KYLE BUSCH - NASCAR NATIONWIDE SERIES

His 5,682 points scored in 2009 were the most ever by a Nationwide Series competitor, as were the 2,698 laps he led throughout the season. Busch totaled nine wins – four more than any other driver in 2009 – while he finished second 11 times for a single-season Nationwide Series record. Busch’s 25 top-five finishes were the most since Jeff Green scored 25 top-fives in a 32-race season in 2000.

Busch failed to lead a lap in only three races and led more than 50 percent of the laps in a race an incredible 12 times. The points race was never really in doubt as he topped the standings after 30 of the 35 events, including the last 29 weeks of the season.

The results of 2009 couldn’t have made Jim Sexton, (president and CEO of Z-Line Designs) and his wife, Monica, any happier, given that of the 14 times Z-Line was primary sponsor on Busch’s No. 18 Toyota, the car went to victory lane five times, including in the season-finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where the team clinched the championship.

“It was great to win my first NASCAR championship,” Busch said. “The guys deserved it. The whole team and all the guys who worked so hard on the Z-Line Designs Camry deserved a championship. Jim (Sexton) and Monica (Sexton) were in Miami to help us celebrate. It was a huge night for our team. It meant a whole lot for Joe Gibbs Racing and everybody at JGR – all the guys who work so hard at building the cars, not just in the Nationwide shop, but in the Cup shop, the fab shop, everybody.”

The championship was the culmination of a career that unofficially began at age six when Busch cruised around the cul-de-sac of his family’s Las Vegas residence in a makeshift go-kart. That Busch was too small to reach the throttle didn’t stop him from picking up the basics. His father, Tom, held down the gas pedal while he steered the kart around the block. Once Busch was tall enough to reach the gas pedal on his own, an accelerated pace was already set for his future career in motorsports.

Throughout his childhood, Busch spent countless hours as an apprentice to his father, and his older brother, Kurt, in the family garage learning to build and repair racecars. By age 10, Busch was a full-fledged mechanic and served as crew chief on his older brother’s Dwarf car team. In 1998, shortly after his 13th birthday, Busch’s driving career officially began.

Given his young age, schoolwork was always first priority. He was an honor student, but his extra-curricular activities always included a race car. Busch’s parents taught him accountability, meaning if he wanted to race, he was responsible to work on, repair and pay for his own cars. Busch learned early on that carelessness on the track proved costly, resulting in wrecked race cars and not being prepared for the next event. He took pride in his equipment and raced competitors with respect.

From 1999 to 2001, Busch earned more than 65 wins in Legends cars as he racked up two track championships at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway “Bullring” before moving up to Late Model stock cars. Winning seemed to come naturally, no matter what Busch drove, as he captured 10 victories in Late Model competition at the Bullring in 2001.

His winning reputation and potential for success began to pique the interest of car owners in NASCAR, and on Aug. 3, 2001, at age 16, Busch made his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut driving for Roush Fenway Racing at O’Reilly Raceway Park near Indianapolis, where he started 23rd and finished ninth. Shortly thereafter, an unexpected ruling by NASCAR that enacted a minimum age requirement for competitors in NASCAR’s top-three series sidelined Busch until his 18th birthday.

Instead of sitting idle until he turned 18, Busch turned his attention to the American Speed Association and ran the entire 2002 schedule. In a division that prepared the likes of Mark Martin, Alan Kulwicki and Rusty Wallace for NASCAR, Busch proved successful once again by posting five top-fives and 10 top-10s in 20 starts, ending the season eighth in points. That same year, he also graduated with honors – one year early, no less – from Durango High School in Las Vegas.

Prior to his 18th birthday in 2003, Busch signed with Hendrick Motorsports and quickly got down to business, winning his very first ARCA Series race at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway from the pole position, and followed it up with a second win at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta in his very next outing.

Upon turning 18, he entered seven Nationwide Series races – the stepping-stone division to the elite Sprint Cup Series – and notched a runner-up finish at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway in his very first start. Busch finished the year with two second-place finishes, three top-10 finishes and five top-10 qualifying efforts.

The 2004 season started off on a high note as Busch nabbed an ARCA victory Feb. 7 in his first career start on the high banks of Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. And after his first full season in the Nationwide Series, Busch was the youngest top rookie in series history at age 19.

Busch grabbed his first Nationwide Series victory on May 14, 2004 at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway. The win sparked four more – at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway, Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis and Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn. When it was all said and done, Busch ended the year with five poles, five wins, 16 top-fives, 22 top-10s and a runner-up finish in the point standings.

To gain experience and seat time in NASCAR’s premier series, Busch also qualified for six Sprint Cup races. In late 2004, Busch’s career dreams came true, as he was selected to replace the retiring Terry Labonte in Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 5 car beginning in 2005.

