a guy’s a little out of shape you’ve got to give him a second to collect it before you just ram him or at least try to check up and push gently. But, yeah, that’s kids these days.”
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