Kansas City, KS – At the Charlotte Roval this year, Kurt Busch surpassed the career total starts that Dale Earnhardt had at 676 in his NASCAR Cup Series career. After this weekend, Busch now has 680 starts in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
Busch is one of the few active drivers in today’s sport that was lucky enough to race against Dale Earnhardt back in the day. In fact, the Las Vegas native raced with Earnhardt for seven races in the year 2000, Busch’s partial rookie season in the Cup Series. Those races were at Dover, Martinsville, Charlotte, Rockingham, Phoenix, Homestead and what was then the season finale at Atlanta.
“It was fun to have and intimidating with those races against Dale Sr.,” Busch said. “I raced against him seven times and it was amazing. You could feel his presence on the track and the intimidator factor was there.”
Busch even recalls a moment that has always stuck with him throughout his career.
“My favorite moment with him was my first qualifying attempt at Dover. I qualified 10th. As I walking back to the garage, he came up to me and said, “Son, I didn’t think you were ever going to lift.”
“At the time, I didn’t know whether to take it as a compliment or if I was doing something wrong, because Dale Sr. would intimidate you every time he saw you.”
Kurt Busch only finished ahead of Earnhardt one time in his Cup Series career, which came at Homestead-Miami Speedway back in November of 2000 when Busch finished ahead of
Earnhardt in 19th while Earnhardt placed 20th.