At age 19, Busch started the 2005 season with a record-setting pole at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., in just his eighth career Sprint Cup start. Busch, who was 19 years, 317 days old, broke the record previously held by Donald Thomas, who was 20 years, 129 days old when he won the pole at Lakewood (Ga.) Speedway on Nov. 16, 1952. Thomas went on to win that race and remained the youngest race winner in Sprint Cup history until Busch won at Auto Club Speedway on Sept. 4, 2005. Busch bested Thomas’s record by a mere four days and held the title as youngest Sprint Cup winner until his JGR teammate, Joey Logano, won in June 2009 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon at 19 years, one month and four days.

Finishing out his rookie season with another victory at Phoenix International Raceway in November, Busch’s first year consisted of one pole, nine top-fives, 13 top-10s, two wins and a 20th place finish in the standings. Busch bookended his Nationwide Series Rookie of the Year trophy from 2004 by winning the Sprint Cup Series Rookie of the Year title in 2005.

The 2006 season brought more success for Busch as he notched another pole at Phoenix International Raceway in April and his third race win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon in July. In addition to the pole and race win, Busch managed to bring home 10 top-five and 18 top-10 finishes while finishing 10th in the point standings after qualifying for his first Chase for the Championship, where Busch was, yet again, the youngest driver to ever become Chase eligible.

He continued his success in his third full season in 2007 by winning at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway in March and again qualifying for the Chase for the Championship. He finished the season with a remarkable 20 top-10s and 11 top-fives and went on to complete the season fifth in the final point standings – his career best.

In the off-season, Busch moved to Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) to pilot the team’s legendary No. 18 machine team after his four seasons at rival Hendrick Motorsports. In the meantime, JGR was in the middle of a major change of its own, having switched from Chevrolet to new manufacturer Toyota.

The Busch-JGR-Toyota combination quickly became successful and yielded eight Sprint Cup wins, 17 top-five and 21 top-10 finishes en route to a 10th-place finish in points.

Adding to his Sprint Cup success, Busch began to win in seemingly everything he drove. By season’s end, the Las Vegas native had notched 21 victories across NASCAR’s top-three series – Sprint Cup (eight), Nationwide (10) and Camping World Truck (three). Busch bested the previous record by seven wins for most victories overall in a season since the addition of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in 1995.

In addition to his Nationwide Series championship in 2009, Busch also scored four wins in the Sprint Cup Series en route to a 13th-place finish in the final points standings. He continued to participate in a limited Camping World Truck Series schedule and drove to victory lane seven times in just 15 starts.

Busch will again drive in all three of NASCAR’s top division’s in 2010, but with a few changes. Z-Line Designs will again sponsor Busch in the Nationwide Series, but rather than compete in every event, Busch is only scheduled to participate in races conducted in conjunction with Sprint Cup Series events.

For the Camping World Truck Series, Busch will drive his own truck as the off-season saw him form Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM), a two-truck effort that will expose Busch to the world of being an owner-driver.

Busch will pilot the No. 18 Toyota Tacoma whenever the Camping World Truck Series runs in companion with the Sprint Cup Series, while Brian Ickler (pronounced “IKE-ler”) will drive in the non-companion events. The No. 56 Toyota Tundra for KBM will be driven full-time by 20-year-old Tayler Malsam.

For the third consecutive year, Busch will drive the No. 18 Toyota for JGR full-time in the Sprint Cup Series.

In addition to his aggressive nature behind the wheel of a race car, Busch has a strong charitable drive. He formed the Kyle Busch Foundation in 2006 to benefit child and adolescent agencies that provide safe living environments for the less fortunate. The Foundation currently supports homes in Grand Rapids, Mich., Concord, N.C., Atlanta, Mesa, Ariz., and Las Vegas.

Busch, single, resides in Mooresville, N.C.

Joe Gibbs Racing
Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) is one of the premier organizations in NASCAR, currently fielding three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams, two NASCAR Nationwide Series teams and a driver development program that includes two full-time NASCAR East Series teams. Its driver lineup consists of Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series; Busch, Hamlin, Logano, Brad Coleman and Matt DiBenedetto in the NASCAR Nationwide Series; Max Gresham and Brett Moffitt in the NASCAR East Series; and Darrell Wallace Jr., in its driver development program. Based in Huntersville, N.C., and owned by Joe Gibbs – a three-time Super Bowl winner as head coach of the NFL’s Washington Redskins and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame – JGR has competed in NASCAR since 1992, winning three Cup Series championship, two Nationwide Series championships and more than 100 NASCAR races, including three Brickyard 400s and the 1993 Daytona 500.

Jason Ratcliff: Crew Chief, No. 18 Z-Line Designs Toyota Camry
Jason Ratcliff is in his sixth year as crew chief of the No. 18 Z-Line Designs Toyota team for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.

One of the most respected crew chiefs in the garage, Ratcliff enters the 2010 season after overseeing one of the most successful seasons in NASCAR’s 62-year history.

