Kyle's having a career year, but still Kurt's little brother

Remember a time, not so long ago, when protocol was reversed on those occasions when the Busch brothers of Sprint Cup Series fame were mentioned?

In other words, Kurt usually came before Kyle -- as in folks would say, yeah, Kyle Busch is Kurt's younger brother. Kurt, the older brother, had accomplished so much more in racing that he needed no additional identifying adjectives for clarification.

But somewhere along the Sprint Cup road in the past year -- or maybe it's only been more like eight months -- Kyle passed Kurt like his older bro was standing still, or pulled off to the side of said road. Suddenly, Kyle was the hottest deal going in NASCAR, and when folks spoke of him they were more likely to mention Kurt as the afterthought instead of the other way around.

As in Kurt Busch ... oh yeah, isn't he Kyle's older brother?

It has to be difficult for Kurt to take. After all, he's older; he's always been more successful -- or at least it sure seemed that way.

But the fact is -- and Kurt's rain-shortened, shower-aided victory in Sunday's Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway served to reinforce this -- both of these guys are talented, skilled drivers with many victories still looming ahead of them.

Because Kyle is so young (only 23 as of May 2), and because Kurt has been driving at the Sprint Cup level now since 2000, the tendency is to think Kurt's best days might be behind him. But he's just approaching 30 (Aug. 4), and that simply may not be true.

The knee-jerk tendency also is to anoint Kyle as the next great driver, and there is ample evidence this year to say that is so. But the fact is, despite his series-high five Cup wins this year (plus four Nationwide series wins and two Craftsman Truck series victories), Kyle still has only half as many career Cup triumphs as Kurt, who has 18.

Busch vs. Busch

Career comparison

	Kurt	Kyle
Years	9	5
Starts	273	131
Wins	18	9
Top-5s	58	40
Top-10s	108	62
Lead-Lap Fin.	160	88
Avg. Start	16.6	15.9
Avg. Finish	17.6	16.9

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The numbers

Of course, numbers and statistics can be twisted every which way to prove a point -- or alter opinions.

Kyle's backers would point out that he's been racing at the Cup level full-time for less than four years. With 131 career starts through Sunday's event at New Hampshire, he hasn't had nearly the same number of opportunities to register Cup conquests as Kurt, who has been in the series full-time for going on eight seasons and has made 273 career starts.

Kurt also has never quite had a Cup season like the one Kyle currently is putting together. He's never won more than four races in a season, although he has accomplished that twice at the Cup level and also in his only Craftsman Truck Series season in 2000, when he was runner-up in points.

Then again, Kyle has yet to win his first points championship. Kurt did so in 2004, when he won three races and registered the impressive totals of 10 top-five finishes and 21 top-10s in 36 starts.

Pore through the total racing resumes of these two brothers and you get the idea that they've been racing each other since Kyle learned to walk and the first one to the breakfast table got the milk on his cereal.

At age 21, Kurt became the youngest driver to win the NASCAR Southwest Series touring championship. Coming up through the ranks beginning at age 14, he won championships in nearly every series in which he raced -- including the Hobby Stock track championship at Las Vegas Speedway Park, Legend Cars and this writer's personal favorite, the Nevada Dwarf Car championship.

By age 21, of course, Kyle already was racing in the Cup Series -- competing in his second full season while driving for Hendrick Motorsports. He started racing Legend Cars at his hometown track, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, at age 13; registered a total of 75 victories in Legend Cars and Late Models there; and by the time he was a junior in high school, he made six starts in the Truck Series for Roush Racing, finishing in the top-10 twice.

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So who's better?

It's obvious, then, that Kurt's success paved the way for Kyle's career to move forward at an accelerated pace -- whether Kyle would like to admit that or not. And while it could be argued that Kyle has cashed in at every opportunity, it wasn't until this season that he really exploded at the Cup level.

In three years with Hendrick Motorsports, prior to joining Joe Gibbs Racing this season, Kyle won a total of just four races. Kurt won a total of four in his second full season while driving for Roush Racing, then backed it up with four more the following year -- and his championship the year after that.

It's easy to make snap judgments in the moment and say that the way Kyle has driven this year, he is the one of the two brothers destined for true greatness -- that is, if someone doesn't get mad at him and run him into a wall (instead of merely turning him around as Juan Montoya did, apparently with little cause, at New Hampshire).

Kyle is gifted and has an edge that few drivers possess. That much is certain. But Sunday's result was a reminder that folks shouldn't give up on his older brother just yet.

Kyle's Cup career received a jumpstart when he left Hendrick to join JGR. Kurt currently drives for Penske Racing -- an operation whose limited success in NASCAR has always been somewhat baffling, given its considerable resources.

What if, in the not-too-distant future, the rumors that Penske might switch manufacturers from Dodge to Toyota come true? Or if the Penske boys simply find a way to finally make the cars they've already got start working better? Or if Kurt finds a hotter ride at another organization?

Kurt has talent, too. And plenty of quality driving years left to prove he's every bit as good as his brother -- or not.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.