Kyle Busch broke multiple records on his march towards winning his first NASCAR national series championship.

Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images

“It wasn’t a cake walk this year,” Busch said. “It was a tough year.  You know, Carl and Brad both kept it very close.  You know, we didn’t have the deal sewed up until we came down here and started the race. It shows the competition and the stress of the series that it puts on you and on the teams and everybody involved.  It was a battle down to the end for the fifth place spot as well, too, in order to have those guys get to the banquet. There was battles at every arch.”

Busch’s highlights this season:

- led a single-season series record of 2,698 laps
- posted a record 11 runner-up finishes
- became the first driver to win 2 national series races in the same day (won both the Camping World Truck & Nationwide Series races at Auto Club Speedway on Feb. 21st)
- wrapped up the season with 9 wins, 25 top-5 and 30 top-10 finishes in 36 races
- is the 6th former Nationwide Series Rookie of the Year to win the series championship (Joe Nemechek, Johnny Benson, Kevin Harvick, Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards)
- 1st driver to win season finale race and the championship since Sam Ard in 1983
- scored a total of 20 wins across NASCAR’s national series (he posted 21 wins last year across the 3 series: Camping World Truck, Nationwide and Sprint)
- set a record for the most points in a season in the Nationwide Series (5682 points)
- finished 210 points ahead of 2nd place driver, Carl Edwards

“Really it’s a great accomplishment to be able to set out and get the series most points in a season,” Busch said. “I mean, that just shows you the consistency we had, the amount of wins we had, the bonus points that we had being able to lead the most races, the most laps in some of those races.  I mean, it’s just Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) can even allude to it, too.  When all things fall into place and work together, it just seems like sometimes nothing can go wrong, and yet, you know, those disappointing finishes of second place and third place, you know, those are the days where you have to cherish and look at and say, this is what’s going to win us this championship, instead of trying too hard and wrecking out or taking a second place finish to a 17th. But I still missed Dover and Darlington where we should have, could have won those races, too, but having flat tires on the last restarts hurt us.”

It’s the first driver’s championship for Joe Gibbs Racing. The organization won the owner’s championship last year, but Clint Bowyer won the driver’s championship.This is the 2nd consecutive owner’s championship for JGR.

“I think these are things that the great things in life are the memories that you have and that you don’t forget,” Coach Joe Gibbs said. “I remember standing out one time after a Super Bowl, and I turned to Charles Mann, and he said to me, the thrill was getting here, everything that you had to do to get here, all the times you’ve fought, and you have a wreck, you have this, you have that, things that happen. The thing I told Kyle before we started, to me what impresses me is this car ran great all year.  I mean, super all year, and we went all the way to the last race before we could win the championship.  So it shows you how hard this is.”