Kyle Busch will make his third of five NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series starts of the 2025 season this upcoming weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Busch, a two-time Cup Series champion from Las Vegas, Nevada, will return to assume the steering wheel of the No. 7 Chevrolet Silverado RST entry for Spire Motorsports. In doing so, he will attempt to spoil the Truck Series’ night of competition from a bevy of series regulars by notching a record-setting ninth victory in NASCAR’s backyard.
As Busch enters Charlotte to compete for the victory this upcoming Friday, May 23, he will do so with a unique milestone start up for grabs. By competing at Charlotte, he will make his 16th Truck start at the 1.5-mile racetrack in Concord, North Carolina.
Busch made his first Truck Series start at Charlotte in May 2005. By then, he was campaigning in his first full-time season in the Cup division for Hendrick Motorsports and in part-time stints between the Xfinity and Truck Series divisions for Hendrick and Billy Ballew Motorsports, respectively. Driving the No. 15 Chevrolet Silverado for Billy Ballew Motorsports, Busch, who started in third place, led a race-high 77 of 136 laps and held off Terry Cook and Ted Musgrave during a two-lap shootout to win both for the first time at Charlotte and his first time ever in the series. Busch’s first Truck career victory, which occurred in his eighth series start, made him the youngest-ever winner in the series at age 20 years and 18 days, a record he held through September 2012, but he currently holds at Charlotte.
The following season, Busch notched his second consecutive Truck victory at Charlotte in an event where he rallied from starting 20th to lead a race-high 96 of 134 laps and outdueled Terry Cook by more than three seconds to also record his fourth series’ victory. Over his next three consecutive starts at Charlotte (2007-09), Busch would notch respective finishes of 11th, eighth and second while also leading 86 laps, which occurred in 2008. Mired within the on-track results, he started on the pole twice during the 2008 and 2009 seasons as he achieved his feats with Billy Ballew Motorsports.
Beginning in 2010, Busch, who was competing for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Cup Series, competed on a part-time Truck basis for his newly formed organization, Kyle Busch Motorsports. During his organization’s first NASCAR national touring series visit to Charlotte, Busch steered his No. 18 Toyota Tundra entry to his 18th career victory in an event where he led a race-high 69 of 134 laps and won from pole position after he outdueled Todd Bodine during a two-lap shootout. The Charlotte victory marked Busch’s second of eight wins he earned through 16 Truck starts in 2010 as he would claim his first owner’s championship.
Busch’s 2010 Truck victory at Charlotte would be the first of a four-race winning streak for the Las Vegas native in Concord. In 2011, he doubled down with his fourth Truck victory at Charlotte and his 28th series’ victory after rallying from an early spin to overtake Clint Bowyer with seven laps remaining and outdueling the latter to win. After not competing in the event in 2012, Busch returned in 2013, where he led a race-high 80 of 134 laps and outdueled the field during an eight-lap shootout to win at Charlotte for a fifth time. The following season, he posted a sixth victory at Charlotte and his 38th series’ victory after he led all but four of 134 laps and won from pole position. During Busch’s latter two race-winning seasons at Charlotte in 2013 and 2014, he notched a combined 12 series’ victories and claimed the owner’s championship.
Busch’s next Truck start at Charlotte occurred in 2016, where he led 20 laps and finished in the runner-up spot behind Matt Crafton. He rallied in 2017 by winning for a seventh time at the track in an event where he led a race-high 90 of 134 laps and swept all three of the event’s stage periods, including the final one that routed him to the victory. Busch would settle in the runner-up spot behind Johnny Sauter in 2018, but achieve his eighth Charlotte victory in 2019 in an event where he led all but 32 of 134 laps and fended off late challenges from Ben Rhodes and Brennan Poole during a three-lap shootout. By then, Busch tallied his series’ win total to 56 and he claimed his seventh owner’s title in 2019.
For the 2020 Truck event at Charlotte, Busch led 25 of 134 laps, but was beaten by Cup Series competitor Chase Elliott by six-tenths of a second. As a result, the latter notched a $100,000 bounty, which was set up by Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick and Camping World/Gander CEO Marcus Lemonis for any full-time Cup competitor who could beat Busch in a Truck event. Two years later, Busch notched a third-place result in his recent series’ start at Charlotte in May 2022.
Through 15 previous Truck starts at Charlotte, Busch has recorded eight victories, 12 top-five results, 14 top-10 results, 789 laps led and an average-finishing result of 2.8. With eight victories, Busch holds the most victories in the Truck division at Charlotte as he strives to extend his winning mark to nine in 2025. To date, Busch remains the winningest competitor in the Truck Series division with 67 victories through 177 starts.
Busch, a full-time Cup Series competitor for Richard Childress Racing, has currently made two of five-scheduled Truck starts with Spire Motorsports. He commenced his part-time series’ campaign at Atlanta Motor Speedway in late February, where he edged Stewart Friesen by 0.017 seconds to win for the 67th time in his career while driving Spire’s No. 7 Chevrolet entry. He is coming off a ninth-place finish at North Wilkesboro Speedway, where he piloted Spire’s newly formed No. 07 entry.
After Charlotte, Busch’s next Truck start of the 2025 season is scheduled to occur next Friday, May 30, at Nashville Superspeedway before he will make his fifth and final series’ scheduled start of this year at Watkins Glen International on August 8. For Busch’s latter two Truck starts, he will be piloting the No. 07 entry.
Kyle Busch’s third start of the 2025 Craftsman Truck Series season is scheduled to occur this upcoming Friday, May 23, at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the North Carolina Education Lottery 200. The event’s broadcast time is scheduled to commence at 8:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
