2016 Season Review: Kyle Busch

Kyle Busch entered the 2016 season in a position he had never been in before in the sport's top series: The defending series champion. He also was set to return to the Daytona 500 after missing the race in 2015 due to a leg injury suffered the day before the 'Great American Race.' He scored a win in the second Can-Am Duel and went on to lead 19 laps en route to a third-place run in the season's opening race.

A day after winning the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville, Busch completed the weekend sweep with a dominating win in the Sprint Cup race. Busch led 352 of 500 laps for his first premier series win at the 0.526-mile track.

A week later, Busch completed another weekend sweep -- this one of the XFINITY and Sprint Cup variety at Texas. Busch surged late to lead the final 33 laps for his second win of 2016. The win was his second at the 1.5-mile track and marked his fourth straight win in a NASCAR national series race.

There aren't too many tracks that can say they have gotten the best of Kyle Busch and up until 2016, Kansas was one of those venues. That changed in May when 'Rowdy' scored his first premier series win there -- leading 69 laps -- including the final 37 for the victory. Pocono and Charlotte stand as the only premier series tracks Busch has yet to win at.

A late spring-early summer swoon produced four straight finishes of 30th-or-worse for the defending series champion. Two crashes and a blown engine occurred during this stretch but Busch would find his mojo after the June off weekend.

Kyle Busch put on a dominating show at Indianapolis for his second straight win at The Brickyard. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver led 149 of 170 laps for his fourth victory in the sport's top series in 2016. Busch completed another weekend sweep as well taking the XFINITY race a day earlier.

In his quest to defend his championship, Busch displayed tremendous consistency over the course of the 10-race Chase. Busch finished in the top eight in nine of the 10 races (a 30th-place showing at Talladega not withstanding -- in which Busch and two JGR teammates rode in the back to protect their Chase position). That consistency guided Busch into his second straight Championship 4 appearance.

For the fourth consecutive year, the Kyle and Samantha Busch-owned Kyle Busch Motorsports scored the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series owners' championship. KBM has been a powerhouse in that series, contributing to the development of Erik Jones, Daniel Suarez, William Byron, Darrell Wallace Jr. and Christopher Bell.

Kyle Busch came up short of back-to-back titles with a sixth-place finish at Homestead-Miami Speedway to finish third among the Championship 4. Busch overcame a mid-race tire issue to get back in the mix but a rash of late yellows foiled his bid to repeat as Jimmie Johnson took home his seventh title.