In 2009, Ratcliff called the shots for Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 Z-Line Designs Toyota Camry for JGR, and the duo won its first NASCAR title of any kind by defeating runner-up Carl Edwards by 210 points in the season-ending standings.

Their total of 5,682 points scored in 2009 were the most ever by a Nationwide Series champion, as were the 2,698 laps Busch led throughout the season. Busch scored nine wins – four more than any other driver – while he finished second 11 times for a single-season Nationwide Series record. Busch’s 25 top-five finishes were the most since Jeff Green scored 25 top-fives in a 32-race season in 2000.

Busch failed to lead a lap in only three races and led more than 50 percent of the laps in a race an incredible 12 times. The points race was never really in doubt as he led the standings after 30 of the 35 events, including the last 29 weeks of the season.

The results of 2009 couldn’t have made Jim Sexton, (president and CEO of Z-Line Designs) and his wife, Monica, any happier given that of the 14 times Z-Line was primary sponsor on Busch’s No. 18 Toyota, the car went to victory lane five times – including in the season-finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where the team clinched the championship.

“It was incredible,” Ratcliff said. “When you stop and think about it, it becomes a little bit emotional. To think about what we were able to do, the blessings that we were blessed with all season long – Kyle and this whole team, what we were able to accomplish as a group – it’s just awesome to be able to put those goals up there in front of us and go out there and achieve them. We did everything we set out to do, and then even more than we expected. I don’t know if we can ever have another season like 2009, but we’re going to try. He (Busch) is incredible. He deserves every record he broke and his name deserves to be by it. We’re just glad that we could be a part of it. This group of guys, I’ve been working with this group for more than five years now and they just never quit. They just keep on, keep on, keep on.”

Ratcliff’s journey to being a championship crew chief began with his birth on Dec. 8, 1967, in Sumter, S.C., about an hour east of the state capitol of Columbia. He moved no less than six times as a child before settling in Westlake, La.

While in Westlake, he began his racing career working on mini-Sprint cars.

“I used to go the racetrack with the father of a friend of mine,” said Ratcliff, who graduated from Westlake High School in 1985. “I’d look to help anybody with a racecar because I couldn’t afford one.”

After graduation, Ratcliff moved to Texas, where he spent much of the next nine years working on Sprint cars around the Lone Star State.

His professional racing breakthrough came in 1995, when he joined Sadler Racing in Nashville, Tenn., as a mechanic and rear tire changer for drivers Chuck Bown and Gary Bradberry in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. After two years with Sadler Racing, Ratcliff left the team and spent the 1997-1998 seasons at LAR Motorsports, headquartered in Columbia, Tenn., where he was chief mechanic for Casey Atwood and Jeff Purvis over a two-year span.

Ratcliff’s first year as a NASCAR crew chief came at Brewco Motorsports in 1999, when a young Atwood was a Nationwide Series rookie. Ratcliff and Atwood were together at Brewco for two years before Atwood left for a Cup Series ride at Evernham Motorsports (now Richard Petty Motorsports) and was replaced at Brewco by Jamie McMurray for the 2001 and 2002 seasons.

“Casey was just 18 and I was a rookie crew chief, so that first year we both got a lot of experience learning together on the job,” Ratcliff said. “That lasted a couple of years with Casey, and then we started all over again with Jamie. I’m proud to say we won a couple of times with Casey and a couple of times with Jamie, which is quite an accomplishment with an independent Nationwide Series team.”

The 2003 and 2004 seasons at Brewco gave Ratcliff the chance to work with veteran Nationwide Series driver David Green, and the crew chief-driver tandem hit the ground running from the opening race at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway in 2003. They went on to win three races, score 11 top-fives, 21 top-10s and two pole positions en route to second place in the season-ending driver championship, a mere 14 points behind title-winner Brian Vickers.

Working with Green, Ratcliff showed his mettle and, again, showed the NASCAR community that it was, indeed, possible for a non-Cup-affiliated Nationwide Series team to compete at a championship level week in and week out.

Before arriving at JGR prior to the 2005 season, Ratcliff had netted seven wins and seven pole positions with his combination rookie and veteran driver lineup. That set the stage for his new life at an established NASCAR Cup-affiliated Nationwide Series operation, which promised huge dividends.

Ratcliff enjoyed a solid run with former JGR driver J.J. Yeley in 2005 and 2006 as they collaborated on 13 top-five and 34 top-10 finishes in those two seasons on NASCAR’s junior circuit.

In 2007, Ratcliff worked with the trio of Aric Almirola, Brad Coleman and Kevin Conway as they shared the No. 18 car. Collectively, they scored two poles, four top-fives and five top-10s.

Busch and Denny Hamlin split time in the No. 18 Toyotas in 2008, with Busch scoring four wins and Hamlin one win with Ratcliff sitting on top of the pit box.

Ratcliff resides in Huntersville, N.C., with his wife Christi and children Cade and Dakota. He enjoys working on cars, golfing and boating.